When I finally landed in Ghana after a long journey, I felt the thrill of entering the unknown and anticipated the inevitability of the unexpected. Having prepared for this trip for months (and spent an even longer amount of time convincing my parents that this was an important endeavor), I knew that my ability to contribute as a volunteer teacher at an elementary school would depend largely on my ability to adapt to the unknown quickly, efficiently, even seamlessly.
Based on everything we hear and see about Africa in popular media and journalism, we develop a vague impression of the massive, complicated continent. For many of us, part of this hazy understanding is imbued with a sense of apprehension about personal safety, especially for young women. The only thing I knew for sure was that I would be safely housed in a lodging operated by an American organization that assists students volunteering in the country.
Over the next month, I was planning on working as a teacher in a school in Krobo. I would instruct elementary-aged children in English and in other basic skills. I trained for this task by learning pedagogical methods at my school, and I spent a semester teaching Greek-Australian children the Greek language over Skype.
On the first day of my volunteer experience at the school in Krobo, I myself learned lesson number one: “Poverty does not bring unhappiness.” This realization made me aware that I had subconsciously assumed that people living in disadvantaged areas of Ghana would automatically be in a state of perpetual and acute sufferance. Instead, I found a society in which everybody smiles and is very friendly to others. Everyone practices the belief that kindness and amiability are important because we all have limited amounts of time on Earth with one another.
Has such a thought ever crossed your mind? The possibility of death in western societies is a dreaded nightmare because of its relative lack of frequently amongst young and healthy people. Not in Ghana. Newborn babies there are not given a name until ten days after birth because of the high risk of early infant mortality. What’s more, if they do die, the traditional wisdom articulates that God sent the child’s soul to the wrong house and is taking it back. I see in this philosophy a comforting viewpoint so out of keeping with our Western imagination.
Another striking aspect of daily life in Ghana is that everybody treats one another like a big family. This could perhaps be due to the need to share hardships communally. However, not even the threat of suffering or economic difficulty takes away from the sense of warmth and community amongst the people I met in Krobo. The one explanation I could formulate to explain my observations is that this is the only life they know, so there are no material comparisons to make that would lead to a sense of longing and regret.
Visitors to Krobo are welcomed effusively, as hospitality comes naturally to the local people, especially the children. It is shocking how eager they are to play, communicate, and joke with western volunteers. I doubt that visitors in a western school would receive such a warm welcome; in fact, I know from experience that foreigners are often utterly overlooked and even avoided. Throughout my tenure in Ghana, conversely, I felt totally immersed in the community. Naturally, cultural differences require some adjustment, but the instant connection I felt with the schoolchildren made all differences easy to overcome or set aside. Further, since the students at the local school where I taught were devoted learners, this aspect made the experience more profound than I could have imagined.
Although food insecurity is not an issue in Krobo, accessibility to water is a major problem. I learned this the hard way, as a bucket became my flush accessory as well as my shower companion. Yet, the desperate need to take a shower after spending the day in a humid, hot climate makes you overlook the yellow color of the water
This minor issue, however, was insignificant compared to the miles that local people walked with buckets on their head so that they could retrieve and deliver drinking water to their families. Likewise, the lack of school supplies was striking. Equipped with blackboards and very few books, everything is left to the teacher to convey. The school contained no art supplies or drawing books necessary to stirring the imaginations and creative faculties of the children, and the only major source of physical recreation was the universal football.
This lack of resources is one of the primary reasons for our launching of our Social Impact Club. One of the most significant ways that high-school students can make a meaningful difference in the world is by sharing their educational advantages with others. Since we all have our daily responsibilities in a scholastic environment, as well as our other logistical and financial constraints, not to mention all the myriad aspects of our family and social lives, we are not necessarily in a position to get on the ground with people in need at all times. However, we can always work toward making a greater social impact by sharing our resources with others whether through direct financial contributions or by partnering with existing organizations that help burgeoning philanthropists put their goodwill to the most effective use. In this way, principles of business efficiency and organization are geared toward making the most widely applicable and economically sensible interventions as possible.
Our Social Impact Club aims to provide this latter kind of service for students throughout Athens. We want to give young leaders an opportunity to pursue experiences like the one I had in Krobo by introducing them to new organizations and training them in the skills they’ll need to succeed as volunteers. And, most of all, we want to give students an opportunity to make a difference during the academic year through donations of funds, supplies, or other resources. Sometimes this endeavor will involve traditional forms of fundraising and outreach, and other times it will require more innovative strategies drawn from the entrepreneurial or business worlds. No matter what, we look forward to starting this new journey together.
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