About

Every life matters

I’m currently a VSO volunteer working in the town of Tamale in northern Ghana for a Ghanaian NGO called ISODEC. I arrived in Ghana September 2007 and will be with ISODEC for at least a year.  VSO usually send volunteers for two years so after I finish with ISODEC I may look for another short term placement, depending on how I’m feeling.

My background is in IT.  I’ve been a computer programmer for most of the last 18 years, mostly in the banking sector. In Ghana I’m working as an IT trainer, trying to increase the effectiveness of the staff of the NGO by helping them use IT more efficiently.

I have chosen to leave a job with a huge multinational bank in London’s Canary Wharf district (one of the worlds wealthiest places) to work for a tiny NGO in northern Ghana (one of the worlds poorest areas) for a number of reasons.  Partly because I want to work for an organisation whose values I share, although I accept I didn’t need to go to Ghana for that.  Partly because I want to be able to feel that I’m doing a job with meaning and value.  Partly because I want to be able to feel that I’ve done more with my skills and training than help make rich people richer. Partly I want to see and experience more of the world. Partly I was bored and wanted a challenge. Partly because I never thought VSO would accept me.  Partly because I don’t want to look back on my life and think “if only…” or “I wish I had …”. Partly because I think the poverty in places like Ghana is morally wrong and it is morally wrong to do nothing to try to correct it.

Will I achieve anything?  Can one person make a difference?  Probably not, but at least I’ve tried.  If I can learn something about life for Ghanaians, if I can communicate that to people in more developed countries, if I can persuade friends, relatives and strangers to take more interest in the poorer world, if I can make a small positive difference in ISODEC then maybe my time here won’t be a complete waste.

Sharing skills, changing lives