Introduction

The International Neo-Humanist School in Ejura (affectionately called "Namaskar School" by the locals - the Indian greeting for "Hello" is "Namaskar") is a rural private school in the heart of the Ashanti Region.

Currently there are 450+ kids from kindergarten to Junior High School level and the children range from about 3 to 19 years old (some start school at an older age so it is common to have children of various ages in the same class). Recently, construction has been completed at the school, and now there are 13 classrooms, toilets for the children and a kitchen for cooking lunch.

This project also includes a Children’s Home called Namaskar House. It is home to 7 boys, ages 11 to 22 years old, a cook, Dada Shivesh and the volunteers.

The house is also under construction, and includes now a computer lab mostly for Namaskar School students to use.

Project Manager

The project is currently under the supervision of Dada Shiveshvarananda, an Indian monk and trainer for African yoga teachers. Dada has years of experience opening and running schools in his own country as well as abroad. He is respected in the community for his wisdom and perseverance.

Caroline Montpetit is the volunteer coordinator for the project. She’ll communicate with you as you book and plan your journey. She lives in Canada but has been to Ejura twice since 2007.

Who do we need?

Volunteer Alison working in the KG class.

•People who have completed high school and have some experience working with children.
•Enthusiastic, self-motivated, and patient people who love kids.
• Anyone who is broadminded and ready to live a simple lifestyle in simple surroundings.
• People that have a good sense of initiative.
• Qualified teachers are especially encouraged!!
• We have a computer lab so if you have any knowledge in computer science that would be great!
• People that have qualifications in administration and management could contribute in their own way in the well-being of the project.
• Both males and females are welcome, as well as couples.

We would like to have volunteers come for at least one semester, from start to finish, allowing the best quality of learning. If volunteers want to travel, they should plan time to do so either before the semester starts or after the semester finishes.

The academic year starts in September and semesters are as follows:

Term 1: Mid September to mid December
Term 2: Early January to early April
Term 3: Early May to early August

Volunteers are encouraged to start their own initiatives and be involved in sustaining the project once they have finished volunteering. We welcome your participation and ideas!

Environment

Ejura is located about 2 hours north of Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region, and has a population of around 30,000. It is a rural farming town known for its Monday market days and as Ghana’s mango capital!
There are no proper roads in the town, except for the main road that passes from Kumasi and up further north. Dirt tracks link houses splotched randomly about the landscape. Goats and guinea fowl roam freely.

Being in the highlands, Ejura gets much cooler during the nights and is not as humid as many other areas in Ghana. You may even need a blanket or long-sleeved shirt from time to time!

Educational Realities in the Village

Your first day at the school will open your eyes to the shortfalls of education in rural Ghana. There is little equipment besides desks and chairs. From an early age children are taught to be obedient and never to question people older than them. Teachers tend to use beating as a common method of punishment (despite requests not to) because it was the way they were taught – a sad consequence of colonialism.

Memorizing and chanting by rote are the main teaching methods. Not taught to think for themselves, most students are shy in school because they don’t want to give the wrong answer. Learning is hard work, especially here. Everyone can learn from examples of great classroom management, discipline, and teaching methods.

Distributing water from canteen

Headmaster Martins

Your Job

At Namaskar School
Your role is mainly to provide support to local teachers and give remedial classes at Namaskar School. Teachers of the lower primary level (such as Kindergarten to Primary 3) usually have the least teaching experience and would benefit the most from your assistance. Your role would be to help with the planning of classes, teaching techniques and evaluations in coord-ination with the local teacher. The objective is sharing ideas to improve the teacher’s skills in managing their own class.

Staff and volunteers at Namaskar School Jan 2009

Memorizing, chanting and copying are the main teaching methods. Not all students learn well this way, and therefore fall behind. As a result, the abilities of children within each class vary considerably; for example, in a grade 6 class, there may be students who still don`t know their alphabet. Remedial classes are important to ensure that these students achieve the same level as other pupils in the class.

In addition, each volunteer will have to lead one of the three following initiatives:

1) The library: 3 times a week students come by after school to exchange books.

2) The computer lab: since April 2009 there is a computer lab in Namaskar House with 18 computers for the use of Namaksar students. Volunteers are needed to give classes.

Inauguration of the new computer lab 2009

3) Art and/or music and/or sports classes: the children are taught English, Math, Science, Environmental Studies, and Religious & Moral Education.

Volunteers are expected to give more creative classes in coordination with the local teachers if needed. It can be anything that you are good at!

The volunteers are more than welcome to help each other, but only one volunteer will be in charge of each activity.

Volunteers are also expected to meet briefly as a group once a week to discuss issues and ideas with Dada Shivesh. In addition, you will attend weekly staff meetings after school with the local teachers and principal.

A Heads-Up: the school system is absolutely nothing like education in most of Western Europe or North America. Organization is low, local teachers can be unaccountable, and assessment does not happen often. Whether you have just completed high school or are midway through a university degree, your education will have been much more rigorous than that of the local teachers. Most have not gone to teachers’ training college. This is a reality in rural West Africa. Moreover, class sizes vary incredibly. The number of kids in each class decreases as the level increases. Kindergarten can have up to 40 children while JHS class sometimes has only 7 students.

At Namaskar House
The house is a boys’ home: so far there are 7 boys, although two are grown-ups. They love to play football and table tennis. They work hard and will appreciate any extra help you can give them with keeping the house clean and writing letters with them for example. You can help the Namaskar boys with their homework and you can take out some books from the library for them to read. You can also teach them games, organize table tennis matches, dance or do some arts and crafts – whatever you want!

On Your Own Time
In the evening, many children visit the house to play. If volunteers are interested in sports (especially football or table tennis) they can start games at/near the house.

On weekends and holidays, it is great to travel outside of Ejura. You can plan day trips around the Ashanti Region as well as longer trips around Ghana and beyond!

What you can do before you come:

Check out the ideas in the Treasure Hunt and think of as many creative activities as you can.
If you don’t have much experience teaching and you have some free time, it would be beneficial to get some experience planning lessons/units, teaching, and working with kids. It would be very useful to start looking at ideas of educational activities for remedial classes. But don’t worry - Caroline will provide you with some resources in order to get ready!
If you are looking for additional ways to help before you arrive, you can try to find a school in your home country to “adopt” Namaskar School for pen pals, fundraising and such.

Accomodation and Food Costs:

Volunteers stay at Namaskar House, which is just a short walk from the school. Dada, Annabelle and Simon (the two cooks) live there as well the seven boys. There are cats too!

Rooms are clean and simple. You will probably share your room with another volunteer. The house has running water as well as electricity, but it goes out sometimes. Life by the sun, and sometimes the lantern, is the norm in Ejura.

American volunteer, Alison, in the
volunteer's accommodation

Volunteer Vacancies:

4 Volunteers at any one time. Below is our booking calendar which is updated in real time: