After months of consideration, I finally chose Ghana! The idea of traveling to West Africa excited me as I had been studying African politics at University, I was ready to work on the ground. I had been working with refugees for two years, mostly in the U.S., but also in South Africa. I thought I would be prepared for work in a Ghanan refugee camp, but as I learned you can never be prepared.

I had heard stories from refugee camps and had acquaintances with experience in the field, I imagined horrible living conditions and tons of international aid workers. While some refugee camps in Africa may fit into that visual, the Buduburam refugee camp is of much different character.

I arrived in Ghana ready to work, when I arrived at the camp I was amazed at the amount of organization within the community. The houses that the refugees constructed were well built and much more suitable for living than most shanty neighborhoods I had seen in South Africa. Although the houses were not meant to be permanent dwellings, I found that most of the Ghanans at camp had been in Ghana for over ten years.

However, behind this mask of organization I found that most people were living day to day with absolutely no financial support. It was then that I noticed something missing�. AID WORKERS! My idea of refugee camps being filled with UNHCR workers was crushed when I found that there was only one woman running a UN complaint office in a camp of 40,000 refugees. There were no feeding programs, no free clinics and no registration. The refugees had merely settled on the plot of land and been forgotten. That is not to say that there was a total absence of help, the various churches on camp provided social services along with other grassroots organizations.

The organization that I was placed with was a Ghanan run group called Children Better Way. It was established in Ghana during the heightening civil war to aid internally displaced children, it eventually fled across the border from fighting. CBW in Ghana was working towards a few basic goals divided into two areas, sanitation and education.

As I toured the site and project I found that they had started an incredible initiative to clean the camp's drainages and dumping sites. Being that the camp existed without much aid, there had not been a project for sanitation on the camp before CBW. By cleaning these areas CBW was trying to decrease the number of water borne diseases in children, I was very impressed. The organization is run entirely on a volunteer basis and to see the volunteers (all refugees) work so hard to improve their community was admirable.

CBW's effort to improve education was just as motivating as the sanitation project. From the moment I stepped on camp until the end of my day I was surrounded by the most beautiful children. Even writing now I get tears in my eyes just thinking about my days in Ghana. CBW arranged an after-school project to encourage children to study rather than stay on the street or work. They held informational meetings with parents about the importance of abolishing child labor and also organized an association of foster parents as a decision making body. The dedication of the foster parents was incredible, they opened their homes to children orphaned by the war, sometimes taking in as many as ten children. They were an amazingly strong bunch and wonderful to work alongside.

During my stay at Buduburam, I helped to organize a day time school program for the children out of school. School fees on camp can reach up to $100 USD a year so many of our children, especially orphans were unable to attend school. We began to provide a program free of charge to about 100 children. The project is still expanding as CBW looks for funding.

The overall reach of CBW is immense. Statistics and numbers are always hard to come by in a refugee camp, but it is safe to say that the organization touches at least 500 refugee youth. There is so much room for expansion with more volunteer efforts and funding.

I would give everything up in a day to go back to Buduburam and hope to return to see those beautiful children sometime soon. I would urge anyone who is interested in making a difference to take that trip to Ghana and volunteer with CBW. I assure you that it will be one of the most beneficial experiences in your life.

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