"After taking my high school diploma I finally went to Ghana as I already wanted to for years.
There I lived with a local family for about six months and learned a lot about their culture.
Most of the time in Ghana I worked in a local clinic called Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital. I was allowed to visit all wards and saw how the doctors and nurses were working. To participate in different surgeries was a great opportunity to attain more knowledge.
Already being in Ghana I was thinking about possibilities to help the local people.
Another project I was taking part was to build a small house by hand.
It was exhausting, because we worked without having any floating water or electricity. Building this house showed me that you should try to realise your projects, even if they seem hardly possible first.
During my trips to Africa a few years later I always took donations for schools and clinics with me. In 2010 I visited a primary school in Uganda to bring them writing materials for example."
"Before I lived in South Africa for a while I already visited this continent with
my parents and sister.
After my A-levels I went to live with a local family from Cape Town for some time.
I worked in a nearby daycare facility for children and loved to play and learn with them.
Anyway I witnessed the poverty of some families. It was very hard for some parents to pay the daycare fees for their children, so the kids were not able to attend regularly.
So I helped some of the families financially when I was still there.
Together with other volunteers we were even helping building a house in a township near Cape Town one day.
I helped preparing the basis and producing the bricks.
Working with local people was a great experience and encouraged me to help in Africa also in future."
"Already in my youth I always wanted to live in Africa for a certain time.
So I finally travelled to Ghana after my A-levels.
Because I lived with a local family I learned more about their culture.
During different internships I gained an insight into problems people have.
I worked at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Mampong/ Ghana and had a look in various wards.
Once a week I loved to visit the small Health Centre in Okrakwadjo. The team of
the clinic took me around and explained how they are working.
We went to all the villages around and examined and vaccinated the children or talked to the parents about family planning.
The last months of my time in Ghana I spent in a nursery school. I played, sang and learned with the kids the whole day which has been always a lot of fun.
Back in Germany my former school and I arranged a fund-raising campaign for the nursery school in Ghana around Christmas. We collected a lot: writing and painting materials, educational toys and many other things.
Furthermore I always took donations with me when I later travelled to Africa."