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Helga-Liz Haberfellner's Experience

I went to Ghana to volunteer with FOA during the summer of 2025. Having had very little experience of any African country, I didn't know what to expect. I only knew it would be different than any other place I had been, and that I knew very little about Ghanaians and nothing at all about their language, Ewe. I learned very quickly that Ghanaians are warm and welcoming people with the most charming smiles. When we arrived at the village, we were greeted with throngs of laughing children, all clamouring to say hello, and offering to carry our things. The children love showing off their prowess in drumming, dancing and clapping games. There is a long tradition of a kind of clapping and jumping game, and apparently they also have contests. I invented a simple little clapping game, and before you knew it, I had a line-up of excited kids wanting to learn the new game. I met with Esenam, who has a small bakery in the village. She had been baking biscuits and "chips" - a kind of snack food made from a biscuit dough. The bakery has been doing very well, and I hoped that my own background in baking would help to expand her repertoire. Esenam has the biggest smile and amazing powers of concentration. I showed her how to bake, decorate and assemble a layered cake and make a few different cookies. Of course, the recipes I provided were in English, she couldn't read them. That is not an obstacle for this remarkable woman. She took mental notes and recreated everything from her own memory. The cookies she now makes, especially the oatmeal cookies, are flying off the shelves. I am told she is now experimenting with her own recipes! That is not just facing a challenge, it is running at a brick wall at full speed and demolishing it with the sheer force of momentum. It takes guts. She's amazing. FOA children make jewelry using the colourful beads they create themselves from clay, reed, calabash, shells, fabric and glass. They're not only learning a skill, but creating income for FOA, and themselves. Some of the most beautiful pieces are made by children as young as 6 or 7 years old. Watching the face of a child light up when you tell them how much you love what they make, is priceless. FOA had collected books for all reading levels but they had been stowed willy-nilly in one of the buildings at Dawanu. While we were there, we sorted through the massive pile and organised them into groups. It took several hours for 4 adults and numerous children to sift, sort and organise the lot. One of the great joys in life for me is to read to children. The day after the books had been sorted in Dawanu, Helga got the older kids to help out with painting bookshelves. The children had been permitted to choose a book or two for themselves, and I saw a little one walking around with one of them. So, I scooped her up, put her on my lap and started reading to her. We read through a simple primary reader, and I took every opportunity to make funny faces, exaggerate sounds and made up a silly song. Afterwards, this tiny girl managed to find a couple more books and sat on some concrete steps, turning pages and looking at the drawings. She was talking away to herself in Ewe, so I asked one of the other children what the little one was saying. She was saying "I am going to read all these books". That was the entire purpose of the trip: to share and inspire.