Posted: 9 December 2022
Twenty-five students and three staff from the University Campus North Lincolnshire (UCNL) and the University Campus Doncaster embarked on a volunteering trip to Ghana for 10 days.
Following a weekend of team building exercises and adventures, the group returned back to a town called Woe where the previous year’s group visited to continue their volunteering project work. Dziedzorve Basic School in Woe is a government school that provides education for approximately 600 children aged between 4 and 20. The school is located in Ghana’s Volta region where poverty is prevalent.
The school is severely underfunded with a significant lack of equipment. The project work undertaken by the students included; teaching, construction and painting from the volunteers who worked incredibly hard to achieve their goals in just five days. The work involved painting the outside of the school and building water stations outside each classroom. Generous donations from the volunteer’s family and friends, UCNL, Scunthorpe Pentagon Rotary Club, Linked 2 learning, staff from Boots the Chemist in Grimsby, Community at Grimsby Mosque and Scunthorpe Mosque enabled the volunteers to deliver resources which made such a positive difference to the children and teachers at the school.
Alex Cole BSc Sport, Exercise and Coaching Science student at UCNL said, “This was truly an incredible experience. From travelling through the outskirts of Accra (capital city of Ghana) to experiencing the unadulterated joy on the children’s faces at the school. This trip was one packed with many memories to last a lifetime. I would encourage anyone who has an opportunity to go out of their comfort zone to go and do it.”
The group also enjoyed a weekend excursion to Cape Coral Castle and Kakum National Park and in the evening volunteers sat and chatted, played with the street children or danced to African music with the people who ran the volunteers’ house.
Sara Brown Programme Leader for Mental and Wellbeing who was one of the staff members said, “It was a real privilege to share this journey with such a wonderful team. The children who had so much love to give, taught us more than we could ever teach them. What was also amazing was how the students adapted to the challenges presented and developed as individuals, showing courage and resilience.”