Poppy’s volunteering project – medical and childcare in Ghana

I have signed up to do a 2-week volunteer trip to Busua, Ghana in April 2022. I will do one week helping out at the village hospital, and the second week offering some much-needed support to the teacher of 50 1–5 year-olds in the over-crowded Busua nursery.

This 2-week trip will be a fantastic opportunity for me to pursue something that I am very passionate about, namely providing support to poorer communities in culturally rich and diverse parts of the world. Ghana is a beautiful country in West Africa known for the friendliness of its people and its rich history, but it is beset by economic problems. Most people live off £2.35 a day and really struggle with education and healthcare. Classrooms are overcrowded (1 teacher to more than 50 children) and hospitals are extremely understaffed and under resourced.

I am looking to raise money to buy much-needed medical and school supplies to donate whilst I am in Ghana and to help out towards funding the trip.

Any contribution would be very welcome and much appreciated.

To show my commitment and to help raise funds I am going to spend a week (28/01/22 - 04/02/22) attempting to live on the poverty line, on a typical Ghanian budget of £2 a day. To be able to complete this challenge I will have to give up my usual luxuries (my morning coffee, multiple snacks, tasty meals at any convenience) and look to bulk buy the cheapest, plainest ingredients in the supermarket - dried and tinned food. I will have to carefully plan all my meals and budget, taking into account any leftovers to re-use. I will have to resist cravings, forgo my usual snacks and stick to only 3 very basic, plain, small meals a day.

My volunteer trip is hosted by The Mighty Roar. All of their community programmes are sustainable. Not only do the volunteer programmes directly help within the local community, but they also ensure that all tasks aid the local economy, respect all cultures and support and develop the local infrastructure.

In the medical program I'll be assigned basic hands-on involvement, able to gain an insight into the alarmingly high number of preventable cases admitted each day and witness scenarios that are not so common back home - tropical diseases such as Malaria, Yellow Fever and dengue, along with HIV, measles, typhoid and more.

In the childcare program I will be working alongside a local staff member to assist with teaching and caring for the children that attend every day. I will give extra support and help deliver some of the small group activities that the teachers cannot normally offer. I’ll be involved in a variety of activities, where my primary role will be a carer, ensuring all of the children get the attention they deserve. I will also be playing games and sports outside, helping with feeding the children, changing nappies, tidying and cleaning the class and teaching basic English like the alphabet, colours, animal names etc...