Care & Community in Ghana

We have various different Care & Community options for you in Ghana, including working in orphanages and care homes or helping on a Community Housing Project. When you apply, let us know which type of project you would like to do, it's also possible to do a mixture, providing you spend at least one month doing each type of work.

Care

The number of orphans in Ghana is a massive problem for the country's rudimentary social welfare services, and is being made worse by the HIV/AIDS situation. In the orphanages that do exist, staff struggle with very limited resources to feed, clothe and educate the children in their care. But staff all too often simply don't have the time to provide the individual love and attention that these children need so they can live as normal a childhood as they can.

It is in that role - spending time with the children, playing with them and putting a smile on their faces - that Teaching & Projects Abroad volunteers are so valuable. Whether you are taking a group out for an afternoon on the beach, helping older children with school homework or playing a game with the younger ones, you will be an essential part of their development.

We have a variety of placements in Ghanaian orphanages and care centres, both in the capital city and in more rural locations. Up to five volunteers work in the country's largest state-run orphanage, with over 150 children. Each volunteer is assigned to a particular house, or to the nursery, in order to get to know a small group of the orphans well. We also have placements in smaller care homes, day care centres, an HIV educational centre and a home for mentally and physically disabled children.

Community

Community Housing Project
If you want to get your hands dirty and see physical results from your placement, our Community Housing Project may suit you well. Based in the Akuapem Hills just over an hour north of Accra you could join a team of Teaching & Projects Abroad volunteers and local people constructing simple buildings in the hill-village of Kwamoso and five other nearby communities.

The houses are all made from mud bricks that are produced using a press and just mud and water, then left to set hard in the sun. Volunteers also help with building the walls, plastering and painting the houses. Each house takes an average of one month to construct.

In addition to the basic project, you may also help with landscaping the surrounding area, painting local schools and renovating classrooms in the village school.

Supervised by the village priest and working with the local people, who will actually use the buildings, this is a great opportunity to get involved in a rural project and become an integral part of an African community. Our regional coordinator lives nearby full-time and visits the placement nearly every day so you'll always have full support from Teaching & Projects Abroad too.

Community Garden Project
If you choose to take part in the Community Housing Project, or would like to work in the Akuapem Hills on a Teaching or Care project, you could also help for a couple of hours in the afternoons on our Community Garden Project. This project is in the early stages of development and currently should be combined with another project.

The Community Garden is based just ten minutes away from the Akuapem Hills regional office. Volunteers are responsible for helping to maintain all aspects of the garden including animal care, crop growing, flower production, herb cultivation and land management. They also arrange school trips to the farm to educate the local children.

Produce which is grown in the garden includes small quantities of oranges, plantain, papaya, carrots, onions, yam and herbs which are used as remedies for medicinal purposes. The garden is also home to rabbits, guinea pigs, geese and, once the pond is complete, fish.

Volunteers arrange trips for local schools to visit the site. Children are then educated on the process of growing crops in a sustainable environment. They also learn how to take care of animals and how to identify seeds and produce herbs. Volunteers receive training from local specialists in the different techniques involved and have an agricultural text-book which is part of the curriculum to use with the school children.

In the future we hope to develop the garden into a sustainable, organic farm and we will continue to work closely with the local community, passing on a vital awareness of conservation issues to a new generation of African children.

To read a more detailed information about this project, you may visit our Volunteer Care & Community in Ghana specialized website.