Ghana
Destinations » GhanaHome to quite possibly the friendliest and most welcoming people on the planet, most people travel to Ghana to experience its rich and diverse culture.
With breathtaking beaches along its stunning coastline, lush tropical forests in its interior and dusty savannah to its north, Ghana has a fascinating mix of landscapes. The eerie colonial forts on the coast, the canopy walkway of the forest belt and dusty game reserve of the northern region are a must for anyone travelling to this golden country.
Ghana is held by many to be a beacon in the region, politically stable, economically sound and responsible in outlook. However, despite best efforts, a vast dichotomy still exists between the development the cities and the rural areas. Much work has been done to provide clean water and electricity to all areas but still, many of Ghana’s youth leave the villages for the bright lights and even brighter prospects of the cities.
Volunteer Work, Projects and Placements in Ghana
Community Building and teaching projects:
Building and teaching volunteers: Our most popular Madventurer project combines the experience of building and teaching.
Independant Urban Placements:
Volunteer to teach in a Ghanaian School : Our volunteers have been teaching enthusiastic children in rural Ghanaian schools for ten years.
Healthcare placements in Ghana : Popular with Medical students and those hoping to study medicine, our Healthcare volunteers make a valuable contribution.
Volunteer in a Ghanaian Orphanage : Our volunteers make a valuable contribution to the lives of some of Ghana's most vulnerable children by working in Ghanaian Orphanages.
Football coaching placements in Ghana : Help to coach talented young football players and gain valuable coaching experience by volunteering as a football coach.
Netball Coaching placements in Ghana : Help to coach Netball in one of the local schools in Ho and gain valuable coaching experience.
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Contact Madventurer HQ for more details on:
0845 121 1996
So why volunteer in Ghana with Madventurer?
Well, its where Madventurer's founded, John Lawler, did his gap year - the orginal gap year student!
Here is John's story....
In January 1998, he set off in a tweed jacket and a rucksack with the aim of doing some volunteer teaching to Ghana for 8 months. Unfortunately within hours of him stepping off the BA Flight into Accra he fell into a storm drain and broke his leg. All the money he had saved working at Directory Enquiries over the last few months was potentially going to go to waste as he imagined having to get the back on the plane to head back home. Instead, however, he was fixed up in a local hospital and spent the next 2 months in a cast and on crutches in the busy environment of Accra.
After a while the frustration of not being able to stand and to do any volunteer work had got to him. Some other volunteers that he had become firends with in Accra had spent the weekend trying to visit Togo but had got stopped at the border town of Shia as Immigration had closed for the evening. The locals put them up and during conversions asked if there was anybody else they knew of who could help them set up a Senior Secondary School in the village but as these 2 volunteers were already teaching in Accra they could not help. When John found out about this opportuinity he headed to Shia the next day to escape Accra and to see adventure lay before him.
On one sunny March afternoon, the villagers were stunned as a young man from England walked up the main street on his crutches and still in a cast and headed to meet the Chief. Still out of breath and sweating in his teaching attire he annouced "My name is John, I'm from England, and I want to help you". The Chief almost fell off his golden chair at the spectacle that lay before him.
Undeterred John spent the next few months with one other teacher, a Togolese man who was to become the school's headmaster, teaching a vareity of subjects to the 7 students who were only a few years younger than himself. With whatever money he had left over from his travels he purchased a few books and some 'rubber-tipped pencils' and the school was started. He went back to Accra and persuaded other volunteers who were out with a number of different gap year companies to head to Shia to progress the school but in September, and following several faxes to his tutors at Newcastle University, he headed back to finish his final year of his degree after persuading them that he had changed for the better.
On departing back to the UK, an elder in the village took him to one side and asked him if he would be interested in continuing the work he had started but in a more formal capacity, and asked him to consider being enstooled as Chief of Development on the Council of Elders.
His experience had a big impact both on him and on the villagers, and on October 31st 1998 John was renamed Chief Togbe Mottey (which stands for Chief Pioneering Pathfinder of the Forest) I for his contributions in help setting up a Secondary School in the village.
He decided that he wanted other people to have an amazing experience like his, so the next year he went back to Ghana with a group of 17 friends who all worked together to build a school and to teach the children subjects in their curriculum. Before going home, the group then set off in an overland vehicle in an attempt to reach the mystical Timbuktu…and Madventurer had begun!
John is now joined by his newlywed Elaine whom the villagers recently enstooled as their Queen (Mama Ama Wu Sika) in all things that are Mad! John pioneers new projects and adventures around the world and Elaine helps run the Mad Foundation registered charity in order to further assist our madventurers’ work.
Madventurer has gone from strength to strength, being awarded the Shell Livewire UK Award for Sustainable Development and a Prince’s Trust Business of the Year Award.
John is responsible for leading the youth of the community in development projects whenever he is available in Ghana.
John spends much of his time at Mad HQ in Newcastle but manages to get away to Ghana at least once a year to undertake his tribal duties. As the original 'madventurer', his more recent conquests has been to drive from the UK to West Africa crossing the Sahara to leave a Land Rover for the Project Leaders out in Ghana, and he has also been on an expedition to set up the world's first ever Education Base in Antarctica with Robert Swan OBE (the modern day polar explorer who was the first man to walk to both the North and South Poles).
He continues to encourage others to take time out to experience a different way of life in another culture and to make a difference with their 'time out'.
As one of the first volunteer organisations to operate in Ghana, John and everyone at Madventurer have many ideas to make the most of your career break, gap year or volunteer travel ideas that you may have.