Volunteer report Jill De Clerck Ghana summer 2014

have been doing the last couple of years. I had the opportunity to graduate university without any obstacles and I think everyone should get this chance. That’s why I taught after school mathematics here in Antwerp for two years to immigrant high school students. Furthermore I engaged myself in a couple of student organizations like AIESEC (offers international internships to students and helps you to develop your leadership skills) and EKA (this organization promotes the European Union by organizing debates and lectures). Another big hobby of me is travelling and get to know new cultures. From this September, I’m working as a management trainee at an international company founded in Belgium, named Katoen Natie, it’s a logistic company situated in the port of Antwerp. I’m currently working in the division of petro chemistry. I really love this company and I hope that I can travel some more with this job. Before I started working I really wanted to do something to contribute to this world. That’s why I chose to volunteer in Ghana.  

The project I worked on in Ghana

I taught mathematics in little Daisy for two weeks. I’ve taught mathematics in the secondary school (not the kindergarten/primary school department). I taught mathematics in every classroom of the secondary school, so starting from the age of 8 to the age of 15. The first week I revised their course material with them because they had exams the second week I was there. On the one hand, I think it is a good thing that I was there to revise with them the last week before their exams because then they got a totally new insight of the content that they had to know for the exam but on the other hand I regret that the second week they already had exams beca

use than I only got the chance to teach one week.

Specific tasks/major accomplishments/leadership role

I didn’t do any specific tasks but I hope I contributed a bit and I hope that the children learnt some things the couple weeks I was there. At least, I learnt a lot from them as well!

Advice for future volunteers/living/traveling and working in Ghana

Advice for future volunteers: Ghanaian people are one of the most warmth, pleasant and hospital people I know and are very interested in getting to know your culture and they expect the same from you. Just be open-minded and go with the flow if you want to feel at home in Ghana quickly.  The children I taught mathematics for were very friendly and hospital and wanted to play games like ampe  (Ghanaian game) and wanted to play with my hair and they really appreciated the fact that we wanted to come and teach in Ghana. Especially the older children really wanted to learn and get the most out of it. As for the travelling, we went to Cape Coast and Kumasi, both really worth the trips!

Living: I think Pokuase (village where we lived) is a really cosy city with really nice people and the house where we lived in was really really nice.