Ghana attractive to voluntourists
Over the past decade, Ghana has been invaded. This invasion has not come in the form of killer bees or illegal miners. No; over the past decade Ghana has been invaded by voluntourists.
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Every year thousands of people, from North America, Europe and Asia, descend on Ghana.
Voluntorists are tourists who come with the hope of contributing their skills and time to assist in the country’s development, while also hoping to gain a unique experience of the country.
And their number in Ghana is growing every year.
A number of volunteer-based tourism companies I spoke to have all seen a marked rise in the amount of volunteers wanting to come to Ghana.
Emmanuel Abaja, leader of Projects Abroad, a company that sets up volunteer projects across Ghana and the rest of the world, said ‘since beginning operations in 2002 with just 12 volunteers, the growth has been astronomical’.
‘Now, however, Ghana is the most popular of all Projects Abroad destinations, serving at times over 200 volunteers, in five different areas of the country’.
Why Ghana?
Ghana seems to be a favourite location for voluntourism and the reasons I gathered from the volunteers I spoke to point to three motivating factors: The language, the location and Ghana’s perceived stability.
Lydia Leather, a human rights volunteer from England, said the fact that Ghanaians spoke English and the flight time of only six hours was a key factor in influencing her decision.
Sofie Thorkilsden, a volunteer from Denmark, said ‘for someone like me, Ghana is ideal. Here I speak only English, and this has helped me improve greatly’.
Nevertheless, while Ghana may seem like an Anglophone island in a Francophone ocean, there are countries such as Nigeria and Liberia which are also able to offer an English-speaking West African experience.
It is here that Ghana’s recent history as a stable democracy and reputation as one of the safest countries in Africa sets it apart from the rest of the West.
Lambert Gaillard, a volunteering student from Washington, USA, said “Ghana offered all the great things West Africa had to offer to volunteers, but with much more stability and far less danger attached to it”.
Social benefits
In an ideal world, voluntourism creates a mutually beneficial experience for volunteers and their host nation.
Volunteers can bring their skills and knowledge to help the host countries and give tools to aid future development.
Blue Med Africa-Ghana is one such company which deals with voluntourists. Every year it brings in qualified doctors and nurses to help treat hundreds in the Volta Region.
The Director of Operations of the company, Richard Dwamena, says the impact has been phenomenal.
“We bring over qualified nurses and doctors to assist not only with our work, but also develop the skills of the workers we already have in Ghana”, he said concering the story of a midwife from Utah, who led a training programme on child resuscitation.
As a result, midwives in the area could now perform life-saving work on many new born babies’ lives.
There are economic gains too. The voluntourist industry brings annually both employment opportunities for many Ghanaians both directly and indirectly.
Emmanuel Abaja and his company, Projects Abroad, said that they employed officially 44 people across the country and unofficially the number was far closer to 150 people.
And this does not take into account the scores of host families who are paid for accommodating volunteers, or the restaraunts, shops and other service industries that benefit from the voluntourists’s presence.
Inflation
Some believe that the money voluntourists bring into the country can trigger inflation.
Guy Threlfo, an anthropologist lecturer at Marcquee University in Australia, who is currently making a documentary on the negative implications of voluntourism in Ghana, claims that the volunteer industry can re-inforce poverty and feelings of deprivation; this, even as it orients itself toward ‘making a difference’ in poverty afflicted areas.
Five years ago the price for most things was markedly cheaper in Ghana.
“As more foreign currency enters the market, prices rise, yet the incomes for the majority of Ghanaians does not, leaving many Ghanaians worse off”, he said
Short term nature
It is also argued that the short-term impact of volunteers can at times be superficial and in some cases unconstructive.
The transient nature of volunteers who stay for periods of a month or at times less can have a deprecating effect on those that are supposed to benefit from their presence.
For example, in places such as orphanages and schools, it can cause an extremely unstable environment on children and can have a derogatory effect on their educational and emotional development.
Sum
To tar every voluntourist with the same brush, whether positive or negative, would be wrong. Successes vary from one voluntour company to another, and from voluntourist to voluntourist.
Nevertheless, there is one thing that can safely be said. The presence of the voluntourist in Ghana is here to stay, and shows no sign of dissipating any time soon.
By Jack Simpson
