Voluntary work in Ghana, West Africa – Podcast 09

Podcast 09 in my travel podcast series – In this podcast I talk to my friend Wendy about her recent visit to Ghana to work with the Atiamah Charitable trust. The charity is based in Bristol, England where Wendy lives and was started by a Bristol student doing voluntary work when she came across Atiamah, a 4 year old aids orphan whose parents had died. On her return to England she was determined to do something to help the people of this community in Ghana and started the charity named after this little girl.

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Wendy has her hair braided in Wiaga, Ghana

The Atiamah Charitable Trust started working with aids sufferers in North West Ghana but now supports a number of community projects for agriculture, health and education. Wendy first visited the village of Wiaga in 2008 with her teenage son and on this second visit was going to see how some of the projects were developing and to buy livestock and equipment for the agricultural project.

Boys on donkeys in Wiaga, Ghana

Schoolchildren in Wiaga, Ghana

On this trip, Wendy travelled with another volunteer, flying into Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso which was closer to the area of northern Ghana than flying into the capital of Ghana, Accra, and travelled by road to Wiaga where she stayed for a couple of weeks.

Boy with goat in Wiaga, Ghana

Village houses in Wiaga, Ghana

Show notes

In the podcast we talk about:

• The moving story of how the charity was founded and named after a 4 year old Aids orphan, Atiamah.
• Wendy’s journey from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and her first impressions of Ghana and the people she met there.
• The different projects that the Atiamah Charitable Trust was supporting such a providing donkeys, goats and carts for poorer families within the community, books and resources for a library, sports equipment for local schools.
• The work Wendy was able to do as a medical doctor, setting up simple disease prevention projects such as the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure.
• The work being done with women’s groups who are responsible for childcare, education and agricultural work and future projects such as soap making with shea nut oil.
• Why Wendy wanted to get involved in this project as a doctor, to practice some of her basic medical training and how she felt she could personally make a difference.
• The rewards from a personal perspective of doing voluntary work and getting involved in small overseas charities like the Atiamah Charitable Trust
• Music on the podcast was Venus as a Girl by Andy McGee on Musicalley.com
• All photos are by Wendy Harding and can be viewed on my Flickr site here

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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