Working in schools in Ghana

Marzena Kochanska, Kay Millar and 15 students spent time at SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College, one of 3 IB World Schools in Ghana. The visit was the culmination of various efforts by students to collect books and raise funds for library projects in the Tema and Mampong area.

Marzena, Director of English Language, said "The school put on a fantastic programme for us: apart from visiting the three schools with which we have projects, we also had the opportunity to visit Ada on the beautiful Volta river, to seeing Ghana at work in the oil refinery and hydro-electric plant which was very useful for our Science Group Project and to visit the Cape Coast slave castle and Kakum National Park, a protected rainforest area."

For many students, this was their first opportunity to visit an African country and here are a few of the students' comments:

"I think I learned a lot from this project. Since I had never been to a less economic developed country before, I didn't really know what to expect from a country like that. But being there made me appreciate not only having a good education but also a good living standard. I also learned from visiting the primary school, and seeing all the happy young children there that maybe the things that we think are strongly necessary to be happy in life such as money and good housing are not the most important things to keep us happy." (Leo)

"I found dealing with my own guilt the most challenging aspect of our trip in Ghana. When I saw all the poor people who live of fishing in wooden boats, or selling pineapples on the roadside, I deeply regret living in such luxury and not participating more actively in the help of Africa. I have decided to deal with this by being more active in all the fund raising, and in the awareness campaigns." (Emma)

"My biggest aim and challenge in Ghana was to understand the culture. I had no idea of what it actually means to live there and how they do so. I asked lots of questions to the students and really tried hard to involve myself in the surroundings. By embracing the culture I could understand more and I feel like I've come home with so much more to build on." (Aska)

"I think even though the cultures were as different as it could be, I got along very well with all the differences. I really love to get to know new cultures and I think I was able to make some of the African lifestyle my own." (Daniel)

"I found new friends among students of HGIC. I still keep in touch with them. They were amazing and I had so much fun with them. I learnt something about their culture and religion. Students have different religions and so I found out some information about them which I did not know before. I also saw that music is in their soul and that students have very strong sense of community. They make friends with others easily, do a lot in groups and help each other. I also saw the other side of Africa. Till now I saw ‘poor Africa' only on screen not in reality as I have been to countries in Africa which are touristic centres. I have learnt that we should all appreciate what we have because others are not so lucky and also that we should be strong in our believes and be ambitious but also we all have to see what is happening around us and help people who need it." (Kaja)

We took over 350 kilos of books and students have raised £460 already to be able to donate when thestudents from HGIC come to visit St. Clare's in the summer term. This term there will be a film night to raise money for the Technical College for the Deaf and Dumb and an African Evening with dancing, drumming, a film of our visit, fashion show, raffle of African items and African snacks. We hope to raise at least £1000 through our various fund-raising events.