OCEP :: Orphanage volunteer experiences in Ghana

The first two days I spent in the capital Accra. The school of the organisation that arranged my trip held a welcoming ceremony for me and eight other British volunteers that came on the same day but with a different organisation. The ceremony involved a lot of dancing and singing interspersed by some speeches, which nobody seemed to listen to because of all the children crawling about and yelling. The next day I went to Bawjiase, the small town where the orphanage was located. It is about one hour away from Accra if there is no traffic and three hours if there is traffic, because there is just a single lane road in each direction to get into or out of Accra.

There is a primary school attached to the orphanage, a school attended also by children from the village itself. From what I saw, I must conclude that most of the Ghanaian education is in a sorry state. The school I taught in is considered better than some other schools for there were proper classrooms (to African standards) with blackboard, chalk and the like. Tuition is (mainly) in English. There was a French teacher too. The number of pupils to a class was acceptable (around 20) and there were proper school books. To be honest, at first glance I was actually quite impressed, with for instance the solving of linear equations in the fifth year of primary school (for the uninitiated: 2n+4*7=n+11), which we just learn in the first year of secondary school in Belgium. However, just lightly scrape the surface and a truer picture emerges. I will try and give one very concrete example to illustrate my point. The teacher of the youngest class (class 1, 6-8 year olds), where one arguably learns the most important skills such as reading and writing, hadn’t turned up for many weeks because her mother was ill. No replacement was provided, with the result that quite a number of the pupils couldn't do the most basic sums or read one word.

My conditions were OK. We the volunteers lived in quarters outside the orphanage, about 2 minutes' walk away. I had a proper bed and my own room for most of the time. Contrary to the orphanage we did have electricity. The running water however usually didn’t run (but that applied to the whole village) so showers were practically always with a bucket and cup. Going to the toilet meanwhile would have sometimes been a delight for any insectologist, for it offered unique opportunities for protracted observation of all sorts of crawling insects. For mere law students like me, however, this tended to be less of a delight.

Lior Ziv, Belgium

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The first two days I spent in the capital Accra. The school of the organisation that arranged my trip held a welcoming ceremony for me and eight other British volunteers that came on the same day but with a different organisation. The ceremony involved a lot of dancing and singing interspersed by some speeches, which nobody seemed to listen to because of all the children crawling about and yelling. The next day I went to Bawjiase, the small town where the orphanage was located. It is about one hour away from Accra if there is no traffic and three hours if there is traffic, because there is just a single lane road in each direction to get into or out of Accra.
		There is a primary school attached to the orphanage, a school attended also by children from the village itself. From what I saw, I must conclude that most of the Ghanaian education is in a sorry state. The school I taught in is considered better than some other schools for there were proper classrooms (to African standards) with blackboard, chalk and the like. Tuition is (mainly) in English. There was a French teacher too. The number of pupils to a class was acceptable (around 20) and there were proper school books. To be honest, at first glance I was actually quite impressed, with for instance the solving of linear equations in the fifth year of primary school (for the uninitiated: 2n+4*7=n+11), which we just learn in the first year of secondary school in Belgium. However, just lightly scrape the surface and a truer picture emerges. I will try and give one very concrete example to illustrate my point. The teacher of the youngest class (class 1, 6-8 year olds), where one arguably learns the most important skills such as reading and writing, hadn’t turned up for many weeks because her mother was ill. No replacement was provided, with the result that quite a number of the pupils couldn't do the most basic sums or read one word.
My conditions were OK. We the volunteers lived in quarters outside the orphanage, about 2 minutes' walk away. I had a proper bed and my own room for most of the time. Contrary to the orphanage we did have electricity. The running water however usually didn’t run (but that applied to the whole village) so showers were practically always with a bucket and cup. Going to the toilet meanwhile would have sometimes been a delight for any insectologist, for it offered unique opportunities for protracted observation of all sorts of crawling insects. For mere law students like me, however, this tended to be less of a delight. Lior Ziv, Belgium © OCEP Foundation