A WOMAN from Nawton who spent 12 weeks working on a project fighting poverty in Ghana, is now calling on other young people to take the plunge and consider volunteering overseas.

Alice Hall, 19, travelled to Ghana in February with international development organisation VSO, as part of the UK government funded International Citizen Service (ICS) programme.

She lived with a local host family and worked alongside other young volunteers from Ghana and the UK.

ICS volunteers, aged 18 to 25, work on long-term projects that seek to end poverty in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Alice said: “Our team of six volunteers - three UK and three Ghanaian - arrived in the community of Betinko in the Ashanti region of Ghana.

“We started our project, which was to be based on the theme ‘livelihoods’, by meeting with different groups of people from the community to help us identify what work we could do to benefit the whole village. A lot of our time was spent in the school; we worked in classes and ran a reading club, health club and girls’ club each week.

“The health club was aiming to address issues we identified around the community concerning sanitation. The girls’ club was to try and reduce teenage pregnancy, which we identified as a big problem in the community, and also educate young girls on what to expect when going through puberty, which is something they get absolutely no teaching on.

“The best part of my placement was my host family, staying in the home of a family who lived in the community we were working in was an amazing experience. It meant we had the opportunity to understand the culture at a much deeper level than if we’d have stayed on our own.

“I think the work that we did benefitted a wide range of people in the village and hopefully has improved their lives. Knowledge and skills can be passed on to the next generation, making the work we did more sustainable.

“I think it’s so important that young people get involved in projects like this. It’s volunteering that really makes a difference and is definitely not a holiday.”

To find out more about ICS or to apply, visit volunteerics.org.