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Volunteer Community Building Development Placement Overseas in Ghana
Whether you are on a gap year, summer placement or career break, if you want to get your hands dirty and see physical results from your placement overseas, our Community Building Project may suit you. Based in the Akuapem Hills just over an hour north of Accra you would be joining a team of Projects Abroad volunteers and local people constructing simple buildings in the hill-village of Kwamoso and five other nearby communities.
Volunteering on the Community Building Project in Ghana with Projects Abroad
Within the village and surrounding areas many families live in inadequate accommodation. Our housing project allows them to move to new, better-quality homes. Local people and volunteers help with the construction, and then the family repays the loan over time by buying construction materials which can be used to build future houses for other families needing help.
The houses are all made from mud bricks that are produced using a press, some mud and water, then left to set hard in the sun. Volunteers help with this process and also with building the walls, plastering and painting the houses. Each house takes an average of one month to construct.
In addition to the basic project, you may also help with landscaping the surrounding area, painting local schools and renovating classrooms in the village school. Volunteers have also been involved in the building of new classrooms for local schools and have even built a library for the Kwamoso village school.
Experiences on the Community Building Project in Ghana
Supervised by the village priest and working with local people who will ultimately benefit from the buildings, this is a great opportunity to get involved in a rural project and become an integral part of an African community. Our full-time regional coordinator lives nearby and visits the placement nearly every day so you'll always have full support from Projects Abroad too.
Building work takes place early in the morning and late in the afternoon to avoid the hot midday sun, so you’ll have plenty of time to get involved in village life. Many volunteers get involved within the village community by helping in the kindergarten class or playing soccer with some of the school children once the building work has finished for the day.
This project is available for two weeks if you don't have time to join us for a month or more. This project has been selected by our local colleagues as being suitable for short term volunteering for both the host community and the volunteer. Although you will gain a valuable cultural insight and work intensely within the local community please be aware that you may not be able to make the same impact as someone volunteering for a longer period.
Catherine Hughes volunteered with Projects Abroad on this project. She tells us:
“The volunteers provide welcome helping hands on the building site enabling the projects to reach completion before the rains come and wash any unfinished structures away, but the projects would not be possible in the first place without the money coming from volunteers' fees through Projects Abroad. These not only help to supply tools and materials to the building site but extend beyond the building site into the communities we are placed in. For a rural family, reliant on agriculture and market forces to make a living, a steady income from taking a volunteer into their home can also make a real difference to their lives, as can the seemingly small amounts of money the volunteers themselves bring with them and spend in the community.’
To read more about Catherine’s experience click here
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