Each year, GHEI runs four 16-day volunteer sessions called Summer Serve and Learn, in which international volunteers have the chance to work with GHEI in Humjibre, choosing one of four projects to work on.
In selecting our volunteers, GHEI staff often have to ask ourselves the difficult question: “What makes a good volunteer?” We at GHEI recently had to re-ask this question as we undertook the task of selecting our Outstanding Volunteers for Summer Serve and Learn 2012.
This year Summer Serve and Learn began with our Girls’ Empowerment session. In Humjibre, as in many traditional African cultures, little emphasis is put on the education and autonomy of young women. Girls’ Empowerment addresses this concern, and our volunteers work with local girls in leadership and communications skills, decision making and family planning, among other activities.
Susan Choy showed immense creativity in her approach to running her Girls’ Empowerment sessions. At one point she ran a very amusing game that she had come up with to demonstrate the importance of family planning. Each girl was told to take as many balloons as she wanted, not knowing that these balloons represented her new “children.” Those who picked 4-5 balloons were soon burdened by the heavy expenses of paying for them as the girls rolled the dice and walked through a life-size board game in our community centre. The girls absolutely loved the game and had a lot of fun with it, and the lesson seems to have stuck. It’s awesome to think that something as simple as a game like this could have an impact on a young woman’s life! Susan also showed an eagerness to learn from the community, expanding her own skills set while building up the skills of the young women of Humjibre.
Our Read and Play session was a big hit this year, and saw our volunteers design and run a two-week celebration of literacy that ran in conjunction with our annual ReadAthon.
The standout volunteer with this group was John Schaidler. He arrived with such an energetic enthusiasm, which only seemed to grow over the course of his stay. John was quick to see what worked and was useful, and quick to discard anything that wasn’t up to par. He showed a great amount of flexibility and adaptability, which is a crucial characteristic in any good volunteer. Coming in as a foreigner, one has preconceived notions that are biased by the individual's own experiences and culture, and so the ability to think on one’s feet, and adjust and adapt at a moment’s notice adds tremendously to a volunteer’s impact. John also showed humility in all of his work, checking his biases at the door and consistently asking questions about everything, from the Ghanaian culture and traditions to the school system and language.
For the Kickin’ It In Ghana session, GHEI was happy to choose Kyle Keenan as the outstanding volunteer. Kyle demonstrated an intense passion for both sportsmanship and the sport of football itself. In fact, while touring the village just after arriving in Humjibre from a day-long bus trek from Accra, Kyle was quick to jump in on a local football match, impressing us all with his football prowess! It was great to see Kyle convey his love for the sport through the team-building and communication exercises he and his fellow volunteers designed and ran for the football camp. It was also really fun to see Kyle’s camaraderie with the athletes, coming from such different cultures yet united by their love of all things football. Kyle also stepped up to the challenge of serving as referee for the championship game of our annual football tournament, which was no easy feat. Both teams were at the height of football frenzy, contesting Kyle’s calls at points. But even standing face to face with agitated players, Kyle never so much as flinched, keeping his composure despite constant pressure from both athletes and spectators.
In our final volunteer session, Malaria Prevention, Amy Henderson Riley proved to be a standout volunteer. Amy showed strong communication skills during her time in Humjibre, which allowed her to form respectful relationships with local staff and community members. She demonstrated her leadership skills early on, encouraging everyone and boosting morale throughout the session, among both volunteers and the community health workers. Amy was fully engaged with the project, and she was able to quickly adapt to the constraints of conducting research and managing data with limited resources. She also managed to maintain her keen optimism even during (and after) hours of demanding data entry. As a volunteer, Amy approached all of her duties wholeheartedly, and embodied a great balance of both serving the community and learning so much from the people of Humjibre.
At GHEI we pride ourselves on selecting volunteers who have a meaningful contribution to make to the community. All of our volunteers have to be outstanding to be selected in the first place, so to single out individuals as “outstanding volunteers” has proven to be a very difficult and thought-provoking exercise for GHEI staff. Those named demonstrated the ability to go above and beyond our expectations, and we offer them our many thanks.
We are thrilled to work with such devoted volunteers. Humjibre residents still stop me to ask about certain volunteers. They always want to know when you guys are coming back!
We are happy to announce that both John and Amy will be returning to Humjibre next summer to serve as volunteer coordinators for the Kickin’ it – Read and Play, and Girls’ Empowerment – Malaria prevention sessions respectively.
Summer Serve and Learn has proven to be such an exciting time for GHEI, for Humjibre and the surrounding communities, and of course the volunteers themselves. GHEI would like to thank all of our volunteers over the years for making this part of our work such a huge success.
If you or someone you know is interested in serving the community of Humjibre, please click the “Volunteer with GHEI” tab above for this year’s session description and application form. Humjibre awaits!
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In selecting our volunteers, GHEI staff often have to ask ourselves the difficult question: “What makes a good volunteer?” We at GHEI recently had to re-ask this question as we undertook the task of selecting our Outstanding Volunteers for Summer Serve and Learn 2012.
This year Summer Serve and Learn began with our Girls’ Empowerment session. In Humjibre, as in many traditional African cultures, little emphasis is put on the education and autonomy of young women. Girls’ Empowerment addresses this concern, and our volunteers work with local girls in leadership and communications skills, decision making and family planning, among other activities.
Our Read and Play session was a big hit this year, and saw our volunteers design and run a two-week celebration of literacy that ran in conjunction with our annual ReadAthon.
The standout volunteer with this group was John Schaidler. He arrived with such an energetic enthusiasm, which only seemed to grow over the course of his stay. John was quick to see what worked and was useful, and quick to discard anything that wasn’t up to par. He showed a great amount of flexibility and adaptability, which is a crucial characteristic in any good volunteer. Coming in as a foreigner, one has preconceived notions that are biased by the individual's own experiences and culture, and so the ability to think on one’s feet, and adjust and adapt at a moment’s notice adds tremendously to a volunteer’s impact. John also showed humility in all of his work, checking his biases at the door and consistently asking questions about everything, from the Ghanaian culture and traditions to the school system and language.
In our final volunteer session, Malaria Prevention, Amy Henderson Riley proved to be a standout volunteer. Amy showed strong communication skills during her time in Humjibre, which allowed her to form respectful relationships with local staff and community members. She demonstrated her leadership skills early on, encouraging everyone and boosting morale throughout the session, among both volunteers and the community health workers. Amy was fully engaged with the project, and she was able to quickly adapt to the constraints of conducting research and managing data with limited resources. She also managed to maintain her keen optimism even during (and after) hours of demanding data entry. As a volunteer, Amy approached all of her duties wholeheartedly, and embodied a great balance of both serving the community and learning so much from the people of Humjibre.At GHEI we pride ourselves on selecting volunteers who have a meaningful contribution to make to the community. All of our volunteers have to be outstanding to be selected in the first place, so to single out individuals as “outstanding volunteers” has proven to be a very difficult and thought-provoking exercise for GHEI staff. Those named demonstrated the ability to go above and beyond our expectations, and we offer them our many thanks.
We are thrilled to work with such devoted volunteers. Humjibre residents still stop me to ask about certain volunteers. They always want to know when you guys are coming back!We are happy to announce that both John and Amy will be returning to Humjibre next summer to serve as volunteer coordinators for the Kickin’ it – Read and Play, and Girls’ Empowerment – Malaria prevention sessions respectively.
Summer Serve and Learn has proven to be such an exciting time for GHEI, for Humjibre and the surrounding communities, and of course the volunteers themselves. GHEI would like to thank all of our volunteers over the years for making this part of our work such a huge success.
If you or someone you know is interested in serving the community of Humjibre, please click the “Volunteer with GHEI” tab above for this year’s session description and application form. Humjibre awaits!
Share |
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