The Empowerment for Sustainable Livelihood (EFSL) is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) established for the purpose of facilitating the development and promotion of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), sustainable trade, gender empowerment, environmental management, capacity building and sustainable development in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

In pursuit of its mission, EFSL(NGO):

Assists and supports the improvement of the environment of small and medium scale enterprises in the communities of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Provides advisory services for the creation, development and promotion of entrepreneurship, for contributing to the sustainable development process in the region.

Engages in activities that give recognition and voice to the vulnerable and exclusion through advocacy and negotiation.

Takes keen interest in community development such as environmental issues, socio-empowerment activities.

Engages in massive and vigorous education on deadly but preventable diseases such as AIDS/HIV, Malaria, Guinea Worm, Tuberculosis and Bird Flu at the deprived rural communities.

Champions the course of poverty reduction activities such as assistance in basis technical and vocational skills to both the rural and urban poor, engagement in non-timber forest farming resources/activities in the rural areas.

Assists communities to increase their efficiency in the international market, especially via the provision of relevant information and training in trade development and promotion, business partnerships and networks.

Facilitates gender empowerment in the region.

Undertakes capacity building and utilisation programmes and provides services that will significantly contribute to improve the quality of life in the region.

CORE VALUES

EFSL’s core values include equity, respect, empowerment, good governance, partnership, accountability, human dignity and sustainability at all levels.

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FUTURE ASPIRATIONS

To partner other international organizations who share the same mission with us.

To widen our scope of operations beyond our country of origin.

To reduce sexism and promote respect for women/children rights through education and collaboration.

To reach other communities who have not benefited from our projects due to financial and logistical constraints.

To engage in exchange programmes for our members in the areas of capacity building, knowledge acquisition, and other new administrative approach in relation to their work.

To access scholarships to improve the educational capacity for our members.

To educate rural folks/increase enrolment of deprived children in school by "stay-school" drive: reducing illiteracy.

To forestall environment degradation and save the environment.

To create behavioural change in the population, which will produce a healthy and desirable reproductive life, minimize the rapid spread of HIV infection and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS.

THEMATIC AREAS OF EFSL (NGO)

Community development and Volunteering Programmes

Capacity building training programmes

Advocacy and Negotiation Skills

AIDS, Guinea Worm, Malaria and Tuberculosis

Youth Training & Leadership

Poverty Reduction Strategies

Gender Empowerment

Entrepreneurship

Micro Finance

Water Sanitation & Distribution Problems

Good governance

Extreme poverty, the growing challenges of HIV/AIDS and other different social problems leave many orphans in Ghana. These lovely children are in urgent need of adult help and support. In Ghana, EFSL partners launched an orphanage and street children program to shelter these orphans. The project offers room/food, education, encouragement and support. Unfortunately, many Ghana orphanage projects are without strong financial support, under staffed and face additional hurdles with trying to effectively run their programs. Help is needed with every task: cooking and serving food to the children, assisting with their basic education and physical fitness (sports) and there is an immense need for English lessons, but the most important thing you offer these poor children is love and attention that they so desperately crave. Resources for orphans are spread thin. Orphanage workers in Ghana do their best, but manpower is low and it is the face to face contact that this children desperately need. Love and support that comes from volunteers working with orphans in Ghana are priceless! Many volunteers joining orphanage Ghana program as life changing and rewarding. This is the perfect project if you want to serve humanity or share your love, passion and time with children deprived of their parents love and care.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

There is no specific qualification needed to join the orphanage volunteer project. However, volunteers must be flexible and patient. You should have passion and love for orphaned children.

Volunteers working in Ghanaian orphanages generally show support by teaching English to children either in the orphanage or possibly in a local school. Volunteers are also welcome to teach other subjects like math, science etc. The orphanage requires extra pairs of hands to help with the day-to-day running of the project, so you will be expected to assist with cleaning, cooking and serving food to the children. You also help with organizing Physical Education/Sports lessons. You may also be required to assist the staff with counseling the children. The job responsibilities of orphanage volunteers in Ghana depend on the need of the orphanage as well as the skills and interests of the volunteers.

In the orphanages where the children attend a school, daytime activities for volunteers may include: administrative work and helping with cleaning, cooking, gardening and physical maintenance. Evenings are fun times as you organize games, art activities, singing, dancing and other creative education and extra-curricular activities. You will be there to help with homework and encourage their academic progress.

Room/Food/Supervision

EFSL manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Ghana. We offer a "home base" in Ghana. Our home base is about an hour drive from Accra. We try to create a "home away from home" for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Ghana are located within 1-20 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades.

Occasionally if a project is located far from the EFSL home base or when our home base is fully occupied with volunteers, we will place volunteers with host families. Our host families are carefully screened, socially respected and experienced with hosting international volunteers. Wherever you stay, your accommodation with EFSL is safe, clean and comfortable. In most cases, you will share a room with volunteers (of same gender). In Ghana, our field staff is an experienced team comprising of country coordinators, assistant coordinators, managers, cooks and field assistants. Our field staff visits volunteers regularly and always happy to help our volunteers in any way needed. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine. Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base (or host family) and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat. We also work extremely hard to maintain our facilities in a positive condition.

The demand of English education in Ghana is growing among teenagers and the younger generations. Unfortunately, opportunities for quality English education are not provided to public school students. EFSL volunteers help in government (public) schools. Through this project, students and English teachers in Ghana can participate in an exchange of ideas that often leads to a valuable dialogue regarding different cultures and teaching methods. Our volunteers who work with local teachers provide new and innovative ways to teach the English language from a "native speaker" perspective. This native speaker perspective is highly prized in the realm of Teaching English and can often vastly improve teaching methods. This fact alone creates a long-lasting, positive impact which can eventually benefit the entire community. Teaching English in Ghana is a very demanding but a highly rewarding volunteer position.

Note: Ghana has 3 academic trimesters a year: January-March, May-July and September-December. During the School holidays, we help to organize holiday classes for the School children. Your sight-seeing itinerary and work schedule may vary a bit during school holiday times.

First Session

Start Date: 10th January to 12th April Mid-January to Mid-April
School Holiday: 13th April to 1st May

Second Session

Start Date: 2nd May to 4th August
School Holiday: 5th August to 12th September

Third Session

Start Date : 13th September to 15th December
School Holiday: 16th December to January

*The school holidays are subject to change.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

Volunteers may teach more subjects than just English. Math, science and sports classes may need assistance. NO specific skills or teaching qualifications are required. However, some kind of teaching certification or education degree is appreciated. A major in science, math or computer oriented classes is also preferred if you have no teaching education/credentials. Volunteers must have passion and interest to help children and improve their education.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Volunteer teachers in Ghana focus mainly on teaching English to local children in primary, middle, or high schools. If you are skilled, you can teach math, science, or other subjects in Ghana. If you are a qualified teacher or teaching experience you can lead a class but mostly volunteers will be working as an assistant teacher. Most classrooms are crowded and the number of students ranges from 20-60 in each class. All schools of Ghana follow a set English curriculum, so basically volunteers will teach straight from the text book. The school headmaster provides teaching resources. You may come prepared with storybooks or any other teaching materials you think you might need. School children in Ghana are very enthusiastic and eager learners of English. Although most of people speak English in Ghana, there are many issues with correct grammar and challenges with pronunciation, so your native speaker background will help many children change for the better.

Room/Food/Supervision

EFSL manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Ghana. We offer a "home base" in Ghana. Our home base is about an hour drive from Accra. We try to create a "home away from home" for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Ghana are located within 1-20 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades.

Occasionally if a project is located far from the EFSL home base or when our home base is fully occupied with volunteers, we will place volunteers with host families. Our host families are carefully screened, socially respected and experienced with hosting international volunteers. Wherever you stay, your accommodation with EFSL is safe, clean and comfortable. In most cases, you will share a room with volunteers (of same gender). In Ghana, our field staff is an experienced team comprising of country coordinators, assistant coordinators, managers, cooks and field assistants. Our field staff visits volunteers regularly and always happy to help our volunteers in any way needed. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine. Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base (or host family) and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat. We also work extremely hard to maintain our facilities in a positive condition.

EFSL’s Ghana Volunteer Health projects aim to increase access to basic healthcare for rural people, decrease the prevalence of endemic disease and improve overall village health by providing public health projects and promoting health education in the villages. Volunteers will assist the local nurses at the District Hospital with all aspects of clinical nursing and act as a primary health worker with the community nurses. Volunteer duties may include working in the consultation rooms, medicine dispensary or operating theatre (operating room). Duties consist of helping with physical therapy, treatment of minor injuries, maternal assistance and childcare. Other occasional tasks may be assisting midwives on home-visits, verifying or recording patient's personal/medical information.

Volunteers who are interested in joining our volunteer health program must possess health care certification, such as a medical student ID, EMT or paramedic certification, or nurse or physician's credentials. We do not permit volunteers without medical credentials to work in this program due to the potential risk. The hospitals require a copy of your resume, clearly documenting credentials and education, before your arrival to the project. Projects will also require an official copy of your credentials.

Volunteer Responsibilities

A volunteer's role can range from observational to basic assistance, dependent on education, skills, experience and qualifications and also on the community’s current needs. Volunteers are not permitted to perform major exams or surgeries. You will work with a doctor or nurse, spending time in various departments of a busy hospital. Departments you might support include Gynecology, Neurology, Orthopedics, Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Surgery. Volunteers may change bandages, take blood pressure and contribute to education efforts regarding about basic disease prevention. An important element to these volunteer placements in Ghana is learning about and being comfortable with a different culture’s healthcare practices.

Room/Food/Supervision

EFSL manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Ghana. We offer a "home base" in Ghana. Our home base is about an hour drive from Accra. We try to create a "home away from home" for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Ghana are located within 1-20 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades.

Occasionally if a project is located far from the EFSL home base or when our home base is fully occupied with volunteers, we will place volunteers with host families. Our host families are carefully screened, socially respected and experienced with hosting international volunteers. Wherever you stay, your accommodation with EFSL is safe, clean and comfortable. In most cases, you will share a room with volunteers (of same gender). In Ghana, our field staff is an experienced team comprising of country coordinators, assistant coordinators, managers, cooks and field assistants. Our field staff visits volunteers regularly and always happy to help our volunteers in any way needed. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine. Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base (or host family) and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat. We also work extremely hard to maintain our facilities in a positive condition.

HIV/AIDS remains a serious health threat in many African countries including Ghana. Every year hundreds of adults and children are infected with and die of this killer virus. EFSL's partners work to advance adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention. Using the Stepping Stones approach, they focuses on promoting behavioral change through facilitating discussions of HIV prevention and sexual health with community groups. Community groups include youth groups in/out-of-school, clients at antenatal clinics and general community meetings. Volunteers are mainly involved with counseling and education. This project is open to any volunteers who are willing to share their love, time and compassion with the HIV patients and who are committed to supporting efforts to stop the spread of this disease.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

There are no specific qualifications required to volunteer in this project. However, volunteers must demonstrate love and willingness to share time and compassion with people. A high level of patience and flexibility is mandatory.

Volunteers may directly provide support and care to HIV/AIDS infected patients, including children, or engage the public with educational training and activities meant to increase awareness and stop the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Ghana. Several local NGOs work on HIV/AIDS programs which are focused on two areas. First focus area includes: treatment, psychological counseling and support to whose people infected with HIV/AIDS. Volunteers within the scope of the first focus area generally visit with HIV/AIDS patients (along with a local worker) and distribute food, clothes, medicine and give mental counseling and support. You may provide basic but valuable tips to patients on health, nutrition and sanitation and you may be involved in keeping patient records.

The second focus area includes: HIV/AIDS treatment/awareness programs to increase the community’s understanding of HIV/AIDS, ways to prevent the spread of the disease and how to protect themselves from contracting the disease. Volunteers supporting awareness/outreach normally contribute to counseling and education in major hospitals and communities to raise personal risk perception among young men and women. Programs actively involve youth in participatory HIV/AIDS preventive education within the district. Volunteers may focused on outreach and awareness programs often visit many schools, villages, churches and present information and media, posters, distribute pamphlets and condoms, etc.

Room/Food/Supervision

EFSL manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Ghana. We offer a "home base" in Ghana. Our home base is about an hour drive from Accra. We try to create a "home away from home" for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Ghana are located within 1-20 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades.

Occasionally if a project is located far from the EFSL home base or when our home base is fully occupied with volunteers, we will place volunteers with host families. Our host families are carefully screened, socially respected and experienced with hosting international volunteers. Wherever you stay, your accommodation with EFSL is safe, clean and comfortable. In most cases, you will share a room with volunteers (of same gender). In Ghana, our field staff is an experienced team comprising of country coordinators, assistant coordinators, managers, cooks and field assistants. Our field staff visits volunteers regularly and always happy to help our volunteers in any way needed. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine. Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base (or host family) and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat. We also work extremely hard to maintain our facilities in a positive condition.

Join us for a week of Language and Culture Immersion. Submerge yourself in Ghana and emerge with valuable insights into Ghana’s intricate culture and more than 40 distinct languages, before you begin your volunteer project. Our cultural immersion program provides exposure to villages and an opportunity to learn about local culture and customs. The volunteers will take Ghanaian language lessons everyday for 3-4 hours from experienced language teachers and instructors and learn conversational Ghanaian language. During free time, volunteers get to explore the colorful city of Accra and nearby villages.

Day 1: Pick up from the Kotoka International Airport, in the capital city of Accra and transfer to accommodation or training site dependant on arrival time.
Day 2: Orientation takes place at (neighborhood). Orientation includes Ghana's religion, languages, culture, history, customs, politics and geography. Also, participants will be briefed on necessary health and travel precautions. Volunteers are welcome to discuss any issues that interest them and ask any questions. Volunteers will have time to visit (activity/place). Remainder of day is free time.

Day 2: Your Ghanaian language program continues (2-3 hours). Visit the local market and interact with local people in the community during your free time.

Day 3: Your third day is a travel day! Volunteers visit the city of Accra and tour the principal streets and sites. The National Museum is the first stop, where artifacts of pre-historic and relics of chieftaincy are displayed. Next you’ll visit Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, the place where Ghana declared independence from the British in 1957. Kwame Nkrumah has interesting architectural structures and monuments using Ghanaian and Egyptian symbology. You will be professionally escorted on this day long excursion by our representatives.

Day 4: Ghanaian language class (2-3 hours) continues. Following class you will explore the local bazaars, interact with local people and have numerous opportunities to practice your Ghanaian language skills.

Day 5: Ghanaian language class (2-3 hours) continues. In the afternoon, volunteers will visit a local village and investigate their lifestyle. Volunteers will converse with the villagers in their local language. Volunteers will also visit a local food market and buy goods. Newly acquired language skills will be tested as you ask questions about prices, tastes, etc. using the languages you have learned.

Day 6: Day Six is a travel day! An excursion to Shai Hills Forest Reserve for game viewing and more. You will see different kinds of Ghanaian animals like antelope, monkeys of different types of birds, baboons, etc. in their natural setting. Volunteers then continue to Aburi, the gorgeous century old botanical garden. Rest of the day is spent at the part at your leisure admiring the lush greenery, exotic plants and beautiful landscape.

Day 7: Closing of Ghanaian language program, evaluation and departure for project.

Note: This is a sample itinerary and can change to meet changes in field conditions

Dates: June 24 - July 22, 2013

With its amazing wildlife, a fascinating landscape, a colorful but diversified culture and custom, great safaris, and gorgeous beaches, Ghana offers one of the best travel and volunteering experiences possible in Africa . Ghana has a splendid coastline with gorgeous beaches-which are indeed earthly paradise. The country is also blessed with cultural heritages, lakes, wetlands, and historic sites. With EFSL's Summer Volunteer and adventure in Ghana , participants will have the opportunity to volunteer for a great cause and visit the tempting locales that surround Ghana - getting a true-to-life picture of Ghana and enjoying and experiencing Ghanaian hospitality and generosity

Your first stop will be Accra , the capital city of Ghana . You will learn Ghana 's rich history, folklore, and customs. Volunteers have the option to take basic Twi language classes and travel the legendary wonders of Accra and its surrounding areas. Participants will uncover the richness of Ghana 's generational artistry - the colorful kente cloth of the Ashanti , gold mining, wood carving, drum-making, cloth-printing, and weaving.

Service Projects - Work in Orphanage (14 days)

In phase two, participants work for 15 days in an orphanage - sharing their love and time with the needy children in the areas surrounding Accra . Particpants will teach them basic conversational English and encourage them to face the challenging world head on, where English has become more and more necessary. During free time, participants can hike to nearby bazaars and/or hillside villages and explore the beauty of mesmerizing Ghana - gaining a first-hand experience of Ghanaian lifestyle, culture, and values.

Explore Volta, Central and Ashanti Region of Ghana (7 days)

Volunteers will travel both the Volta and Ashanti regions in phase three - which offer visitors a view of Ghana 's vestiges of past civilizations. They will visit historical sites, celebrated national monuments, and the forts and castles that recall more than five centuries of European influence and stand as ghosts of the past slave trade. Participants will be engorged both spiritually and physically into the deep, surviving traditions and captivating culture of the Ghanaian people upon which their society still thrives on today.

Program itineraries are merely samples and may change to meet the needs of the volunteers and changes in the field conditions. This itinerary will be revised and finalized during orientation in Accra .

This program itinerary is merely a proposed sample and may be altered to meet the needs of the volunteers and changes in field conditions. This proposed itinerary will be finalized during orientation program.

http://www.efslivelihoodghana.org