IBM Corporate Services Corps, Ghana: Trip to Volta Region

We are really bonding as a team and my sub-team and I have really gotten fallen into a comfortable work rhythm. We have decided to make trips to the various medical facilities in the country. Since we only have a limited amount of time, we have split up the team so that two people visit a region and cover more ground rather than all 4 of us traveling together.

We visited both the Volta and Eastern Regions. There are 10 regions in Ghana, and we had already visited the Greater Accra region, which we are staying in. I went to the Volta region with my teammate Deiva, and Gerard and Gary went to the Eastern Region.

It was about a 3 ½ hour drive to the Volta region, and a great deal of the long drive time was due to some of the roads being difficult to travel on. The Volta region is where the Volta River is located. The Volta River is the largest in Ghana and is beautiful to see.

We first stopped in Koh, which is the capital of the Volta region and is surrounded by small mountains. We had interviews with many health facility workers and they were very welcoming and eager to discuss options for improving the health system. We also visited some more remote facilities; one was right at the border with Togo. It was interesting to see the contrast between the cities and some of the more remote regions.

In the more remote regions, you saw fewer vehicles and many of the children waved at us as we drove by. I was glad to see that there was a electricity in the very small village that we visited and wells for clean water.

The further we traveled away from the city the more excited people were to see us and help with anything we needed. They were also fascinated by all the different ethnicities and cultures that were represented by the IBM team. It is always fun introducing ourselves and going through where everyone is from.

After visiting the smaller health facilities we went back to Koh for a late lunch. We had lunch at the Sky Hotel, which is located on a mountain and overlooks the valley city of Koh. It was really a beautiful view.

At the end of the day, we were all tired but really happy that we had the chance to go outside the city and get another picture of Ghana.