Volunteers

Volta Home offers a special opportunity for a volunteer wanting to visit a home for homeless children where most of the cultural features of the surrounding community have been retained.

It is a unique experience for a volunteer with an open mind and a teachable spirit who is willing to observe and learn a new culture.      

Gifts a volunteer can give these children:

* Self esteem and confidence through play

* Language and classroom skills

An understanding of the value of: -  

* teeth cleaning; washing and covering open wounds

* drinking only safe water

* An attitude of kindness towards animals

* Positive and non-violent examples of discipline

Volunteering here at the Volta Home Orphanage is not for the faint hearted -

but it will be a very real experience of Africa

The orphaned children at Volta Home live on a beautiful traditional farm which appears like a small community of mud brick cottages, open-air kitchens, and bamboo shelters all scattered among the trees. Water is collected from the river each morning and is carried by the children in the traditional manner  -  on their heads.  Chickens and goats roam freely everywhere .

The basic living standards at this little orphanage reflect the conditions for 85% of all children in the surrounding farming communities, so a volunteering experience here is a very real experience of life in rural Africa.  However for some visitors, the basic living conditions and the dramatic cultural differences, make this a very challenging experience.

Pastor and Mrs Annabi have a traditional understanding of childcare and hygiene which is slow to change in many poor, rural areas of Ghana. There is also very little money available to ensure much improvement in the near future.  For example:  Unlike more wealthy orphanages, Volta Home does not have refrigeration or running water. Unlike most orphanages the children still drink and wash in the unhealthy water from the local stream. Infections such as ringworm and impetigo, and illnesses like malaria, will often go untreated due to lack of money for medications and lack of understanding about the long-term consequences. At Volta Home, beatings and verbal abuse of children is no longer a daily occurence, but is still (sadly) a fact -  just as it is in many homes and schools in rural Ghana.

At the Volta Home school there are 5 teachers and less that 70 pupils.  Very few pay any fees, however the school has a reputation for getting these children through the government exams and Pastor Annabi is very proud of this fact.  Most of the money given to Volta Home by volunteers is directed to pay teachers and school expenses and very little is being spent on food and daily living expenses for the children. It is not for us to question these priorities, but we can help to address the imbalance by helping Mrs Annabi (directly) to buy the daily supples and pay the tiny wages of the women who help her. 

This experience requires understanding, motivation, energy, patience and resourcefulness.  For a volunteer who is prepared to observe and to learn a new culture, this experience offers many rewards  -  as you will see if you read the BLOGs from past volunteers.

Links to help an interested volunteer:

Step-By-Step Guide