Stories of National Volunteer Day (#NVDay) and expectations as we #volunteeringh for #NVDay2024

Volunteerism is the heart of community development. This is what GhanaThink Foundation has believed since the success of the first National Volunteer Day - NVDay in 2013. NVDay was instituted to encourage many people in Ghana to volunteer, make an impact in our communities, help solve problems in ways we could, and help people. In this last decade plus, thousands of people in Ghana have volunteered to benefit tens of thousands in Ghana.

On December 5, 2013, the Ghana Volunteer Program program (GVP) was created by GhanaThink to run National Volunteer Day and match volunteers to volunteer opportunities. Kofi Larbi, currently, leads the Ghana Volunteer Program. He stated: “National Volunteer Day has been set aside by GhanaThink on September 21, since 2013 for volunteer activities throughout the country through our networks”. These volunteer activities have included painting school initiatives, sending teachers to teach particular skills in schools, clean up campaigns, blood donation drives, women empowerment drives, reading clinics for children and visits to orphanages to clean and donate and several other activities.

He added, “Over the years, I have participated in various volunteer activities and the one I've never forgotten is when I got to a special children's home in Kumasi for a volunteer activities and when  I shouted "Agoo!" and asked who wanted a hug, almost all the children walked up to me and we ended up in a group huddle. The moment brought tears to my eyes. Even a hug could bring such joy to these children”.

He ended by saying: “This year 2024, don't think you don't have anything to offer. Go out there, find a volunteer activity near you and contribute to making the world a better place”. There are several volunteer activities being organized in several towns and cities in Ghana. Information about these can be found on social media via the #NVDay2024 hashtag. 

Even though September 21 became Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, it is still National Volunteer Day. It wasn't just to help people, but help ourselves as volunteers : in building skills - especially soft skills, gaining experience, networks, etc.

Hilda Adika has been volunteering in various capacities, with the Barcamp Ho team and being the lead admin for Hohoe Konnect. She mentioned: “As usual, I was born as a volunteer and that is where I derive my innermost joy. Over the years, I either join groups of people to go to junior high schools to educate and serve as mentors for pupils talking to them about how to achieve their dreams and taking their studies seriously. Sometimes I organize activities myself which include blood drive exercises either at hospitals or go to secondary school circles”. 

For 2024 around National Volunteer Day, she has already started her volunteering activities. She joined the Lions Club at Ho to do a screening. She plans to go to St. Francis Training College in Hohoe to serve as mentor on a panel. “I will also join a group of people to do some clean up exercise”, she stated, which is well in line with several other similar activities in Ghana around #NVDay, important for the #CleanAirGhana campaign. She encourages us all with: “You don't need much to do volunteering work. You can use yourself as an example to teach people. Volunteerism has made me who I am and still building me up”

Air quality in Ghana has become a major issue in Ghana in 2024, especially after news around air quality indices. Clean up exercises are key in ensuring that citizens are part of the solution and not the pollution. Youth in Koforidua, Wungu, Wa, Accra, Tarkwa, Takoradi, Kumasi and other parts of Ghana are coming together to do clean up exercises as part of National Volunteer Day. This type of volunteering is seen and driven as a civic responsibility.

Can't volunteer physically? Support financially by donating to a volunteer activity near you, or through https://expresspaygh.com/nvday.