Service-Learning Ghana

The University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning

REflections

The reflective journal is a key part of the service-learning experience that is often used to assess students’ work, and as way to encourage critical thinking about connections between service experiences and academic content. The following are excerpts from student journals from the Ghana program as they use writing to process experiences, learning, and the importance of writing itself: I have learned that it is not easy to label Ghana as one thing. Sadly all I knew about Africa came from movies, music (Graceland!) and second hand stories. I’ve learned that Ghana is Ghana, not Africa, not even West Africa…. No more than California is Quebec.

Up until this trip I had never thought about market dominant minorities and globalization. Seeing how there are some negative consequences of forced democracy and capitalism, especially on countries in the middle of civil war, I have broadened my perspective that “one size does not fit all.”

Ghana has made me appreciate writing: the movement of the pencil, the gesture of each letter, the curl of an “e” or the sideways stroke of a “t” unfurls the fabric of the mind, spreads it over the white face of the page. I love the physical connection of my hand to the paper, the graininess, the scruff of lead breaking over the surface. How incredible that I can make tangible the language of the mind. And Ghana has made me want to write again.

MORE info about the program?

Pratt Cassity, pcassity@uga.edu Alex Kojo Anderson, anderson@uga.edu www.uga.edu/ghana

Earn credit and the experience of a lifetime!

The University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning

GHANA

Summer Service-Learning The University of Georgia

Program Summary

The Ghana Service-Learning Program is designed to accommodate all majors and levels of students. The work is carried out by crossdisciplinary teams. Students earn from 3- 9 credit hours depending on their programs, length of stay in Ghana and level of work carried out.

2008 focus Community Improvement, Hands-on Medical Clinic Construction, Community Health and Nutrition, Erosion Control and Green Infrastructure.

faculty

(from left to right) Pratt Cassity (Co-director) pcassity@uga.edu School of Environmental Design, College of Environment and Design

Alex Kojo Anderson (Co-director) anderson@uga.edu Department of Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences

David Berle dberle@uga.edu Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Tackling tough issues in West Africa

“The great bulldog, the University of Georgia at Athens, is now a household name throughout the region. Statistics from the local education counselor indicate that 18 students from the region have expressed interest in seeking admission into UGA. According to the education counselor, no student has ever applied in the area.”

Frank Busumtwi, Honorable Birim South District Chief Executive

The Ghana Service-Learning program began in 1998 through a public service project in the City of Cape Coast. Over the last nine years it has grown into a full-fledged student experience that places students in positions where they can solve municipal and community problems as teams. The projects are developed by community representatives and elected officials. Students stay in community partners’ houses and eat and travel the same way Ghanaians do. This program is not for the typical study abroad student. It requires patience, a sense of adventure, flexibility, self-direction, cultural courtesy and collegiality.

Over the years, the Ghana ServiceLearning Program has tackled tough issues like massive soil erosion, urban re-forestation, heritage tourism, solid waste, nutrition, and rain water conservation. Recent partnering with several NGOs responsible for hands-on building projects have placed UGA students in projects building stone walls, studying earthen architecture and proposing a mud clinic in a remote area of the north, cemetery cleanup, and historic structure reports for a colonial building in Accra. In 2007, UGA’s Food and Nutrition Program became a part of the summer service and worked in clinics and conducted research in breast feeding and early childhood education.