Feature; 25 Years of EuRA

The orientation program

Our orientation program is created to help you and your family know the city and all its amenities. You will learn all the ins and outs of Accra, the amenities, the touristic sites, the culture and etiquette, and anything else you might be interested in learning to allow you settle in well.

To better understand your unique needs, we first ask you to complete a customized preparatory needs assessment before we can put together your custom orientation schedule. You will be given a personalized welcome package upon arrival in Accra that includes guides to the city, maps, and other useful items.

Your orientation program will include a tour of Accra that highlights the city's important areas and regions, as well as offers samples of suitable properties. Additionally, we will give you information about healthcare facilities, educational institutions, sports and entertainment facilities, retail establishments, expat organizations, cultural etiquette guidelines, and more.

Adapting to a new culture

According to research, one of the most often reported causes of assignment failure is the inability to adapt to the host culture. We work with you and your family (if applicable) in integrating well and successfully adjusting to Ghanian culture. We do this by drawing on our extensive experience in planning culturally and geographically specific trainings.

Departure services

Your departure from Ghana shouldn't cause you any stress, whether you're going back to your own country or moving to a new one. We are here to assist you with any final details and make sure your transition goes well. We assist you with terminating leases on real estate, stopping utilities, reserving moving and transportation services, and relocating temporarily.

We also help you with ending school admissions, selling personal belongings, canceling insurance policies, vehicle registration, residence permits, and bank accounts.

Get in touch Making the move to Ghana? If you need any help, don't hesitate to contact Akka Kappa. You will receive assistance from our team of professionals at every stage of the moving process.

Like all good ideas, EuRA came to be as a result of the combination of inspiration and timing. In 1997, the newly formed Syndicat National des Professionnels de la Relocation et la Mobilite (SNPRM) reached out for talks with the then well-established Association of Relocation Professionals (ARP) in the UK. The rationale would be to create a European wide association with the dual purpose of representing the growing and evolving industry and implementing professional standards. One of the early discussions concerned how the new association would be known and the first suggestion was the Syndicat European des Professionnels de la Relocation et la Mobilite (SEPRM). A little too EU perhaps? So EuRA got its name, its first secretary general (Tad Zurlinden, then CEO of the ARP) and its first president, Liz Hennessey, then MD of the TheMIGroup Europe and work began. There have been many milestones in EuRA’s history but those early years were challenging. Many stakeholders felt that their unique vision should be the one to carry the association forward and it took a steady hand and a certain amount of entente cordiale to establish the core values that EuRA still holds today; not for profit, members first, standards and accountability and education.

As a not for profit association run by and for the members, the numbers break down like this; membership income pays for the administration to function, the board to meet, the inter industry collaboration with other associations for research, networking, sustainability and intellectual exchange. The administration of the EuRA Global Quality Seal also comes out of membership income as well as the small fees charged for the Quality Standard and the Updates. Everything else comes from conference profit. The MIM and MIM+ training programmes offered to all members for free (until February 2023), our research projects, our IT and web platform enabling members to publish articles and engage with EuRA’s social media, our international profile at events throughout the industry, our free to access legal advice services, our information portals, the RMC meetings and forums that promote better communication and business and more.

Amongst the biggest challenges that EuRA has ever faced was the cancellation of the 2010 conference in Palma de Mallorca.

As Tad and I drove through France having had our flights cancelled due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, we crunched the numbers. Everything for a conference the size of ours is paid up front and is not insured for Acts of God.

By Dom Tidey