“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” –Benjamin Franklin
Sitting at Sister Comfort’s, our two literacy volunteers did not know exactly where the quote came from, but they could both recite it verbatim. While the Malaria Prevention and Girls' Empowerment sessions remain untouched, the GHEI Summer Serve and Learn (SSL) program has undergone a partial restructuring this summer. Our SSL volunteers have always been deeply involved and appreciated for their work with GHEI and in the community. We are now simply asking the question of how to further extend this for volunteers. How can we best use their skills and expertise so that everybody gains the most from working together?
Our newest volunteer, Dan Doverspike, explained the question perfectly. “How can one make a lasting impact from a two-week internship? How can one truly contribute?” As a Library Intern focused mainly on overseeing the upcoming 2nd Annual Quiz Competition, Dan is joining our Soroano Book Box aficionado, John to round out the first session of SSL. Both Dan and John bring their experience as teachers, book lovers and experts in the field to the specific project they are each focused on.
Last year, the community-wide 1st Annual Quiz Competition was a major hit. This year, GHEI hopes to build on that success by doing away with the Read-a-Thon to allow students and teachers to focus their efforts on the Quiz Competition’s assigned texts. Depending on their grade-level, classes are either assigned Keith Whiteley’s Kagiso’s Mad Uncle, Revenge of the Gods by Richard Moverley or Azasu Son of the Hunter by Nico Kofi Adiku. Each of these books has been hand-picked by GHEI staff to be at the appropriate reading level, culturally relevant, and interesting to the students. Copies of the books were dispersed to classrooms, with extras available for the most determined competitors at the GHEI library, and students are now busy preparing for the Quiz Competition next Friday.
As part of his role in overseeing the coordination of this event, Dan has been diligently crafting the all-important quiz questions. Beyond their specific projects, he and John spend time learning about education in Ghana and helping out with the Humjbre Community Library and GHEI’s Reading Club and YEP English classes. In conversations with Ghanaian teachers, they point out that no country has a perfect system and everybody still has a lot to learn. Working with educators here, both sides can find ways to make improvements in their classrooms.
To see more pictures from this year’s SSL Literacy Projects, be sure to check our Facebook where they will be posted in the next few days!
Sitting at Sister Comfort’s, our two literacy volunteers did not know exactly where the quote came from, but they could both recite it verbatim. While the Malaria Prevention and Girls' Empowerment sessions remain untouched, the GHEI Summer Serve and Learn (SSL) program has undergone a partial restructuring this summer. Our SSL volunteers have always been deeply involved and appreciated for their work with GHEI and in the community. We are now simply asking the question of how to further extend this for volunteers. How can we best use their skills and expertise so that everybody gains the most from working together? | |
| Photo by John Schaidler |
Even with just two volunteers, the children know to come by all the time and these guys are constantly reading, playing football and engaging them with other fun games. Volunteer season is upon us in Humjibre.
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| Photo by John Schaidler |
No matter how small, these improvements will have a lasting impact.
To see more pictures from this year’s SSL Literacy Projects, be sure to check our Facebook where they will be posted in the next few days!
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