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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
London, Greater London, United Kingdom, 05/18/2007 - Small new gap year organization Gap Year Ghana provides care and support, worthwhile volunteer projects, and idyllic beachside accomodation.
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Gap year students looking for volunteer work in Africa can enjoy a different sort of gap year experience with new organization, Gap Year Ghana.
Gap Year Ghana is much smaller than the typical gap year organization, catering for a maximum of 20 students at one time, all living in the same beach house outside Ghana's capital, Accra. Two staff members are in permanent residence, and qualified support staff visit weekly and are always available by telephone.
This means each student is properly cared for, and their progress and well-being can be unobtrusively monitored. Problems show up immediately, and can be dealt with promptly.
Run by Ghanaian Aurore Down from the UK and by local staff in Ghana, Gap year Ghana also only picks work programmes known at first hand by the company, to ensure that volunteer work is suitable and rewarding for gap year students. Work programmes include teaching in local schools, football coaching and radio work.
"As a mother myself of gap year age children, I wanted to offer a service that satisfied the students' desire for a stimulating and worthwhile gap year experience with a level of care that would reassure a parent." said Aurore Down, Gap Year Ghana founder and a Ghanaian herself. "At the same time, students mustn't feel mollycoddled."
The Gap Year Ghana model, with staff members living on site but not interfering except when necessary, and carefully chosen projects, fulfills these aims perfectly.
But the jewel in Gap Year Ghana's crown is the accomodation.
Set on Langma Beach, a quiet stretch of palm fringed sands less than an hour from the capital Accra, the beach house was modelled by architects on traditional Ghanaian style homes, where rooms housing different branches of an extended family were built around a central courtyard and meeting place. In an appealing contemporary twist, the central courtyard at the Gap Year Ghana beach house contains a shaded swimming pool where gap students can niot only meet but also cool off.
On top of being beautifully designed, the beach house also has oustanding views of the sea, a peaceful garden and a tennis court.
Volunteer work projects offered by Gap Year Ghana (gapyearghana.com) include:
- teaching in local schools - a video of a gap year student teaching in a shanty town school in a shack in the outskirts of Ghana's capital, Accra, is available for viewing on the organization's website;
- teaching young Ghanain hopefuls in a football academy in Accra - many are gifted scholarship boys dreaming of a career like Michael Essien, football star at Chelsea FC;
- media work in radio stations attached to the GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation);
- medical work shadowing nurses;
- care work in a local Liberian Refugee Camp.
Ghana is a former British colony in West Africa. It was the first African country to achieve independence in 1957 and is now one of the most friendly and politically stable countries in Africa to visit.
A minimum age of 18 is required to participate in the Gap Year Ghana programme.
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gapyearghana[.]msn.com 
