Gap year projects
Work and learn
Gap Year Ghana projects are personally selected and monitored. We do not have as many volunteer work placements as some large gap year organizations. But because we are involved, we can be sure that work placements are well managed and rewarding.
- English language and maths teaching
You can choose to volunteer in one of two two types of schools. Poor schools in villages and shanty towns are usually simple shacks with few facilities and up to 40 children per class, often with a wide age range. This is less challenging than it sounds because pupils are fantastically eager to learn. School volunteer work placements can also be made in middle class schools, much better equipped though classes may also be large. Again, you will find the pupils much more enthusiastic than their British equivalents.
Bringing materials and ideas from home can really help your progress. Nothing fancy - Ghanaian pupils will probably be thrilled to discover your favourite story book, or simple science experiments (e.g. what is a saturated solution) . Gap Year Ghana is keen to promote extra-curricular activites in Ghanaian schools, where the main focus is on the three Rs. Students with special skills, for example musicians and chess players, are therefore especially welcome on this gap year programme.
Want a glimpse of what teaching in a poor Ghanaian school is like? View this brief video clip (just under 2 minutes long) of a Gap Year Ghana student doing just that.Alternative video formats:There should be a video of Gap Year Ghana student teaching in a local village school here.
To view this video, javascript must be enabled in your browser. You currently have javascript disabled. The video also require the Adobe Flash 8 player.
Alternatively, you can view the Windows Media or Quicktime version of the videos by following the links below
Gap year volunteer work in Windows Media Player format
Gap year volunteer work in Quicktime format- Sports coaching
Ghanaians are mad about football. Tip up at a village on any afternoon and chances are a group of boys will be kicking a football around. You will be teaching at a sport's academy in Accra, where many pupils are scholarship boys - gifted sportsmen dreaming of playing for Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. Your job will be to help teach these boys football skills, run training sessions and organize and referee games. Do not volunteer for this gap year project unless you are able to impart basic football skills. A little reading into the subject before you go is a good idea.- Media
- You will be thrown in at the deep end at one of a number of radio stations attached to the GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation). Don't expect to become a hotshot radio DJ immediately however. Much of the journalistic work you will be initially asked to do will be rather mundane. But as with all Ghana Gap Year projects, your experience will be what you make of it. If you fit in and work well, your innovative ideas will be welcome.
- Refugee camp
- This is an opportunity to combine serveral sorts of volunteer work in one placement at a camp for Liberian refugees run by the United Nations. The camp has a school and a hospital, both of which appreciate assistance; and there is also a need for help with the children in the camp - finding ways to occupy them, ensuring they have washed themselves etc Other tasks might include helping elderly women to get about the camp.
If you are interested in this project, view this Myspace video about the camp. - Medical
- Your volunteer work will be in a clinic or hospital, where you will be shadowing and assisting nurses. We can't be more specific as we make volunteer placements at a number of clinics and hospitals and they vary enormously. But as a general rule, as with all Ghana Gap Year projects, the more you give, the more you are likely to take out of a medical work placement.
If you would like to find out more about Ghana Gap Year projects, please contact us.
