Author Archive

Saturday Anigyie!

No matter where you are in the world a 5am start is horrendous, as you stare through bleary eyes in disbelief at the alarm clock and its daunting display. With dawn breaking, Cape Coast is cool as the breeze rolls across the Atlantic and the chants of football teams on an early morning jog spark you into action. Full of toast and Milo us volunteers find ourselves in a taxi hurtling towards the football centre where we run our activities in a whirlwind of dust and dazzling sunlight.

It’s Saturday morning and the children arrive en mass for the core soccer program, bursting with energy and enthusiasm for the weekly event. The coach shouts ‘play soccer’ to the crowd of expectant faces who scream the centre’s motto in reply, – ‘PLAY FOR FUN, LEARN FOR LIFE’ – shattering the early morning silence. Split into three age groups the children rotate through short lessons of social, health and football sessions that focus on fun activities with an educational edge. Our group delivering the social session is tasked with the topic of teaching about friendship and we begin with a discussion on the qualities of a friend and the boundaries they should respect. We revitalise the group with some more physical activities- a relay, wheelbarrow and piggy back race introduces the importance of working hard for your friends, but fails to exhaust their endless energy supplies. By 9am the volunteers are exhausted but exuberant, as the children are split into teams for a football tournament. Outrageous skill, dogged determination and natural flare are all on display as the teams clash and chase the ball.

By late morning the children continue to play football on the sakoro pitch as the volunteers are free to enjoy their weekend. We retire to the beach or to decipher the madness of Kotokraba market after a second week of fulfillment and fun on the Gold Coast.

By Andy ‘Mogumbo’ Smith, a Lattitude volunteer in Ghana working with Football For Hope.

The volunteers running the Core Soccer Programme

Play Soccer Army invade Cape Coast

 

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Third week into placement and things were really getting exciting…the Street Walk was the first of our events we had organised and it was a key method in raising awareness of the re- launch of the Street League programme- one of the main programmes at the centre that target unemployed youths. We had decided on a street walk as it would grab people’s attention and with the aid of leaflets, put across our information immediately.

Around 9am on Saturday after our 2 hour core soccer programme we gathered the kids in a massive rally. This wasn’t a considerably hard task as the kids tend to follow us everywhere! We were amazed at how engaged and energized the kids were about going on the walk. We had been scared initially as the UK volunteers had ever organised an event quite like this and we had a severe lack of drums and whistles- there was no need to worry, the kids made it! From start to finish they bellowed out different chants and songs, accompanied with make shift drums and instruments.

Armed with a 70 child army, 2 banners, whistles and various instruments and led by our very own Abraham , we owned the streets of Cape Coast for over an hour- stopping traffic, chatting to locals and sticking leaflets anywhere that would hold it. The atmosphere was electric and unlike anything we had experienced before. Through fountains of sachet water children could be seen dancing and singing like their lives depended on it! It really hit us how surreal the experience was when one of the centre staff, Coach Ali, was running up and down a busy road hailing at oncoming traffic and throwing leaflets in taxi windows…unreal!

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This walk demonstrated how different things are here, it would be hard to get the kids parents to agree to their children participating, never mind local councils letting us take over the roads! The culture here is so relaxed and allowed us to have a great event and really spread the word about the programmes at the centre. One of the best days here easily!

- Thenneh and Johnny UK Volunteers

 

 

 

 

 

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Meeting our host familys- by Lysette Hacking UK volunteer

We’re on our last day of in country orientation today and all i can think about is my host family. There’s so many questions flying round in my head; who are my host family? will they like me? is there children in the family? I just can wait to meet them and find out. We were on our last lecture before dinner and all i could think about was the host family, its effecting my concentration. After the lecture our project coordinator asked if she could have a word with me and my counterpart Cat, She took us to the Lecturer, Elvis and told us that he would be our host father. I can’t begin in tell you how much this put my mind at ease, to know that our host father was actively involved in the project so he knew the in’s and outs of hosting volunteers.

So the time had come we were on our way to Cape coast, i cant wait now, 2 hours and i would be there!

We arrived at the center, i just couldn’t believe how wrong my preconceptions were, this place is amazing! There’s a solar lit astro-turf, a fully furbished computer suite, a library its unbelievable! Now all thats left to do is actually see our host home and the rest of the family.

Our host father arrived to pick us up from the centre about 7pm, the suspense was killing me I just wanted to get there. On the way we drove through a school, our host father explained that this is the oldest school in Ghana and that it would be the shortest route to work for us. After about 10 minutes drive we turned down a dirt track, we were nearly there! As we arrived at the house I couldn’t believe my eyes it was massive and it was purple my favorite colour, we walked through the door and where greeted by 3 children and our host mother Catherine. The children were very shy and just hid round a corner butthe Catherine ensured we had a warm welcome. Elvis then showed us to our room to get settled. I couldn’t believe my luck with the room we had wardrobes, plug socket and an ensuite with shower it’s better than my room in England!

All that was left to do now was to get acquainted with the family, I was sure I was going tolike it here.

 

Reflections from Accra, Ghana

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As the UK team leader for one of the first Lattitude ICS projects, I’m so excited to be writing from Accra, Ghana, at the beginning of what I’m sure is going to be an amazing journey – for myself, the other volunteers and for the communities in which we’ll be working. Having completed our pre-placement training in the UK, we are now on our in-country training, and it has been great to finally meet our Ghanaian counterparts and for our teams to feel complete!

A central aspect of our orientation period has been intercultural exchange, and we’ve had lots of discussions about cross-cultural working and the challenges and opportunities of living and working with people from different cultural backgrounds. It’s been really useful to learn more about the do’s and don’ts of Ghanaian cultural etiquette. For every new thing I have learned about the ways in which Ghanaian and British people do things differently, I have learned another that has shown me how much we have in common. One of the best parts of my experience so far has been spending time with the Ghanaian members of our team and finding that all the positive things that my friends and family members who have been to Ghana before have said to be true: the warmth and friendliness came through straight away in the gloriously warm welcome we received from our Ghanaian friends when we arrived. I’m really looking forward to working together as a mixed group, and to discovering all the different skills that we as individuals will be able to contribute to the team.

As for what lies ahead, I’m looking forward to getting to grips with our project, Football for Hope, a programme which aims to improve the livelihood prospects of young people in Cape Coast, an area which has very high levels of youth unemployment. The centre works to provide programmes which help young people gain life and work skills to assist them in gaining access to further education or entering employment. But before that, our next milestone will be meeting our host families where we will be living for the next few months, and of course, getting used to the tropical heat!

Klara, UK ICS Lattitude Team Leader

 

I’m the Ghanaian team leader for the ICS Lattitude Football for Hope programme and I was born and raised in Accra. I was very excited when I was picked to be part of the ICS programme because I read about the programme and I felt it was something worth sacrificing my time for. I was also happy to be a part of it because I love issues to do with youth development and helping the needy. This raised my expectations and my impatience to start working on the project. Finally the day arrived.

The Ghanaian and British volunteers arrived in Accra on the same day for the in-country orientation. On the first day we had a welcome and introductory presentation from both the Ghanaian and UK volunteers. We also had a city tour of Accra and a whole package of orientation sessions. We have now fully completed our orientation. It has been amazing, fun and full of teaching, practical sessions, cultural understanding and advice. It has been a good learning experience to have before the actual project. Right now I just can’t wait to start working… I am charged!

Derick, Ghanaian ICS Lattitude Team Leader