Guinea is a wonderful location on the West African coast to visit and volunteer. Volunteers in the country as in many developing countries often work in partnership with NGO’s to ease the burden of pressures to educate, provide health care and support income generation.
School-to-School International is an example of an organization that sends volunteers to assist with its education programs in Guinea. The program takes volunteers to primary schools in the country where for periods of as long as six months they will assist in teaching. The experience is great for students and past volunteers have used the opportunity to conduct research and complete thesis on issues such as public health in the country.
For more experienced volunteers, the Peace Corps has been in guinea since 1962. Over this period, the Corps has sent over 1400 volunteers to Guinea. Corps volunteers in Guinea work in areas of education, health care and agriculture. The Peace Corps offers all its volunteers some training in local languages to help them in their activities. For more information on the program, individuals can send queries to the Corps or Friends of Guinea (FOG) non-profit comprising current and past volunteers.
In addition to the above opportunities, volunteering towards conservation of marine life can provide a chance to visit Guinea. This is because the Atlantic waters that touch the coasts from Mauritania to Guinea are important nesting sites for five species of marine turtles and millions of migrating birds. Organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Conservation (WWF) occasionally recruit volunteers to work in the region.