Projects Abroad, Newsletters from Ghana

Aspiring journalist Francesca Freeman, 21, wanted to step out of the regular western newsrooms and experience something more challenging, demanding, and certainly different from what she was used to, and so she embarked on her Projects Abroad journey and signed up to participate in Ghana's journalism programme at the Statesman for 2 months.

Thanks to Projects Abroad, that gave us the financial support to fulfill one of the big dreams of the children from our orphanage: we took them for one day to the Lake Bosumtwi. We are Isabelle and Maxie and we work now in Cherubs Orphanage in Ampatia near Kumasi for respectively two and four months, and the children asked us many times to go there. The week before we arranged two tro-tros and also a cooker that prepared a meal for lunch. On Sunday, 9^th of December, we started in the morning. The children were all very well dressed and so excited that they sang and played drums all the time on the way to the lake.

In a change to the usual party at the office, this month volunteers and staff set up base on a rather attractive beach in Teshie Nungua. Volunteers from all the regions met at the office bright and early to be taken by tro. As expected this received many stares from the locals with such a large amount of Obruni’s congregated together!

October’s end of month party took on a spooky Halloween theme, with the office transformed into a den of skeletons, ghosts, witches, bats and pumpkins! Volunteers from all the regions gathered at dusk just as the local bats were flying overhead lending a suitable mood to the proceedings! Accra’s very own Kat Pugh, Becky Hathway and Katie Drew easily won the prize for the best costume! In addition to the party’s usual drinks, food and dancing, a competition was made, with each region having four representatives.

This month in the Kumasi region, a major traditional festival took place. This was the festival of Akwasidea, in which all of the chiefs of Ashanti region gather in order to display their rich culture from their towns. Jelka Kiene, 24 years old from Germany, went along with a doctor from Suntreso Government Hospital where she works, to find out more about it and to take some wonderful photographs such as this one.

Central Regional Hospital - described as the referral hospital - is located in Cape Coast close to Abura, a suburb of the town. It moved to its current location in 2000 and consequently is one of Ghana most modern hospitals. It is also the biggest hospital in the region with approximately 20 Doctors, 40 Nurses, 100 beds and a wide range of departments for the volunteers to become involved in. Central Regional Hospital was one of the first medical placements in Ghana, having taken volunteers for more than five year.

Sadly it is not uncommon for pupils in some parts of the country to learn under appalling conditions. Classrooms, if they have them, often appear to be temporary structures - no roofs, no doors, insufficient and broken chairs and desks, along with a severe lack of instructional materials.