Volunteering in the Kumasi Children’s Home

Hello, my name is A’Shea and I have recently finished my A Level exams. I would like to study Medicine and go on to have a career as a Paediatrician and have decided to take a Gap Year to gain more experience relevant to my future career.

I am an active volunteer and have spent over 100 hours working at my local childcare centre in East London, helping children to develop their communication and team working skills. I really enjoy caring for children and helping them to expand their learning whilst having fun. Having had the experience of working with young people in the UK, I would love to have the opportunity to travel abroad to volunteer in a new environment and learn about different cultures and how they compare to UK/British culture.

When looking for volunteering opportunities, I came across the Plan My Gap Year website. I was drawn to the Childcare programme that they run which takes place at the Kumasi Children’s Home in Ghana where volunteers work alongside staff who are teaching and caring for children at the home.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I feel will allow me to transfer skills I have gained working with children in the UK to the children in Ghana in the hope that I can benefit their lives in some way. I would like to spend one month of my gap year doing something meaningful and beneficial for others that will maybe give me a different perspective on the lives of children in the UK when I return.

This experience will help me in my future studies as I hope to work with children in my future career and will allow me to experience life in a different community for an extended period of time. I hope that this trip will help me to motivate other students to take part in similar experiences in order to broaden their minds and learn more about other communities outside of the UK.

To go to Ghana with the programme in October, I have to raise around £2000 which is quite a large amount but includes flights, food, accommodation, transport and other necessities required for me to be able to travel.

I have raised £1000 through an award from my school so I am now fundraising for the final half.

As this amount is an estimate, once I have booked my trip, if any money is left over I will put it towards books for the children in order to help further their learning.

I am also looking for a part time job so that I can save towards the trip but any contribution would be greatly appreciated and beneficial to my funding.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.