A year in the United States of America on the Kennedy-Lugar YES program taught me a number of things.  Among my lessons learned was the importance of volunteering. The concept of volunteering is present in Ghanaian society but not as pronounced as it is in the USA. 
During my year abroad, I was hosted in Berryville, Virginia where my host mother drummed into my head, "the need to give back" to society. Due to this, I was a regular volunteer at the local thrift store. Upon my return home to Ghana, I felt a strong need to replicate what I had learned in America. I started volunteering a number of ways in my local community including teaching at a local summer school and assisting at the Ghana AFS office. 


The biggest volunteer activity I have been involved in thus far was volunteering with a waste management company at the Swearing-In event of Ghana's new president. Together with other YES alumni members from Ghana,  (Derrick Yevu, Adnan Adam, Lawrenda Enam, Laila Affo, Asibi and myself), we helped in cleaning the grounds which were used for the ceremony. We realized the need to undertake such a project because there is a long history of the grounds being heavily littered after big national events. Interestingly, people passing could not fathom what we were doing. To us, it was purely based on a need to give back to society. It was quite a fulfilling activity as we felt like we were giving back to the society in our own capacity. Just like Robert Kennedy who once said "There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why, I dream of things which aren't and ask why not", we the Alumni of the Kennedy-Lugar YES Program, Ghana, are striving hard in our own capacity to help solve the pertinent problems in our society.

Article written by YES Alumna, Shafica Osman.