SKIP UCL - Ghana

SKIP UCL’s first project started in Summer 2007 in the small community of Tongo in North Ghana working to improve the lives of teenage mothers in the village. SKIP UCL volunteers helped to run a summer school for children. Unfortunately, following a breakdown in communication with our partner organisation we have had to withdraw our interventions in the area. Summer 2010 saw another research visit to Ghana to identify a new partner and areas of need where we could help. We are currently in the process of developing a project with local partner 'Hand in Hand' to start in summer 2011.

History

SKIP UCL initiated the first stage of their project in the summer of 2006 by carrying out a research trip to Tongo. After having met with several organisations, we decided to work with the pastor of the village, Father David, who had a vision to help the teenage mothers of the community. Our research found that most of the girls in village wanted a vocational school to learn the trades of hairdressing and dress-making. We established and competed a number of interventions that included:

• Plastering the remaining rooms in the building, fitting doors and windows painting to complete the work on the building.
• Re-interviewing the original candidates for training who were still interested and selecting two trainers for hairdressing and two for dress-making. We also contacted the original girls, registered those still in Tongo and so established a functional school.
• Running a summer school for the children involving Maths and English lessons in the mornings and a play scheme in the afternoons, thus providing opportunities for some children who were not in education.
• Carrying out health promotion with the help of the community nurse regarding basic health and hygiene practices.
• Making efforts to actively involve members of the community in order to gain useful local knowledge and insight from them and also ensure sustainability of the project.

SKIP UCL began to withdraw from the project in Tongo due to a breakdown in communications with our partner. We have endeavoured to maintain the sustainability of the project and ensure that the work we have done will continue.

In the summer of 2010, committee members from SKIP UCL completed a Research Trip to Ghana to begin the process of linking with a new partner organisation. The committee members met several organisations in order to identify where we believed we could bring the most positive contribution. After several rounds of discussion and evaluation, SKIP UCL became partners with the Ghanaian charity, Hand in Hand.

Hand in Hand is a Non-Governmental Organisation established in 1992 just outside of Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. The Orphanage was created in response to the lack of state provision for disabled children, to help provide a safe and loving environment to nurture children who have had such a difficult start to life. Since 1992, the Orphanage has grown to care for over 40 young people and children and is always open to helping as many children as possible.

The Research Trip highlighted the amazing work that is done at Hand in Hand and how much the children love being there. We are now in contact with Hand in Hand to plan our project this Summer and, using the information that we gathered on our trip, define the interventions that we would participate in with the care givers and children at Hand in Hand.

What will our project do?

SKIP UCL has successfully returned from its first summer project with Hand in Hand in Ghana!! The volunteers spent 5 weeks in the orphanage taking part in activities from the Summer School to daily teaching sessions with the caregivers.
Next year we aim to send another group of 10 or so volunteers to the orphanage.

Our interventions include:

• 1 on 1 play therapy with the children
• Teaching sessions with the caregivers on various health topics
• Sports and Games
• Summer School

Through these interventions, SKIP UCL aims to provide care and support for the children at Hand in Hand.

What are our goals for the future?

Our main goals for this year are to:

• Fundraise for our project with Hand in Hand this Summer
• Continue to develop interventions for our next summer project
• Continue to spread the SKIP Love

How do we raise money?

SKIP UCL has run several fundraising and publicity events for our past project and continue to run further events to raise money for our potential new project. These events have included street collections, film nights and cake sales. These events help to raise money for our new project and raise the profile of SKIP within UCL and the surrounding area. If you would like to be notified of any upcoming events then please email us at the email address below and we hope to see you very soon!

Contact us

For more information about SKIP UCL, our prospective project or future fundraising events then please contact us at skipucl@hotmail.co.uk