What We Do: Summer Voluteer Program

The GEP facilitates the establishment of groups, or Chapters, of volunteers from universities and other institutions in the United States . To date, we have worked with Princeton , Harvard, Tulane, and the University of Pennsylvania . Upcoming partnerships include other leading universities. Princeton volunteers were instrumental in founding our relationships in the town of Komenda, as was Harvard’s volunteers 50km west in the town of Anomabu. Each Chapter is assigned to these target towns in Ghana . Although new individuals arrive year after year in a given community, they are part of a continuum that represents a close-knit community, both in the town, and in the alumni of the given chapter in the US . Although personal transference of contacts may not be possible, the trust between the community and the volunteer group allows new relationships to develop based on the previous volunteers' sensitive execution of their missions. This format ensures two things, 1) that trust is developed and maintained between the given target community and its partner Chapter, and 2) that the energy and positivity from each summers' work drives the growth of the Chapter.

Volunteers live in and among the community, and are cared for directly by village members. It feels very much like a family.

MY VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE by Michelle Ybarra, Harvard '03

2008 Summer Volunteer Mission

This summer, the GEP will send 40 volunteers to Ghana to engage in tutoring English at the library sites previously established in and around Komenda and Anomabu. The early session (June-July) and the late session (July-Aug) will each feature 20 volunteers; In turn, each group of twenty will be divided by 2, creating two chapters, one assigned to each home town and area. As a volunteer, you will:

• Participate in a five week intensive cultural submersion
• Teach English in GEP-sponsored libraries and form lasting bonds with students and other community members
• Visit El Mina Slave Castle, Lake Bosomtwi, and Kakum National Park

• Live with other volunteers in the Ghanaian communities
• Meet with Ghanaian leaders, including Ministers of State

The total cost of $4,950 includes airfare, hotel stay in Philadelphia for a 3-day training session, room and board, and all other work related costs while in Ghana.

3-day training session on beautiful Aburi, Ghana

SIGN UP NOW FOR OUR 2008 SUMMER TRIP
(ages 18 - 23)

Sign up by April 15, 2008 to learn more and reserve your place!

For any questions about the trip, please contact AJ at [whitman@ghanaeducation.org] or call 011-233-244-327-232. We look forward to welcoming you into the GEP family! Or, fill out the 2008 Summer Enrollment Form and send it to AJ!

Past GEP Volunteer Initiatives….This is the context in which the Summer '08 Volunteer Program will perform its mission…

Library Project
Approximately 50% of the summer volunteers work to establish small youth libraries (1-2 per team/ per summer) in communities surrounding their host town. When a site is prepared and the local chief has supervised the creation of a community Library Board, volunteers import, organize, and shelve books the GEP has accumulated in book-drives within the United States . Volunteers are responsible for integrating the library into the community through such activities as library tours, children's reading circles, and after school tutoring at the site, as well as working with the village librarian to maximize the training administered at the University of Cape Coast Library Training Course.

AIDS Awareness Project
The remaining 50% of the summer volunteers are trained by the Red Cross in matters of method and cultural sensitivity, and certified as International AIDS Instructors to work to combat the widespread medical ignorance that is facilitating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Ghana . This work takes place in the villages, as well as in local secondary schools. At all times, volunteers work under the close supervision of local medical personnel as well as the Chief or Queen Mother of the towns or villages where they are active. Volunteers network with local organizations currently operating in the area and collect up-to-date statistical information on the AIDS situation in their target communities.

Approach

Library Development
The GEP Summer Volunteers are in the business of assisting communities to establish libraries. We do not build or own the libraries with which we are associated. In our system, a candidate village must have a suitable library site already in place. Perhaps more importantly, they must also have a Community Library Board, overseen by the chief or Queen Mother, whose job it is to administrate and govern the library and the librarian. In this model, the Summer Volunteers act as outside consultants whose relationship with the library is a diplomatic partnership with the library board. In this partnership, the GEP turns over our donation of the year's accumulation of book drive books, a smallstart-up fund and our physical effort in stocking, arranging and developing the library. The community takes it from there.

This method ensures the community's agency in the creation of its library, therefore incorporating it organically into the culture, and affording community members a sense of proprietorship. This, in turn, secures the long term sustainability of each library we assist. After the first summer, the community no longer depends on the GEP to operate the library.

AIDS Awareness
The Ghana Education Project is firmly committed to a "Teach the Teacher" approach to AIDS Education. In particular, it focuses on providing key members of the community with information and resources they can then impart upon their peers on a continual basis. In the village setting, this entails targeting "invisible power brokers;" in the secondary schools, it means establishing AIDS Awareness Clubs. This represents an approach that is not only effective but also sustainable.

The AIDS Awareness Clubs are to be initiated at the Senior Secondary level. In a given school, club members are selected in consultation with both teachers and the head of school. The HIV/AIDS Questions and Answers Book, designed and issued by the Health Education Unit/National AIDS Control Programme and Ministry of Health, serves as the primary reference material. The format to be followed in the establishment of these clubs has been presented to and approved by several key figures in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Ghana .