Kim's experiences in the street kids project in Ghana

I spent four weeks with Rainbow Garden Village in the street children project in Ghana's capital Accra. I arrived at the Student House around 21pm local time on Sunday after being picked up from the airport by an RGV member. The other volunteers there gave you a really warm welcome, so that you immediately felt welcomed and comfortable.

Since I was staying with Mama Mina in the street children's project, I only spent the first three days in the student house. During this time I had the orientation program, where you learn some general facts and cultural things about the country of Ghana and do a city tour.

Accommodation at Mama Mina

On my fourth day, I was taken to the host family by Amos (local RGV member). The accommodation is about an hour's drive from the Student House. When I got there, I was greeted warmly and was allowed to go straight to the children in the garden.

I was in a room with two other volunteers. There were only three of us on the project the entire time I spent in Ghana, which was totally relaxed. The food there was delicious, but totally spicy, which you had to get used to at first. In retrospect, however, I can say that I liked the accommodation with the host family better, because you got to see a lot more of the everyday life of the local people there.

The work in the project

The children in the street children's project are between two and seven years old, mostly around 25 boys and girls were there. From half past seven in the morning they came to the garden where the project is taking place. Most of the time we then had breakfast, since the working hours are from 08:30 a.m. to 13 p.m. When we then went downstairs to the children, we tidied up and cleaned up, then we sang with the children and we prayed. Then the children got breakfast. Lessons are always held from Monday to Wednesday and most games are played on Thursdays or something similar.

We could then, for example, do homework or look it up, but we could also help the children with the tasks that were done there. You could clearly see that it was much more difficult for the children to concentrate, and their receptiveness was also much lower, so that sometimes it wasn't all that easy to achieve learning success. Otherwise we played a lot with the smaller children because they weren't taught that much. Around 12 o'clock there was lunch and most of the children were picked up one by one.

Leisure and excursions

On the weekends you can travel great and easy all over the country. An advantage of the street children project is that you only have to work from Mondays to Thursdays and thus have a long weekend and more time to travel. You can do in Ghana for incredibly little money totally great trips in the whole country.

From waterfalls to national parks and beaches, anything is possible. The hotels are not comparable to those in Europe, but they are totally adequate for the fact that you can stay there for the equivalent of 10 to 20€. Also in Accra itself you can visit many markets or just go to the beach.

Conclusion

It was a great experience to go to Ghana for four weeks to get an insight into life and culture there. However, one has to get involved with the circumstances and circumstances there and be able to break away from the European standards, because they can not be compared in any way, since electricity and water outages are part of everyday life there.

Kim's experiences in the street kids project in Ghana, by Kim S., October 2018