My name is Kim and I worked for Youth Alive in 2006/2007 for ten months. In that time I got to know Youth Alive and I started to love this place. I was here for my internship of social work and I worked with the children at Tizaa trying to teach them the social skills they'll need in life.

Let me first tell something about the work Youth Alive was doing at that time. Youth Alive is an organisation that has a heart for the children forced to live on the street. They take care of these children by providing them an education. This can mean that they help the children attend school or, when the child is too old for school, help them learn a job. Before the children are sent to school they attend a one-year class at Tizaa; the building of Youth Alive. There the children are taught the basics of English and Mathematics and beside that the children learn how to behave in a classroom, which is already difficult for a lot of children. The youngsters aren't used to sitting still during the day to pay attention to the teacher. They are used to hanging around on the street and maybe selling some 'pure water' or other stuff to earn some money to buy their dinner.

Therefore the first year of school at Tizaa is very important for them. At the time I started working here in September 2006 there were about 15 children who were new to Youth Alive. When the children come here they hardly speak any English so in the beginning it is difficult to communicate. But with using your hands together with simple words of English you will manage to teach them small things at a time. Besides that there is a teacher where you can go to for help.

In the year I was working for Youth Alive I started to do activities with the children during their break time and in the afternoons. The activities I was doing were not difficult, just drawing with them, playing tag games and other stuff, but I used those activities to teach them to share the pencils, to work together during the games, to make teams and be loyal: all things they will need when they are grown up and in a workplace.

Other volunteers who were working here helped the teacher in the class or gave private lessons by picking one or two children out of class to help them learn the basics. The children loved it!

This year, in 2010, I came back to Youth Alive to see how they are doing. I am really happy to see that there is still a big heart here for the street children. The people are working really hard to help the children to build a future for themselves. And they can always use some extra hands to help. So if you are interested in teaching the children English or Mathematics, to play games with the children, to help raise funds or any other activity to help Youth Alive, then please contact them: info@youthaliveghana.org.