UNIVERSITY, COLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOLS EXCHANGE PROGRAMME IN GHANA (14 DAYS)
Start Date: Ongoing throughout the year
Arrival/Departure and End Point: Accra – Ghana
Language Requirements: Basic knowledge of English
This Program is Open to: Worldwide participants – High Schools, Colleges/Universities, Clubs, Organizations, Individuals, etc.
Age Ranges: 15 and over
Typical Living Arrangements: Group living – Hotels during travelling
Participants Travel to Ghana: Groups (5 – 20).
Accommodation: Hotels
Food: 3 (three) times daily African dishes/continental meals.
Activities: 14 Day Travel (See details below)
Special Needs: Participants need to be in good health.
Cost: $2,500 per head
DAY 1
Day 1:
Welcome to Ghana, your journey to Africa begins when you are met at the airport by P.Y.V.O Ghana staff and transferred to your hotel. Settle in and later you will receive a brief orientation before enjoying a welcome dinner at the beach. Pass the night in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
Lodging: 4 star hotel
DAY 2 -7: Program with a university, college or High school in Ghana begins/ Ends cultural Exchange program with both schools, cultural display, discussions on some significant subjects/African studies, politics etc.
7 DAYS TOURS
Day 2:
Depart after breakfast to visit Aburi Gardens, driving up the Akwapim ridge to Aburi in the Eastern Region. Enjoy a panoramic view of the townships of Ashiaman and Tema in the distance. Here you visit the Aburi Botanical Gardens, established in 1890 as a convalescent retreat for the British Colonial officers governing the then Gold Coast (now Ghana). Today the Aburi Gardens are a repository for many of Ghana’s tropical plants, flowers and a wide range of bird life. Continue on half day city tour of Accra where you visit the National Museum, Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and park, W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan Africanism and the P.M.M.C jewellery shop. Your last schedule stop for the city tour will be a visit to the Arts and Crafts souvenir market. Enjoy a dinner in Accra and spend the night here before leaving for Kumasi the next morning.
Lodging: 4 Star Hotels
Depart from Accra to Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region and Ghana’s second largest city after breakfast. The 4.5 hour drive takes you through the heart of a cocoa growing area and interior forest. We Arrive in Kumasi in the early afternoon and have lunch. After lunch go on a city tour of Kumasi, visiting the Manhyia Palace Museum, the National Cultural Centre, Prempeh II Jubilee Museum, Okomfo Anokye Sword, University of Science and Technology School of Art and Sculpture and the Kumasi Central Market – the largest open-air market in West Africa. Check into your hotel and enjoy an evening and overnight at a 3 star hotel around the Kumasi.
DAY 3-4:
Depart on a scenic 6-hour drive into the Northern Region after breakfast. Drive past several rustic farming communities and arrive early afternoon in Mole National Park. The park is a vast reserved that is protected as parkland. It is home to thousands of animals and is one of the few places in Africa where visitors can experience a safari on foot. After lunch at the lodge(on your own), go on an afternoon game drive or foot safari to see antelope, buffalo, monkeys, warthogs, crocodiles and other species of mammals, reptiles and birds for evening game viewing. Dinner and pass the night at Mole Park Motel.
Lodging: Budget
DAY 5:
Rise early for a morning safari to see more exciting game viewing in the Mole national Park, Ghana’s largest wildlife park. It’s a home to about 600 elephants plus baboons, monkeys, monitor lizards, 
bushbucks, other antelope and many bird species. The waterhole near the Lodge is an excellent spot to see animals gathering to drink and to witness bathing elephants. Return to the Lodge for breakfast and visit the ancient’s mosque and the mystic stone, followed by our departure for the return drive to Boabeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary where we will see different kinds of monkeys. The monkeys are humanly friendly. After this tour we will continue to the Kintampo Waterfalls spend some time there and then to your hotel room for the night at Kintampo.
Lodging: 3 Star hotels
DAY 6:
Depart after breakfast to visit a few of the Ashanti craft villages to observe craftsmen at work and to purchase souvenir gift items from the wide assortment of handiworks on sale. We move to the next craft town called Ahwiaa which is known for its woodcarvers and their fabulous walking sticks, masks and fertility dolls, followed by another craft town called Ntonso, a village famous for its production of adinkra cloth with many hand-stamped designs. Before lunch we finish with a visit to the home to Ghana’s legendary Kente cloth called Bonwire, the hand-woven cloth worn by royal families. After lunch (on your own) we will depart for cape coast, arriving in cape coast in the evening, check into your hotel room and have dinner. You can spend your leisure time at the beach having drinks.
DAY 7:
Depart from your hotel room after breakfast to the Cape coast Castle and the West African Historical Museum for a conducted tour. The slave Trade has left its mark on Ghana, where several forts and castles dating from the colonial era have been preserved as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Thousands of visitors gain insights into this sad chapter of history with visits to Ghana’s best known slave forts. We continue on to visit Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482, for a comprehensive guided tour. This monument is actually the first structure built by Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa. . We will also visit Kakum National Park where we will experience and enjoy a walk on the Canopy walk way, the only one of its kind in Africa and the highest among the only three in the world. Enjoy a lunch at the Hans cottage. We set off to Busua Beach Resort in the Western Region and check into your hotel room. Dinner and pass the night at Busua Beach Resort.
Lodging: 3 Star Hotels
DAY 8
Depart after breakfast to visit the Ankasa Forest Resource Reserve and National Park. The Park covers an area of 490 kms of wet virgin rainforest and is a zone of great botanical richness with up to 300 plant species per hectare. One of the highlights of a hike in this reserve is a journey through the enchanting bamboo forest, creating a tunnel effect. From Ankasa, we continue to Nzulezo, the “Stilt Village”. This unique village is located on the Amunsure Lagoon where a small isolated community’s lifestyle is completely dominated by its proximity and dependence on the Lagoon. After Lunch we finish our tour of the Western Region with visits to well preserved forts: Fort Apollonia at Beyin (90 kms West of Takoradi) and Fort Groot Frederichsburg at Princess Town with its beautiful beach. We return to your hotel in the late afternoon with the balance of the day leisure. Pass the night at Busua Beach.
Lodging: 3 Star Beach Front Resorts
DAY 9:
Depart from your hotel room after breakfast to Accra. Spend the rest of the day at your leisure, with last minute shopping and packing for the trip back home. You might enjoy the afternoon at the La Pleasure Beach, Accra’s weekend playground. Relax on the white sand and listen to roving musicians, while you soak up the sights of acrobats and hawkers with souvenirs. Dinner and pass the night at 3 Star hotel in Accra.
DAY 10:
Check out of the hotel at 12.00 noon and put your bags in the bus. Enjoy a Farewell Dinner outside the hotel and then you would be transferred to the airport for departure and your flight home.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
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- Airports pick up and hotel transfer – Participants rest the first night in Accra.
- Transportation from Accra to project site – All round transportation from the beginning to the end of the program.
- Accommodation from the beginning to the end of the program. Participants live with host family in a big house for the duration of volunteer work and hotel for the duration of tours.
- Three (3) times daily African dishes/continental meals
- In-country introduction/orientation
- Introduction to host family and program
- Placement and supervision in program
- Support/24 hour back up from PYVO
- Donation to project
- A letter of recommendation or certificate to participants after program
- Entrance fees to tourist locations (i.e. museums, wildlife parks, etc.).
What the fee excludes:
- Flight/Air transportation from homeland.
- Visa
- Insurance
- Vaccinations
- Drinks/smoking and clubbing
- Buying gifts/souvenirs for friends and family members back home.
- Internet access/ Phone calls
- Mobile phones/SIM cards
- Medical bills
- Damage to or loss of properties – luggage
DO I NEED EXPERIENCE
No experience necessary.
AGE LIMIT
We accept chaperoned school groups ranging from primary to university school. We accept other age groups for those whom find interest learning about Ghana and the culture of an African country.
ANYTHING EXTRA I NEED TO KNOW
Our minimum group’s size is 5.
If you would like to volunteer on your own or stay for an extended period of time, please send an email to director@passionateyouthvoluntary.org.
