My experience in Ghana was one of the best months of my lives and I would recommend it to anyone! I arrived in Accra late at night and was greeted by Richard and all of the other volunteers which was a great start to my time there. After a weekend in Accra I travelled with them to Ho and met my host family who were so kind to us the whole time I was there. Everyone involved with Blue-med Africa is extremely kind, welcoming and helpful and I always felt comfortable and safe which made travelling to a new country even better.
I had a wonderful time in Ho, Ghana with Blue med Africa with the team there and some of my course friends who went with me. We stayed with Blue med Africa for a month and during that time we saw a lot of varied hospital, community and other patient settings.
For example, every Thursday we went into the community for an outreach day where associated doctors and nurses with the charity would come and diagnose illnesses in the community, whilst we helped to takes vitals, sort the many queuing patients, dispense the medication from the pharmacy to the patients, take notes for the medics, etc.
I went to Ghana and volunteered with Blue Med Africa. The team were great in helping me set up travel arrangements and in answering any questions I had about the volunteer work, the language or the country in general. I was picked up at the airport and stayed the night in Accra, the next day I met with the other volunteers I would be there with and we travelled back to Ho. The accommodation was amazing and was easy to get to and from. The voluntary work in the hospital was good and easy once you got the hang of it and we even got to see surgeries be performed.
I cannot say enough good things about Blue Med Africa! I have been thinking about my trip to Ho, Ghana and my wonderful stay with the non profit ever since I came back. The time I spent at Ghana is the time of my life. I cared for the children in the orphanages, prescribed medicine for the villagers, worked in local hospitals, and visited numerous gorgeous sites with my Ghanaian friends... I still tell all of my friends to go to Ghana when I have a chance, and Blue Med Africa is the best choice if you want to do community service or gain exposure to local medical experiences while being able to travel a bit. Blue Med Africa has amazingly kind staff who has become my friends ever since. They are just like big brothers, and they take good care of us.
I have to say that I definitely made the right choice in Blue-Med Africa. My doubts were that I would be better off going with a more established company rather than Blue-Med. I entreat volunteers to go with Blue-Med on the other hand is based in Ho and run by a small team of local volunteers. It is a very humbling experience that people with comparatively less wealth put so much of their time and money into running Blue-Med. Every penny which you pay towards Blue-Med goes to helping the local population: for example purchasing child vaccines, medical equipment and materials for wound dressing and medical outreach.
“I went to Ghana with Blue Med Africa in the summer of 2011. It was an excellent choice in terms of getting teaching and clinical experience. Blue Med Africa provides you with great flexibility and enables you to self-initiate and truly choose what you want to do. I particularly enjoyed the medical outreaches where we took vitals and interacted with the locals. At the school, the 10-year-old children were very enthusiastic as I taught them everything from English to French to Science. I also loved going through the various vendors in the market at Ho. There is a wonderful artist in the market whose painting I still put up in my college dorm room.
I travelled to Ghana in 2010 and volunteered with Blue-Med Africa. I spent time with the leprosy village, the local village hospital and the orphanage. Until this day, my experience with Blue-Med Africa remains very close to my heart and was in particular a life changing experience for me. One of my highlights was attending the leprosy village, visiting the people and cleaning/redressing their wounds. The thought that remains with me are the people and their gratitude for life. Not having much, they still remain with a beautiful smile on their faces. I was fortunate enough to volunteer with Blue-Med Africa before I entered the working world and I can say my experience has served me very well.