Win a childcare experience. Really?

I received an email today. At first glance I thought it was an April Fools. Been thinking about taking part in a GVI childcare programme recently? Well, today could be your lucky day! To raise funds for the GVI Charitable Trust, we’ve partnered up with PrizeAid and StudentUniverse to provide one lucky donor with a free 2-week place […]

Volunteering with children: A game of double standards?

Let me ask you. How many times have you logged onto Facebook and been greeted with a newly-updated profile picture of one of your friends, volunteer-smile intact, affectionately cuddling a small, rather grubby-looking child, from an unknown African nation? Once? Twice? Too many times to recall?

I love Ghana because…

One of my favourite projects in the summer was, with a lot of help from Coco, meeting people and asking what is was about Ghana that they loved so much. Patriotism certainly isn’t a dirty word in Ghana and the flag can be seen proudly flying everywhere you travel with the national anthem is sung […]

What’s it like to be a woman in Ghana?

Originally posted on Steph in Ghana: Tales from a Development Volunteer:
Now, when I say ‘Ghanaian woman’, what do you think of? For the next three posts, I’d like to introduce you to some women I’ve met here. Firstly, Mirabelle: Who are you, what do you do and how do you know Stephanie? It’s 2014. I’m Mirabelle…

Responsible volunteering at the World Travel Market

On 7th November I was invited to speak at the World Travel Market on the topic of overseas volunteering and how the sector can improve in this area. My speech focused on best practice when involving young (16-24 year olds) volunteers. You can view the slides and watch a recording of all the speeches and […]

God’s Time is the Best – shopping in Ghana

Britain was described by Napoleon as “a nation of shopkeepers”, but in 2013 I would say that this title is much more appropriate to Ghana. “Hustle” is a daily part of life for many Ghanaians and wherever your tro-tro (bus) stops there is always a number of people looking to sell water, food, footballs and […]

My Ghanaian summer

A few photos to show what I got up to during the summer of 2013. Best enjoyed listening to the song below:

A series of fantastic events.

Originally posted on Luke's Mystical Adventures:
Last time I wrote I briefly updated you readers on what happened between me getting here and going to ada foah, since then there have been a few things that have happened and I will run you through these one by one before giving a brief overview of…

Church at St Cecilia’s

On Sunday the whole KickStart Ghana Summer School team were invited to meet the community of the church that is connected to the school. We were all really honoured to be invited (even if 7am was a little early…) and were asked to introduce ourselves to the 300 people at the service. The Father also […]

Summer school, football coaching and a haircut

Apologies for the delay in the latest blog post, but since I last wrote seven new volunteers have arrived and five of those have left. They’ve been completing a large variety of work. Chris Minch has settled in well to the role of Assistant Volunteer Coordinator. His time has been taken up by airport pickups, […]

A busy two weeks

Two weeks already? Ghana has a fantastic way of making time go incredibly slow and fast at the same time. When you are waiting for a tro-tro (mini bus) to fill up, knocking back unwanted offers of meat on a stick, in the mid-day heat and humidity, it feels like the seconds are minutes and the minutes […]

Ghana, Ghana, Ghana!

“Three months in Ghana? Wow, that’s a long time,” is the phrase I’ve been hearing a lot recently. Sure, three months in West Africa isn’t the typical summer vacation but I know from experience that the time will zip by in a flurry of volunteers, projects, blog posts and Azonto moves. This summer I’m acting […]