Ghana And France Volunteers Urged To Partner For International Reciprocity

France Volontaires Ghana held its’ 2023 anniversary celebration and twelfth edition of France Volunteering Day (Journée du Volontariat Français) at the Alliance Française in Accra, Ghana, on October 3, 2023.
The 2023 France Volontaires Ghana Day has the theme “Cross-Mobility, Reciprocity…For a Balanced Partnership! Language Exchange and Francophony”

This year’s celebration brought officials and personalities from the government, including ministries, authorities, international organizations, volunteering organizations, and, as usual, the French Embassy, as well as the management team of the International Network of France Volontaires, for the first time in Ghana.
Official speeches from the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the National Youth Authority were delivered.

The Director of the International Network of French Volontaires, Mr. Thomas Cosse, in his special speech, started, “I am happy to be here with you. It is my first time as a member of the International Network of the France Volontaires management visiting Ghana. I am sure there will be a lot of visits very soon”.

He said Ghana is the first anglophone country in Africa to host France Volontaires and signed a volunteer agreement in 2009. He was thinking of the strength of collaboration with the National Youth Authority and Ghana Service Scheme to enforce things on Misson with Ghanaian authority in terms of public policy. He was delighted at the prospect of establishing a volunteer agreement, enabling France Volontaires to carry out its exchange mission with Ghana. He congratulated the Ambassador of France to Ghana for volunteering in Ghana, as well as the Director of Alliance Française, Accra, and volunteering organizations in Ghana as stakeholders with France Volontaires Ghana.

The Ambassador of the France Embassy to Ghana, Julie Armand Anianboussou, emphasized the importance of volunteers and volunteerism in achieving sustainable development. He said youth voluntarism is mobility for useful purposes.

In her turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayokoi Botchwey, stated, “It is with great pleasure that I am here to participate in the commemoration of the twelfth anniversary of French Volonteeing Day to recognize the value of volunteering and the dedication of volunteers.” As we all know, the relations between Ghana and France are rooted in history, friendship, shared values, mutual respect, and reciprocity. In our bondship sphere, friendship has flourished and transcendent diversities of partnership. Today we are celebrating one such partnership where two countries have agreed to bilateral cooperation fostering through volunteerism, where volunteers engaged in agriculture, instructors in French, and other specialists in communication and planning, just to name a few.

These volunteers have provided support and exhibited expertise and experiences to the satisfaction of Ghanaians.”
She highly appreciated and recognized the contributions of the volunteers in various working sectors.

She continued, saying that volunteers become powerful instruments for fostering unity and shared values within our nation.
“Our government recognizes the pivotal role of volunteerism in achieving our goals and has taken concrete steps to promote and support volunteer initiatives across the country.”

She reinterpreted the government’s commitment to building an English-French country where the majority of people become bilingual because Ghana is surrounded by francophone countries. We need to be fluent in both English and French so that we can communicate with Africa and beyond, she added.

Mr. Doku, Project Officer of France Volontaires Ghana, who did the projecting presentation, explained the operations of France Volontaires Ghana and made the participants understand that France Volontaires came to Ghana in 2008 and started full operations in 2009 and has since worked directly with and under the France Embassy in Ghana.

France Volontaires, which has 30 representations around the world out of 8,554 volunteers around the world, is the France platform for international exchange and solidarity. Volunteering is an operator of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs that brings together the state and local authorities associations within the framework of the mission of general interest: the development and promotion of international exchange and solidarity volunteering, recognized by the law of August 4, 2021, as a traversal level of action of France’s solidarity development policy.

France Volontaires Ghana, through its Volunteering Centre located in Alliance Française in Accra, supports and guides volunteers and organizations interested in international exchange and solidarity volunteering. It carries out a mission of advice, training, networking, and promotion of voluntarism.

In October every year, France Volontaires organizes the French Volonteeing Day (JVF). This day is dedicated to promoting and highlighting the engagement of thousands of volunteers participating in development and solidarity missions in various fields across the globe, as well as bringing together actors in volunteering: hosting organizations, partners, and volunteers.

There was a first roundtable discussion on International Volunteering in the Development of Francophony in Ghana” and a second roundtable discussion on “Crossed Mobility and Reciprocity.”

Volunteer testimonies themed “Crossing Mobility and Linguistic Capacity Enhancement” presented both in-person and in videos were from former International Reciprocity Volunteers, Civil Service Volunteers, OIF Volunteers, and Senior (Retired) Volunteers, respectively.

In attendance were volunteer hosting organizations, including the Finnish-French Migrant Resource Centre (FFMRC), the education-legal-counselling department of Migrant Labour General Workers’ Union International (MLGWUI), representatives from Alliance Française d’Accra, ministries, and authorities.

As a cultural organization, Amanbre Dance Performance performed accordingly.

In his closing remarks, the National Representative of France Volontaires Ghana, Mr. Telnegar Rassembeye, thanked all invited guests and volunteers, as well as partnering organizations.

 

 

 

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