My experiences as Beach Cleanup Volunteer in Ghana

Take a motorboat through the tropical jungle to remote villages, dig up shards of past cultures in a nearby ruin or explore the sea with a homemade raft? Everything is possible in Axim.

The trip to Axim

It all started for me at the end of February 2018. After I had obtained my visa, received the necessary vaccinations and informed myself about the country, nothing stood in the way of my volunteering trip. My flight left Stuttgart early in the morning, I flew via London and arrived in Accra around 22 p.m. in the evening. After I had changed money at the airport, I met Ursula outside, who offered me a place to stay in her guesthouse.

The accommodation was good. The next morning her daughter took me to the Accra Trotro station. It took a while for the bus to fill up, but eventually we started. I had a six-hour drive ahead of me, but it went by surprisingly quickly: It's super interesting what you can discover on the first trip through Ghana alone. Many villages, sections of rainforest and much more. Here you get a first impression of Ghana.

My accommodation in Axim

When I finally arrived, the staff at the resort gave me a warm welcome and showed me to my room. I thought it was cool that all the volunteers from the Axim projects live together in a volunteer village. There's always something to do there. I also found the resort itself very impressive: great beach, many sports facilities and a jungle right next door. With the taxi you can get to nearby markets quickly and cheaply and you can stock up on everything (for me especially tropical fruits) at a reasonable price.

My work in the beach project

But now to the really important thing: the volunteer project. I opted for the beach project - a good decision as it turned out: My two local project managers were Ghanaian Joseph and Edith, both in their early twenties. In the morning we went to the beach for an hour to clean up the rubbish that had been washed up. After that we went to the conference room. Here, for example, we sewed plastic bags out of drinking bags and drew comics on the subject of environmental protection.

These things served as support for the lesson. Twice a week we got on a motor boat at the mouth of the Ankobra River and went upstream. We visited some remote villages and went to their schools (elementary to senior high school) and public meeting places. Here we taught people about environmental protection, recycling and more. Among other things, we wanted to discourage people from burning their plastic waste or throwing it into the sea. Garbage disposal often does not exist, especially in remote locations. I really liked the project and it was varied.

I stayed until the end of April, I would like to come back again.

My experiences as Beach Cleanup Volunteer in Ghana, by Felix S., June 2018