‘Volunteerism is the heart of community development;’ this is what a Ghanaian nonprofit, GhanaThink Foundation has believed since the success of its first National Volunteer Day (NVDay) which it instituted in 2013. NVDay was created to encourage many people in Ghana to volunteer, make an impact in their communities, and help solve problems in ways they could.
In the last decade, thousands of people have volunteered to benefit tens of thousands in Ghana. On December 5, 2013, the Ghana Volunteer Program (GVP) was created by GhanaThink to run National Volunteer Day and match volunteers to volunteer opportunities.
“National Volunteer Day has been set aside by GhanaThink on September 21, since 2013 for volunteer activities throughout the country through our networks,” said Kofi Larbi, head of GVP.
These volunteer activities have included school initiatives, skill-based tutorials, clean-up campaigns, blood donation drives, women empowerment drives, reading clinics for children, cleaning and donating to orphanages and several other activities.
“Over the years, I have participated in various volunteer activities and the one I’ve never forgotten is when I got to a special children’s home in Kumasi for volunteer activities and when I shouted ‘Agoo!’ and asked who wanted a hug, almost all the children walked up to me, and we ended up in a group huddle. The moment brought tears to my eyes. Even a hug could bring such joy to these children,” added Larbi emotionally.
Even though September 21 became Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day — named after Ghana’s founding father, “it is still National Volunteer Day” emphasised GhanaThink. The day is not only set aside to help people, but also to help volunteers with building personal skills, especially soft skills, gaining experience, networking, etc.
“This year 2024, don’t think you don’t have anything to offer. Go out there, find a volunteer activity near you and contribute to making the world a better place,” said Larbi.
There are several volunteer activities being organized in several towns and cities in Ghana. Information about these can be found on social media via the #NVDay2024 hashtag. Hilda Adika for example has been volunteering in various capacities, with the Barcamp Ho team and being the lead admin for Hohoe Konnect.
In a comment about the initiative, she said, “as usual, I was born as a volunteer and that is where I derive my innermost joy. Over the years, I either join groups of people to go to junior high schools to educate and serve as mentors for pupils, talking to them about how to achieve their dreams and taking their studies seriously. Sometimes I organize activities myself which include blood drive exercises either at hospitals or go to secondary school circles.”
For the 2024 National Volunteer Day, Adika joined the Lions Club at Ho to help anyway she could. She also planned a trip to St. Francis Training College in Hohoe to serve as mentor on a panel. “I will also join a group of people to do some clean up exercise”, she stated, which is well in line with other similar activities in Ghana on #NVDay, important for the #CleanAirGhana campaign.
“You don’t need much to do volunteering work. You can use yourself as an example to teach people. Volunteerism has made me who I am and still building me up,” said Adika encouraging prospective volunteers.
Air quality in Ghana has become a major issue in Ghana in 2024 according to GhanaThink. This is why “clean up exercises are key to ensuring that citizens are part of the solution and not the pollution.” Youths in Koforidua, Wungu, Wa, Accra, Tarkwa, Takoradi, Kumasi and other parts of Ghana are coming together to do clean up exercises as part of National Volunteer Day. “This type of volunteering is seen and driven as a civic responsibility,” said GhanaThink.
If you cannot volunteer physically, you can support financially by donating to a volunteer activity near you, or through https://expresspaygh.com/nvday.
Source: GhanaThink Foundation
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
