Volunteer in Africa, Ghana and Kenya
Our Believe
We believe international volunteering promotes cross-cultural learning that helps create global awareness, understanding between cultures and provides the platform for positive change. Our volunteers have taught in schools, assisted in local health posts and hospitals, provided disaster relief support, assisted in research to improve the management strategies of threatened environments, culture and history, built homes for impoverished people, provided vocational training and programs for street and disadvantaged teens and have worked in co-operation with many other local organizations, authorities and social service centers to distribute aid and improve the quality of life for people in Africa.
Elghana, Offices and Staff
Elghana maintains a central office in Ghana and our family includes the staffs in Ghana, our in-country coordinators, and associated staffs in USA and Kenya committed to offer our volunteers high quality and enriching volunteer and internship experience with captivating cultural immersion.
In each of our project regions, Elghana maintains an office of a local coordinator whose job is to support our volunteers. Our coordinators have a distinguished and successful history of working with international volunteers. Most of our coordinators have served in a variety of service-oriented occupations: as expedition leaders, social workers, trek leaders, teachers, and other professions before they joined Elghana.
With our head office in Africa, Ghana and partner offices in all regions hosting our programs run by locals born and raised in those regions who understands the culture and structures in their regions, you shall be in the hands of people who offers the best guide, support answers to your questions.
With their experience gained working with several hundreds of volunteers, international workshops and travels, the staff also have multicultural skills, handy in understanding and supporting each volunteer. Being youthful and lively, expect to have the best among the best who know all the corners and spots for interesting activities, sightseeing and leisure.
About Ghana
Ghana is situated in West Africa and is bounded by Burkina Faso, Togo, the Atlantic Ocean and Côte d'Ivoire. A narrow grassy plain stretches inland from the coast, widening in the east, while the south and west are covered by dense rainforest. To the north are forested hills beyond which is dry savannah and open woodland. Ghana's coastline is dotted with sandy palm-fringed beaches and lagoons. The capital, Accra, features the Makola Market, a large and busy open-air market. Kumasi is the historic capital of the Ashanti civilization, where ruins of the Manhyia Palace and the Royal Mausoleum burnt down by Lord Baden-Powell may be examined. In the northeast, the Boufom Wildlife Sanctuary contains the spectacular Banfabiri Falls. Mole National Park is recommended. Species of antelope, monkeys, lions and elephants can all be seen on guided excursions. Local dishes include traditional soups (palmnut, groundnut), Kontomere and Okro stews that are normally accompanied by fufu (pounded cassava), kenkey or gari. In Accra and other major centers there are nightclubs combining a selection of Western pop music and spectacular Ghanaian music and dancing. In other words, you can surf, explore the jungle, catch butterflies or watch elephants. so many options. If you are new to the continent, Ghana is a perfect introduction to Africa.
Why Does Ghana Need Volunteers?
Seventy per cent of the Ghana's poor live in rural areas, where they have limited access to dependable infrastructure, including all year roads, basic social services, potable water, electricity and telephones. The people of Ghana are industrious and cope in many ways, from localized trading to reducing spending, which unfortunately can include taking children out of school.
Women, the elderly and the ill are among the most afflicted by poverty in Ghana. More than 50% of single mothers in rural areas are among the poorest 20% of the population. Women work almost twice as many hours as men, spend about three times as many hours transporting water and goods, and transport about four times as much in volume. Yet they are much less likely than men to receive education or health benefits or have a voice in decisions affecting their lives. For them, poverty means high numbers of infant deaths, undernourished families, and little educational opportunities for their children. Among the elderly and chronically ill, including many people suffering from AIDS, many have no means of support or have spent all their money paying for their medical costs.
Success and true change will not happen overnight and Ghana requires as much support as it can get. By participating in any of one of Elghana programs, by teaching, working with the healthcare system in an HIV/AIDS home or orphanage you become part of the difference.
About KenyaKenya, regarded by many as the 'jewel of East Africa', has some of the continent's finest beaches, most magnificent wildlife and scenery and an incredibly sophisticated tourism infrastructure. It is a startlingly beautiful land, from the coral reefs and white sand beaches of the coast to the summit of Mount Kenya, crowned with clouds and bejewelled by strange giant alpine plants. Above all, Kenya is a place for safaris. Between these two extremes is the rolling savannah that is home to game parks such as Amboseli, the Masai Mara, Samburu and Tsavo; the lush, agricultural highlands with their sleek green coat of coffee and tea plantations; and the most spectacular stretch of the Great Rift Valley, the giant scar across the face of Africa.
One-tenth of all land in Kenya is designated as national parks and reserves. Over 50 parks and reserves cover all habitats from desert to mountain forest, and there are even six marine parks in the Indian Ocean.
Kenya also has a fascinatingly diverse population with around 40 different tribes, all with their own (often related) languages and cultures. The major tribes include the Kikuyu from the central highlands, the Luyia in the northwest, and the Luo around Lake Victoria. Of them all, however, the most famous are the tall, proud, beautiful red-clad Masai, who still lead a traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle of cattle-herding along the southern border.
Why Does Kenya Need Volunteers?
Over the past 30 years, poverty has been on the rise in Kenya. Poverty seems to be a paradox in a country that has the best-developed economy in eastern Africa, with relatively advanced agricultural, industrial sectors and high amounts of tourism. Yet Kenya is a low-income country, with per capita income averaging about US$360. It ranks 148th among 177 countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s human development index, which measures a country’s development in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and standard of living. More than half of the country’s 31.3 million people are poor, and 7.5 million of the poor live in extreme poverty
Kenya’s population has tripled over the past 30 years, leading to increasing pressure on natural resources, a widening income gap and rising poverty levels that erode gains in education, health, food security, employment and incomes. The causes of rural poverty include:
HIV/AIDS is most prevalent among young and middle-aged Kenyans, the most productive segment of the population. Almost half of the people in Kenya are under 15 years of age. An estimated 700 Kenyans die daily of HIV/AIDS-related causes. HIV/AIDS leaves orphans and woman-headed households even more vulnerable to poverty. The burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and water-borne diseases weighs heavily on both the country and Kenyan families, affecting income, food security and development potential. Life expectancy is down to 46 years, from 59 years in 1989.
Women are particularly vulnerable because they do not have equal access to social and economic assets. For about 70 per cent of women, subsistence farming is the primary and often the only source of livelihood.
By working with Elghana, you can make a difference in Kenya. Either by helping to empower women or educating about HIV/AIDS and poverty, by volunteering you can help create a better world.
