Medical Internship Assistant

The program

This wonderful medical program in Ghana plays an important role in supplying additional medical staff to the local area, and welcomes volunteers with a wide range of experience, including qualified medical personnel, medical students and pre-med students. Attendance on a medical volunteer project is itself helpful preparation for a medical career, and for this reason, provided they are enthusiastic and truly eager to help in the health sector, individuals without medical experience can be accepted.

Medical volunteers will have the opportunity to undertake duties according to their own interests and areas of expertise. Medical students will shadow local doctors and nurses, assisting them and learning by observing their work at clinics and hospitals. There will be plenty of opportunity to assist directly and gain valuable experience. Volunteers play an essential role in assisting the staff at the hospital and help to deliver quality health care to this local community.

Goals of this Project:

• Improve the future prospects of the people of Ghana
• Provide quality medical care to the people of the Ashanti area
• To offer practical medical experience to volunteers
• To create cultural understanding between volunteers and locals

How you can help

Volunteers on this wonderful program will gain an amazing opportunity to provide care in the wonderful African nation of Ghana, helping those who truly need it, while also gaining valuable medical experience.  Participants on this program will have the opportunity to work in medical placements in community clinics, hospitals and children's hospitals, in addition to working in volunteer roles in the field of HIV/Aids awareness and education if they are interested in this field.  

Due to very basic resources volunteers are encouraged to bring with them scrubs, theatre shoes, dressings, etc.  They must also be prepared to work in a different way and in very unusual situations than they may be used to. Working in healthcare in Africa will be dissimilar to what volunteers will have experienced in western countries, but an extremely worthwhile experience.  A minimum placement of two weeks is required on this program. 

Volunteers contribute in a number of ways on this medical program and can expect to undertake the following tasks:

• Assist with day-to-day medical care, as appropriate for experience and training
• Network with program staff and medical staff
• Help with HIV awareness programs

A volunteer’s work day on this project will generally last between 4 and 6 hours and while we ask all volunteers to be flexible in this regard, a typical daily schedule is likely to go something like this:

7:00am Breakfast with host family

8:00am Walk or bus to project site

8:30am Pre-start meeting with project supervisor

9:00am VOLUNTEERING DUTIES

Midday Lunch break

1:00pm VOLUNTEERING DUTIES

4:00pm Debrief with project supervisor

4:30pm Walk or bus back to home stay

6:00pm Dinner with host family

Evenings Free time to relax or explore the sights and sounds of the local area!

Known as “The Garden City” thanks to its many beautiful species of flowers and plants, Kumasi is the capital city of the Ashanti region of Ghana. It’s surrounded by rolling green hills and has a vast central market as vibrant as any in Africa.

The cities major attraction is the National Cultural Centre, a 10-minute walk west of the market. The sprawling complex encompasses a fascinating museum of Ashanti history, a popular library, an excellent crafts shop and an exhibition hall. Classes in traditional dance and drumming are available.

In the villages around Kumasi, artisans specialize in crafts such as goldsmithing, wood carving, cloth printing and weaving. Bonwire is the place to go for kente cloth, Pankrono is best for pottery, Ahwiaa for woodcarving and Ntonso for adinkra cloth.

Accra is a sprawling city, with a mixture of modern buildings, shanty towns, occasional castle and lively markets. The central commercial hub is around the Makola Market. Just south of the market is the Atlantic ocean (Gulf of Guinea). Accra’s shanty towns are mostly to the west of the city center. East of the city center and north towards the Kotoka international airport, is where you’ll find most of the hotels, embassies and smarter residential areas.

Among the highlights of Accra are the National Museum, with its display of exhibits that reflect the heritage of Ghana, the National Theater, the Center of National Culture, Independence Square and the fishing port at James Town. The beaches of the Atlantic coast are popular with visitors and Ghanaians alike.