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BE PROUD YOU ARE A VOLUNTEER!
by Flora Tamayo Romanca
Mathematics Department
Tamale Training College, Tamale, NR, Ghana
As a volunteer educator in Ghana for almost eight months now, I can’t help but come up with an amazing parallelism between teachers and volunteers. Both obviously share a lot of similarities in terms of professional responsibilities, monetary compensations, and daily challenges.
Teachers in Ghana are bombarded with lots of problems. They are the least paid professionals. They complain about things such as poor motivation, lack of opportunities for professional growth, lack of housing, school facilities and other resources at work. Aside from the frustrating situations they are in, Ghana teachers are expected to do a lot of work and equip themselves with skills and knowledge that they can share to their learners. Most importantly, they are expected to be good role models.
As VSO volunteers, we too share the similar challenges these teachers have. We thrive on a modest living allowance that is far below what our professional status and expertise entails. We worry about the quality of accommodation we will have while away from the comforts of our homes. Sometimes, we live in difficult working situations, on top of the fact that we left so many things behind. When we experience culture shock, when water runs out and we need to fetch some from the borehole, or when we can’t sleep from too much heat, we find ourselves wishing we are back home. We feel like quitting if our Ghanaian colleagues and superiors do not support us, or worse, ignore us. We feel frustrated when our project proposals do not materialize due to budget constraints. We think of our families during mealtime, illness, frustrating moments, special holidays we used to celebrate, and times of challenges.
Despite all these, we must not forget that we are volunteer professionals. This means our presence in Ghana has an impact not only on us but also on everyone we live and work with.
It is also a fact that teachers, like volunteers, don’t know it all. Both have to learn in the process. They have to get the needed support from their employers and partners in order to become effective agents of change. And, of course, everyone involved in the whole process should be open and willing to learn new ways of doing things.
Back home, the Department of Education has a famous and encouraging motto written in bold letters for teachers all over the country: BE PROUD YOU ARE A TEACHER. Every time I read it, I feel pride in my humble profession and somehow get extra enthusiastic about starting my day in the classroom. This feeling has nothing to do with how much I will get paid, whether my boss will praise me at the end of the day, what promotion I will get from doing hard work, or how my students behave. It is simply because I am a teacher. And being a teacher means I have the power to shape or destroy the future of my students, my community, my country and even the whole world. In my hands, my students have the option to become productive professionals who will help build my country and the world’s future, or to become dropouts who will become a burdensome liability that will hamper progress and development. How I wish that I and my Ghanaian colleagues, especially those working in the remotest part, could read the same motto in the different schools here in Ghana and somehow share the same feeling of pride despite all the odds.
It is with this note that I encourage myself and my fellow volunteers to feel pride in what we are doing here in Ghana especially when the going gets rough. Indeed, being a volunteer in Ghana is not easy, but we must remember that being a volunteer means having the power to shape or destroy the future of VSO Programmes, our partner organizations, and most of all, the disadvantaged people of Ghana that we are here to help. Like the teachers of Ghana, we may be experiencing a lot of difficulties, but let us always remember that we are here for a noble reason… to share skills and change lives, not only of others but our own!
Indeed, I tell you … "BE PROUD YOU ARE A VOLUNTEER, THE FUTURE LIES IN YOU!"
CURRENT VOLUNTEER POSTINGS
We’re recruiting professionals with these skills to start placements in the next six months. If you’re qualified and experienced in a profession listed below, we want to hear from you.
Click on the jobs to read the full description.
Registered nurses
Registered midwives
Registered nurse-midwives
Enterprise Management Specialists
| Don’t see your professional skills in the list? Overseas demand changes, and we may need people with your experience later on or in the next few months. Make it a habit to visit www.vsobahaginan.org.ph to check for the current skills we’re looking to recruit every month. |
For further information and inquiries, visit www.vsobahaginan.org.ph, email us at bahaginan@vsoint.org or call 3746450 to 52 loc 21.
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