We would like volunteers of any nationality, both male and female, 17 years or older, who love to work with children, between the ages of 7 and 17. No special skills are required, but placements will suit volunteers who have an interest in one or more of our projects.

What will you be doing?

The main areas that you can help us in are,

Teaching the children at our Ultimate Primary School during the day.

Tutoring children in after-school-classes in the evenings, and helping them with their homework.

Assisting the Football Academy coaches during training in the afternoons after school, and/or train with the children.

Assisting the Culture Centre instructors in teaching drama, poetry, music and singing, or choreography.

Helping us in educating the children on various health issues, including malaria and AIDS infection.

Working in local health clinics

Working on the farm to help feed our children.

 

You can decide to do any or all of the above activities. During your free time you can also learn local Ghanaian drumming and dancing, experience home-stays with children from the Culture Centre, and take part in any cultural and drama performances alongside the children. You can also play football matches with the local teams, work on our farm to help feed the children, learn to prepare Ghanaian food, or visit nearby historical sites and the Butwasi waterfall. Day trips outside Tafo are popular, where you can climb the Bukuru rock (the tallest volcanic plug in Africa) and go canoeing on the Volta Lake, the largest man-made lake in the world.

Before Arriving

Before you come, it is good to plan and prepare any materials that you may need to bring in order to run your activities with the children. e.g,

scripts, music cassettes / CDs, any special props for the Culture Centre

training equipment for the Football Academy

books, pens/pencils, chalk, educational materials and posters for the School

 

Also, any donations that you can organize to bring for the kids would be greatly appreciated, and will help us immensely. To find out what each project needs in more detail, visit the

tips n' tricks page.

Accommodation & Food

Volunteers for all our projects live together in a beautiful compound with several separate rooms. There is electricity and water available. If you are a couple coming to either project together and it is important for you to share a room, please let Eric Djane know in advance so the necessary arrangements can be made. Both Ghanaian and Western food can be prepared for volunteers including a variety of vegetables and fruits, and vegetarians and vegans can be catered for.

Costs

The cost to visit our project is $500 for the first month, and $250 for every month thereafter. We ask $230 for those staying three weeks or less.  We also charge an airport pickup which is an additional $30. The monthly fees covers all accommodation and three meals a day, plus a donation to the project each month to cover school fees, food etc. While we are very happy to receive you for any length of time, no matter how short, we encourage you to stay for at least one month if you can. This allows you to really develop an understanding of our community, what UVO is trying to achieve here, and gives enough time to really get to know the children. Some volunteers have stayed with us for up to 12 months.

Application

To send us an application, just click this link. Your information will be sent to our Volunteer Coordinator, and we will contact you as soon as we can. Thank you for your interest, and we look forward to seeing you here in Kwahu-Tafo soon!