Hi all...
My first contact with civilisation!
Arrived here ok - though they had forgotten I was arriving so waited at the airport in the sweltering heat. Eventually got picked up and drove with 6 others in a taxi to the Orphanage! My god! words can not describe what I saw and even more to the point the accommodation that I am staying is an experience and an endurance in itself! No running water, a bucket for a toilet and lizards for company!
Anyhow on Wednesday drove back to the Orphanage which is in the middle on now where and was greeted along the dirt track by some women waving machetes! Of course this was not aimed at us but they had just been mango picking!
The children are amazing - they are dirty, skinny, loving, friendly and above all eager for affection. Within two seconds of arriving I had one small child on one hip, another climbing up my back and both my hands being held, my hair being pulled and snotty fingers pulling at my skirt! what a welcome, I guess I should have realized then that this trip will be tough, both mentally and physically.
I taught my first class on Thursday morning. 19 6-years old! It certainly was an experience! No books, papers, pencils, fighting, crying, playing and much more!!! By the end of the day I was exhausted, too much heat, sun, dust and poverty to be taken in at once!
The children break up for holiday (that means time away from school, there is no money to go away), one of my jobs to do in the next few days is plan some fun activities for approx 50 kids ranging from 6 years old to 16 years old, this will be available for those kids that can come back to the school and not sent to the farms to work.
Internet connection is difficult to find, so unfortunately by update blogs may not be as frequent as I would have liked. However at the moment I am in a hotel and this seems fine.
I am getting through each day by remebering that the children need the love, attention, teaching and dispicline that the volunteers provide. It is one of the toughest things I have done!
Hope you are all well....another update soon
x x x
Ghana - West Africa
Friday, 4 April 2008
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OrphanAid Africa
What is OrphanAid Africa?
OrphanAid Africa (OA) is a non-profit NGO, which aims to help orphans and vulnerable children in Ghana, Accra to grow up in healthy, nurturing environments that provide quality care, protection, education, and support. OA does this by assisting the families, communities, organizations, and departments charged with their care.
OrphanAid Africa supports orphans and needy children in Ghana in a variety of ways. Initially OA developed projects to help make orphanages self-sufficient by individually analysing their acute problems. They designed programmes that focus on permaculture, education, farming, animal farms, healthcare and basic infrastructure. Over time, OA has drastically extended its approach to encompass the greater community by implementing community outreach programmes such as Well Women’s Centres, HIV prevention, a therapeutic feeding centre, sponsoring extreme medical cases or funding education for over 200 children in the community. OA believes that by helping families and strengthening the community, they ensure that they can care and provide for their children so that there will be less abandoned or orphaned children in the future. In addition to assisting Ghanaian Orphanages, they also run their own OA Children Home, specializing in babies and children with acute health problems, or young adults rejected by other orphanages.
OrphanAid Africa depends on the generous donations of individuals and businesses, as well as volunteers and partners, to help carry out their work.
What will I be doing?
OrphanAid Africa (OA) is a non-profit NGO, which aims to help orphans and vulnerable children in Ghana, Accra to grow up in healthy, nurturing environments that provide quality care, protection, education, and support. OA does this by assisting the families, communities, organizations, and departments charged with their care.
OrphanAid Africa supports orphans and needy children in Ghana in a variety of ways. Initially OA developed projects to help make orphanages self-sufficient by individually analysing their acute problems. They designed programmes that focus on permaculture, education, farming, animal farms, healthcare and basic infrastructure. Over time, OA has drastically extended its approach to encompass the greater community by implementing community outreach programmes such as Well Women’s Centres, HIV prevention, a therapeutic feeding centre, sponsoring extreme medical cases or funding education for over 200 children in the community. OA believes that by helping families and strengthening the community, they ensure that they can care and provide for their children so that there will be less abandoned or orphaned children in the future. In addition to assisting Ghanaian Orphanages, they also run their own OA Children Home, specializing in babies and children with acute health problems, or young adults rejected by other orphanages.
OrphanAid Africa depends on the generous donations of individuals and businesses, as well as volunteers and partners, to help carry out their work.
What will I be doing?
My one months volunteer programme will begin April 1 2008. I will be placed in the Ayeniah community, sharing time with the children, assisting in the school and helping around. I will have the opportunity to assist other health care providers in setting up medical clinics and providing for the basic health care needs of people in an entire community. In addition to the services I can provide in childcare and teaching skills, I will also have the opportunity to speak on the importance of: immunization programmes, HIV/AIDS awareness, women’s empowerment, etc.
More about Ghana...
Ghana is situated on the southern coast of the West African bulge and is bordered to the east by Togo, to the west by the Ivory Coast, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and northwest by Burkina Fasso.The coastline consists mostly of a low sandy, foreshore behind which stretches the coastal plain, except in the west where the forest comes down to the sea. The forest belt, which extends northward from the western coast and then eastward into Ashanti for about 170 miles, is broken up into heavily wooded hills and steep ridges. North of the forest is undulating savanna drained by the Black Volta and White Volta rivers, which join and flow south to the sea through a narrow gap in the hills. Ghana's highest point is 2,9000 feet in a range of hills on the eastern border. Apart from the Volta, only the Pra and the Ankobra rivers permanently pierce the sand dunes, most of the other rivers terminate in brackish lagoons.
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