Beyond the Classroom

AACT ‘s mission is to support the families of children with autism. In order to achieve this, AACT focuses on the following areas: promoting awareness and understanding of autism in Ghana and providing training and educational services to children with autism in order for them to function more effectively in society.

Autism is rarely known in Ghana and often linked to superstitious beliefs. Thus it is the prime objective of AACT is to provide a safe place for families to come for understanding, information and education about the disorder. Some of the work undertaken by the center include: public awareness to reduce the stigma around the disorder, life skills training, educational approaches to teaching languages and communication, art and music therapy, physical education, train care givers, field trips and extra curricular activities, respite care for families.

AACT is an interesting place for students undertaking various projects and research into disorders and disabilities in children especially in the area of autism.

La Enobal No. 2 Junior High School was established in 1957. It was founded by Mr. Okole and was later taken over by the government of Ghana. It has a student population of 300 students. It is located in the La community of Accra. As public school, it has served as a good resource for educating thousands of students since its establishment.

Some of the courses taught at La Enobal include, math, English language, social studies, cultural studies, integrated science, home economics, etc. Volunteers from NYU in Ghana have had wonderful moments undertaking tasks and duties on various activities such as teaching English, math, computer studies and sports.

TYPICAL TASKS FOR VOLUNTEERS

• Teaching
• Implementation of educational projects (e.g. environmental club project)
• Sporting activities
• Creative art
• Please note that tasks may change depending on the needs

La Enobal is about 5 minutes drive away from the academic center.

The Morning Star School was founded in 1965 by the late Mrs. Esme Siribo. It began as a pre-school with seven pupils and jt has blossomed over the past years into one of the best first cycle Christian school in Ghana. The School has 1370 students enrolled ifrom kindergarten to the 9th grade. The school is located about 3 minutes drive from the Academic Centre on Labone Avenue.

Volunteers may assist a teacher to grade assignments, teach a lesson in English, Math and Science, Art etc or help out with any of the clubs in the school such as: School Choir, Gospel Band, Boys Scout, Girl Guides, Creative Writing, Needle work and craft, Pottery and Ceramics, Red Cross, Drama and Debate Flute Ensemble, Fitness Club and AFS. 

New Horizon Special School, Accra Ghana is a purpose built establishment started by a mother with a handicapped daughter with the support of some parents and friends in January 1972. The school provides day school education for children and vocational training and employment for adults who are intellectually challenged. Persons with other disabilities - e.g. spastics, cerebral palsy, visually impaired hearing etc., are also admitted so long as their disability is a learning difficulty. Presently, over 140 students aged four through forty years attend the school. The school is located in Cantoments, about 5 minutes drive from the NYU in Ghana Academic centre. Volunteers may assist in the following areas:

• Teaching music, singing or any form of craft
• Assist a teacher for half a day or a full day in the classroom in specific tasks
• Assist in administrative work or in making educational material under the Director's supervision
• Assist with fundraising and public relations activities

State School for the Deaf is a public school within the Ghana Education service set-up. The School was established at Osu in 1965 by Dr. Seth Tetteh-Ocloo who is himself deaf and is now in America. The school was then known as Osu Deaf Mission Center. It was later taken over by the Government in 1969 and was renamed State school for the Deaf. The school is currently located at Ashaiman near Tema.

The school has as its objective the education of the deaf who for their severe hearing impairment, their educational needs, appropriate educational programs and other related services cannot be provided in the regular school. The State School for the Deaf program begins at the pre-school level and continues through Primary to the Junior Secondary school (JSS). Essentially, the academic curriculum is the same as that of the regular public school programs. Strong emphasis however is placed upon language and communication. The regular academic program is supplemented and reinforced by a pre-vocational program. Currently, the school is made up of 230 pupils and staff strength of 42.

Volunteers could work in the vocational department, teach sports and offer basic computer training to pupils or even help in the drama and dance department.

The first Osu Children’s Library was founded in 1990 under a tree in Accra. Each Thursday afternoon, Canadian Kathy Knowles carried a basket of books into her family’s garden and offered story times to six neighbourhood children. Word spread and more and more children came to the Knowles’ garden. To accommodate the increased numbers, Kathy transformed their garage into a library and called it the Osu Library after the street where she and her family lived. Before long, 150 children were lining up each week to explore the magical world of books.

As the Knowles family prepared to return to Canada, Kathy looked for a way to create a more permanent structure. After a lengthy search, she bought a 40-foot shipping container for US$1,200, moved it to a donated patch of land and converted it into a library. After returning to Canada in 1993, Kathy continued her efforts.  Working with dedicated volunteers from their Winnipeg home and strong support from Ghana, OCLF has built five additional libraries in Greater Accra. OCLF has also given assistance and training to 200 smaller libraries in Ghana, and supports projects in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Cameroon and the Philippines.

Spreading the joy of reading remains the cornerstone of all OCLF libraries although many quickly become centres for community development. Activities include free literacy classes, arts and crafts, cultural dancing and drumming, theatre, sports festivals, feeding programs for needy children and scholarships for deserving library members. Click here for more information.

Common Tasks:

·      Teach literacy and art classes.

·      Read to children.

·      Assist librarian to manage collections.

·      Help to manage feeding and scholarship programs.

BRIEF HISTORY
JayNii Streetwise Organisation (JSO) is a registered entity G-23,946 with the Registrar General's Department, having a goal of promoting the welfare of vulnerable young ones in deprived communities through education, sports, arts and culture.
We are a Not-For-Profit organisation dedicated to keeping the children of Jamestown, Accra and its environs, off the streets and in school, providing them with an education and a chance for a better future.

Streetwise Project

Provide 50 children with all needed stationery, uniform, shoes, bags, and materials to attend school
Provide extracurricular activities for children in drumming, creative arts, reading, sports, dance and assist children with their curricular studies and homework after school
Provide accommodation, food, cloth, shelter, medical care, and pastoral care to needy children who wondered where the next meal was coming from
Counselling families on the importance of education, many of these children’s parents are illiterate themselves and do not appreciate the value of education.

The scheme provides financial assistance for children who are in some of the most deprived and needy households in Ghana.
The scheme aims to provide at least nine years of formal basic education in Ghana from kindergarten to JHS for children from 4 to 16 years.

BENEFICIARIES

Needy children drawn from deprived villages and communities within which JSO works.
Orphans and Needy children under the care of single parents or incapacitated parents;
Children of economically overburdened and distressed families (Large families for
example).

3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

* Improve the quality of lives of young people
* Get children off the street and put them into the classroom
* Provide them with skills
* Create the opportunity for them to make use of their acquired skill
* Empower them to know they are talented and deserve to join the ranks of educated youngsters.
* Promote and encourage education for all children and help prepare them for a better future
* Promote global peace and understanding through children exchange programme.
* Create global awareness among children
* Participate in international children and youth conferences, seminars, festivals, campfires, retreats
* Enabling Africans to appreciate their cultural values
* Exposing the rich culture of Ghana to the world

The Noyaa Association is an intervention-based school in the coastal community of
Jamestown dedicated to providing education to children who are not formally enrolled in the Ghana Education System.

Its curriculum is strategically designed to provide a baseline education for street children in the coastal community of Jamestown, Accra. The intervention curriculum prepares students to read competently and critically, reason logically and learn basic mathematics in order to transfer them into a local government school at Level Six JHS.

Educational Approach at Noyaa/Weekly Schedule

Currently, the Noyaa Association has a student body of 45 children ranging from ages 3-17.  Because Noyaa is intervention based, students are divided into three sections determined by their academic ability: lower beginners, beginners and intermediate.

The school opens and closes with “Assembly” held outside where the students recite the Noyaa pledge and teachers provide words of encouragement and/or feedback about their work. The school day begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. The students break twice throughout the day, once for recess and once for lunch.

Click here for more information

United Way Ghana (UWG) is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to build community capacity for sustainable development in the areas of health, education, and income generation through collaborative efforts of all stakeholders.

UWG works with both donors and charities and is therefore, in a unique position to support the needs of both groups. For many corporate institutions, supporting communities in need is very much part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). United Way Ghana works through community based organizations to offer structured services to underprivileged communities. Through our Corporate Partnership Program, we custom tailor interventions to fit the level of community investment a corporate body wants to deliver.

UWG is a member of United Way Worldwide (UWW). Headquartered in the United States, UWW is a global network of 47 member countries with 4500 affiliate offices developing models for sustainability impact at the community level.

GHANET is a group of non-profit organizations, community-based, public institutions and individuals living with HIV/AIDS. They have come together to form what is known today as the Ghana HIV-AIDS network (GHANET). The idea of a network was conceived in May 1996, when stakeholders in HIV / AIDS prevention in Ghana felt a gap in the co-ordination of HIV/AIDS activities, funding and program planning, with the result that there was gross duplication of efforts and waste of human and material resources. Access to information was also very difficult at the time. GHANET, as it is constituted now provides a forum mainly for information and experience sharing towards effective programming planning especially at the grass-root level. Members are encouraged to also share their human and material resources.

Objectives

Specifically, GHANET's objectives are to:

1. Establish a broad-based forum for stakeholders to broaden members' understanding and knowledge of HIV/AIDS issue, in order to plan and execute more effective
HIV/AIDS programmes.

2. Promote frequent interaction and sharing of ideas, experiences, skills and best practices.

3. Fight all forms of discrimination and stigmatization against persons living with HIV / AIDS (PWLAs)

4. Conduct advocacy for prioritization of funding and use of resources.

5. When necessary to act as a pressure group.

The Foundation for Contemporary Art was founded to create an active network of artists and a critical forum for the development of contemporary art in Ghana. It exists to raise awareness of, and develop critical thinking within contemporary art in Ghana by organizing exhibitions, seminars, workshops and publications.

Housed in the WEB Dubois Center for Pan African Culture, the FCA is looking for volunteers with proposal writing and fund raising skills, curators and people to work on newsletters/publications. NYU in Ghana students have in the past volunteered with FCA and found their experiences very rewarding. 

Agoro Mmutae (Creative Zone) is a community -based organization that is committed to giving opportunities to young people to develop their skills in photography and to express themselves artistically.

The organization’s activities include teaching young people how to use cameras, developing and printing of films, writing skills, how to make a story book, how to make a wall hanging, how to organize a photo shoot, and how to combine computer skills with photography. ‘Agoro Mmutae’ is an Akan expression meaning “learning with a purpose”.

There is an also an Adinkra studio at Creative Zones which facilitates the activities and projects of the organization. Thus, the studio empowers young people who have dreams and creativity but are hindered by poverty. It offers them material support such as clothing, stationery, food, play tools, computers, education, etc. These underprivileged children are mentored, motivated and counseled as a way of granting them some psychological support.

Global Media Alliance Limited is an International Communications Company founded in 1998 in South Africa. GMA is a corporate member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). The company is specialized in the provision of a broad range of communication services to clients including:
Public Relations, Political Analysis and Positioning, Corporate Affairs Public Affairs, Events Management, Media Relations, TV Productions, Corporate Documentaries, Program Distribution, Media Consultancy Services, Community Relations, Publishing of Marketing and Promotional Materials, CEO Reputation, Management and Crisis Management.

GMA promises exciting vacancies for interns/volunteers in events organization, newsletters/publications, CNN monthly reports on Africa, a new TV production dubbed “The Nation Builders” etc. 

Micro-Finance and Community Development Organization (MFCDO) is a non-governmental organization committed to poverty alleviation, community development and small-scale entrepreneurship through micro-finance services. It works in collaboration with its Community Based Organizations (CBOs) involved in various forms of community work. Our principal implementing partner is the Open-Heart Solution Agency (OHSA), which has been practicing micro-finance and community development programs and seeking to promote the culture of savings through what is known in Ghana as "Susu. Susu" - a savings mobilization from the informal sector in Ghana.

Other community-based projects include:

• Open Heart Solution Applied Computer Training Institute (OHSACTI) -offering computer training to refugees
• Women of Glory - offering skills training for Refugee women
• SEA de ARC, church based youth group
• Yaalex Investments providing micro loans and savings facilities through Susu
• Refugee Women Development Program- Network of refugee womens' groups involved in skills training.

The organization provides opportunities for voluntary works, internships, study visits and other cross-cultural learning experiences.

Volunteers are likely to be involved in one or several of the following

• Susu collection among market women
• Administrative work
• Financial Records and Administration
• Working with women and refugee women
• Working among refugees
• Teaching
• Health Promotion: HIV/AIDS Campaign and Education
• Fundraising
• Project creation and management

About: MASLOC implements the Government of Ghana’s (GoG) microfinance programs targeted at reducing poverty, creating jobs, and generating wealth. In addition to providing micro and small loans, MASLOC provides business advisory services, training, and capacity building for small and medium enterprises. MASLOC also acts as the central body for coordinating the activities of the microfinance industry in Ghana.

Click here for more information

Common Tasks:

·      Assist with logistics for trainings and special events.

·      Write reports and other internal and external communications.

·      Help to manage databases.

·      Other duties that match your interest and their need.