I chose this program initially because it was much cheaper than most programs I had found. I also had a friend that traveled through IFRE but volunteered in South Africa and recommended it to me. I chose to do the medical mission to Ghana for a time of 6 weeks. Over this time, I found that Ghanaians are typically very friendly, kind, and helpful. I loved the hostel placement as I was able to meet volunteers from all over the world. IFRE was a good program because we had a lot of freedom. We were allowed to travel on the weekends, walk around Kasoa, and get to and from our placements on our own. I felt very safe doing so. Even though I had signed up for the medical mission, IFRE did a good job accommodating my wish to try volunteering in an orphanage and teaching in a school for a day. I was also allowed to visit a Leprosy camp and go into Accra and shadow doctors in the Fevers Unit. Overall, I was happy with my volunteer experience in Ghana through IFRE.
Institute for Field Research Expeditions - IFRE
Support from the head office was enthusiastic but a little off. I was concerned that there were spelling and grammatical errors in the package sent to me. Did not reassure me. Also seemed a little disorganized. Received my visa instructions after I had applied and had to start again. U.S. staff were helpful when contacted, however.
Sri Lanka was great. The accommodations in Galle are modest, but the country coordinator, Michael, and his family are superior. Very caring and always looking our for the volunteers. Food was excellent in the home. I found the volunteer options to be more flexible than I thought and when I got there I was able to arrange to volunteer in Probation Services, which I loved. Teaching English to the monks was also great, but they lacked curriculum, which makes things more difficult for casual English lessons.
I was also impressed that Michael organized monthly excursions (4 days) into Sri Lanka for those who were interested. This was great because I was able to see more of Sri Lanka than I originally thought I could.
Overall, IFRE was fine, but your trip is likely only as good as the people taking care of you in the host country and in this case, I was fortunate that Michael was running the show. Never worried about anything and it made for a wonderful experience. I would love to go back again.
So far I am three weeks into my program and loving it! Franklin and Richard have made my transition here very easy and made the volunteers' stay here very comfortable. If we need anything they are on top of it instantly! Pricing is superb. $1100-ish for 8 weeks is an amazingly affordable trip and we have food taken care of. All we have to supply is our water (less than a US dollar for at least a five-day supply) and toilet paper (again less than 5 US dollars). Travel is minimal in price so that's great.
The hostel we stay in is well furbished with beds for the volunteers, couches, a dining room table, a bathroom, and a shower! It is kept very clean and secure.
So far I have no complaints, like I said, Franklin and Richard make life here easy to transition into and they keep us volunteers comfortable while providing us with the full experience here in Ghana!
I am a nurse with two years ED/ER experience and have recently volunteered with IFRE in Kampala, Uganda. Prior to Uganda I have also spent several months travelling and volunteering in Senegal and Ghana. I chose the placement with IFRE as it looked like a good opportunity to get involved with some hands-on clinical work and it is one of the more affordable programs.
The clinic in Kampala is a privately owned clinic with one doctor, several nurses, a lab technician and receptionist. From speaking to the IFRE office on the phone I had expected to be doing a variety of tasks in the clinic, helping out with assessing and treating patients. In reality the work is quite limited and largely consists of preparing IV drips for malaria treatment, and IV medications and injections for other complaints. Be warned - make sure you bring copies of your qualifications as the doctor will want to see them before you start work (Even though I had previously emailed copies to the country coordinator).The doctor is quite old fashioned and gives IV quinine for all malaria cases even though they could sometimes be treated just as effectively, and more safely with oral medication. There was not much scope for doing any patient assessment and giving advice on treatment as the doctor preferred to do this himself and wasn’t particularly interested in having volunteers helping him directly in this area.
Although I got on quite well with all of the staff after the first couple of weeks, be prepared, they can be quite rude at first and are not very interested in any advice/ideas you offer. The clinic is also fully staffed so it is sometimes difficult to feel like you are being useful in being there. Standards of hygiene are very lacking – for example the nurses leave the drawing-up needle for the IV medication lying on the bench uncapped and it is re-used throughout the day. Cannulas are handled with little regard for maintaining sterility/cleanness. Although it can get busy at times, the clinic is fully staffed and I would recommend bringing a book/newspaper as there will be times when it is quiet and there isn't anything much to be done.
The accommodation and meals were all adequate and the location was convenient for taking public transport to the city and access to internet facilities. Herman was accommodating although obviously fairly busy with his family and work and so doesn’t have much time for spending with volunteers or discussing the placement itself.
Overall, despite some frustrations with the placement it was nevertheless an interesting experience and an insight into the way medicine is practiced in the developing world.
My wife and I went to Kasoa, Ghana on a medical volunteer trip through IFRE. I was an Internal Medicine resident about to finish residency, and my wife had finished her first year of nursing school. We were able to work in local clinics, observing the common diagnoses that afflict the local people. It was relatively hands-on work, where I was able to see patients on my own with the help of a translator, make suggestions of things to test for (albeit, limited testing available), and prescribe some local pharmaceutical agents. My wife was able to learn how to put in IV's, do injections, and help out with the general treatment and care of the patients (pediatric and adult). The best part of the trip were the community outreaches to local villages. Richard and Franklin, our Ghana coordinators, were very nice and helpful and had arranged multiple trips during the week to visit villages or communities that were not frequented by people from the cities or even the small towns. The village communities were often left to tend to themselves. My wife and I had brought a lot of medical supplies as well as basic diagnostics (blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, tuning fork, etc) and were able to hear the problems of the villagers and offered our best help. This part of the experience was the most amazing part of our trip. I was able to see things I have only seen in textbooks in America. And I was also able to help people who had been ignored by the rest of their community. We went to farming villages, local orphanages, and even a leper colony. It was all very interesting and exciting. I thank Richard and Franklin for making our trip possible and so worthwhile. We hope to make another trip out to Ghana in the future, or even to other African countries. I would recommend anyone with medical knowledge to make the trip to Kasoa only if they are able to bring their own supplies, because the clinics were sometimes not as busy as going to the villages themselves where all of the patients are waiting. If it hadn't been for the community outreach trips, our experience wouldn't have been as good as it was.
We spent one day at the Accra teaching hospital (Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital). This was also a good experience. We went on rounds in the Fevers Unit (HIV unit) and observed how rounds operate in Ghana and the teaching, etc. It was a good experience and would be fun to do for a longer period of time.
Regarding the location, they put us in a hostel-style house, with 4-5 rooms that each housed anywhere from 4-6 people. The rooms have bunk beds, and you must bring your own topsheets and bedsheets (they don't tell you this). The people who were staying with us made our trip amazing. They were mostly undergraduate pre-med students from Univ of Florida. We all had a blast hanging out together and exploring the town. There is a cook (named Venolia) who cooks all the meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner). We ate mostly vegetarian food while we were there, just out of personal preference (I didn't trust the storing temperature of meat there). I would definitely bring snacks, granola bars, etc from America if you go.
Electricity and running water is intermittently present in the house. Although this may sound painful, it actually made our experience unique. We all bonded over these experiences, and found a way to manage and have a good time. Bucket showers actually became pleasant. And the local rooftop bar was the coolest (temperature-wise) place in town when the electricity would go out.
As far as the price, I think IFRE probably has one of the more affordable ways to go abroad. Especially if your trip is prolonged, they are certainly the cheapest. The process of booking my trip with IFRE was interesting. Initially I went through a guy named Alex, and I didn't get a good vibe from him. He was very condescending and arrogant. I then heard good things about Bharat, and he was very down-to-earth and did not seem to be "selling" me something. So I ended up booking the trip through Bharat, and would recommend him to anyone.
Hope this helps people who are looking at doing a medical trip to Ghana.
