Our team in Ghana aims to empower women and girls in the community of Kokrobite by providing a platform from which they can gain the confidence, autonomy and ambition to challenge gender inequalities, protect their mental and physical well being, and start to challenge historical injustices in gender disparity. GVI’s goals in this regard include providing women with greater access to female healthcare and social support, the ability to safely address typically taboo subjects such as mental health or teenage pregnancy and creating a network of like-minded women in the community who work together to empower one another.

On this women’s empowerment internship in Ghana you will work with women and girls to run a variety of classes, workshops or activities on topics ranging from confidence building to bodily autonomy and consent, to gender-based violence, to vocational skills. As an intern, you will not only have the chance to deliver these activities but also to design and deliver new women’s empowerment and gender equality projects.

Highlights

• Learn how locally-run international development programs are set up and managed.
• Gain work experience in project management, workshop design and delivery, and lesson planning, while completing an individual project related to gender equality.
• Contribute directly to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5, Gender Equality by partnering with grassroots level organisations in Ghana.
• Live and work with other interns, volunteers, and GVI staff from around the world.
• In your free time visit the local village markets or spend time relaxing on the palm-fringed beaches.

All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.

Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.

Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.

Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.

We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.

‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.

We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.

Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’