by Nicole Findlay
Megan Malone lives and breathes her love of Africa. Her enthusiasm for the continent is infectious enough to inspire her peers to spend a month last summer volunteering in orphanages in Ghana.
Malone, a fourth-year student in African Studies and Political Science, put up posters on the campuses of both Carleton and University of Ottawa to promote the opportunity.
She also partnered with Volunteer Corps, a Ghana-based NGO, to facilitate the volunteer work.
The seven students who took up the challenge raised their own money to fund both the trip and projects on the ground in Ghana.
The students’ primary responsibility was to help the children, of whom there were 65 and ranged in age from just months old to their 20s, prepare for their daily classes. Malone and the other students also assisted with the preparation of meals and laundry.
“We had the small schoolhouse repaired as well as the children’s beds and bought new mattresses for them,” said Malone.
The month-long trip was Malone’s second spent volunteering in the country.
Upon her return, she returned to her job at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Africa Bureau. She landed the plum position the year before as part of her African Studies Placement Course – a half-credit one-day a week volunteer placement offered through the African Studies program at Carleton.
This fall she resumed the last year of her studies, and launched the Institute of African Studies Student Association in cooperation with another student majoring in African Studies.
While Malone isn’t sure if she will pursue graduate studies in the UK or US, of one thing she is certain, her ultimate destiny is Africa.