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SCIENTIFIC, HISTORIC AND
CULTURAL FIELD TOURS
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For those
interested in volunteering and enhancing their academic, professional,
historical and cultural experience of Africa, there is a pre-arranged
10-day post-conference field trips with lectures, including ground
transportation, hotel accommodation with daily breakfast, lunch and
dinners in Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi and Tepa commencing from Saturday,
March 15, 2008 through Tuesday, March 25, 2008 as follows:
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Saturday,
March 15, 2008
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After breakfast, you will be transferred
to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for a study tour and volunteering. Built
in 1923, the hospital is the premier and leading national referral
hospital in Ghana. It also serves as the teaching hospital of the
College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana. The hospital has
a bed capacity of 1,600.
The Government of Ghana is
working with partners from across the world to transform the hospital
into a centre of excellence in fields such as obstetrics and gynaecology,
surgery, child health, oral maxillofacial surgery, medicine and
radiotherapy and re-constructive plastic surgery.
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You will return to your hotel
for dinner and overnight.
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Sunday, March
16, 2008
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After early
morning breakfast, you will be transferred to the Central Region of
Ghana to commence a memorable historical tour, which will unfold to you
a history whose impact has been and is still felt beyond the shores of
Ghana. Cape Coast, the administrative seat of this region, was the
capital of Ghana under British colonial rule.
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You will check
in at Elmina Beach Resort for refreshment and then proceed to the Cape
Coast Government Hospital for a guided study tour of the hospital.
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Monday, March
17, 2008
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After early
morning breakfast, you will proceed to the Cape Coast Slave Castle for a
guided study tour of the different parts of this gigantic ancient fort.
The study tour will include a visit to the airless and lightless vaulted
cellars into which as many as 1,000 slaves were packed during the one to
two-month waiting period prior to shipment abroad. An underground
passage leads from the cellars to the beach, where slave ships put in
for the loading of their human cargo. The main courtyard contains three
tombs. One contains the remains of a slave who succeeded in obtaining
higher education overseas and returned to Ghana with numerous academic
honors.
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Originally
christened by the Portuguese as Cabo Corso, it was at this Castle, now
UNESCO World Heritage Monument, during the period of the opening of the
celebrated African trade route to India in the fifteenth century, that
the Portuguese, first established themselves on the Gold Coast and
pursued commercial relations with the Fanti population. Possession of
Cape Coast Castle was fought over by different European adventurers and
traders, because of its strategic importance. The British were the last
occupiers of this place, which served as the first capital of the former
British Gold Coast colony.
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The West
African Historical Museum located in the Castle, has permanent
collections of engravings, which represent Ghana’s coastal forts down
through the centuries. Another exhibition retraces the history of the
slave trade, and displays everyday objects and furniture used by the
European traders along the coast. Other items of interest include
swords, firearms, chests, cabinets and a number of objects such as
chieftains’ stools, Fanti funeral drums and clay pipes made by natives
during the same period.
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Break for
lunch. Afterwards, you will go on a guided study tour of Elmina Slave
Castle (also UNESCO’s World Heritage Monument).
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Transformed
into a museum, Elmina Castle is one of the best preserved of all of the
coastal fortifications constructed by the Europeans from the fifteen to
the nineteenth century. It remains the irreplaceable souvenir of the
first Portuguese navigators, and the living embodiment of the period of
trade and commercial exchange between Europe and Africa in the centuries
that followed.
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This Castle
served not only as a warehouse for stocking the riches of West Africa
prior to their exportation to Europe, but also as a prison, and holding
pen for the human cargoes which awaited shipment to the plantations of
the New world.
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Tuesday, March
18, 2008
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After an early
morning breakfast, you will embark on a four-hour journey to Kumasi, the
golden capital of the legendary Ashanti Kingdom. After check in at Royal
Basin Resort or a similar hotel, to secure your personal effects and for
refreshment. Proceed to Joefel Restaurant for a light lunch.
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After lunch,
you will use of the day touring very interesting historical and cultural
parts of the city of Kumasi. Return to your hotel for overnight.
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Wednesday,
March 19, 2008
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After an early
morning breakfast, you will be transferred to the campus of the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science & Technology for pre-arranged lectures on
traditional medicine. The theme of these lectures is “Modernization of
Traditional Medicine Practice: The KNUST Experience”. This study will
cover the history of Traditional Medicine in Ghana; background of the
KNUST’s Herbal Medicine programme; and the problems and prospects of
Traditional Medicine Practice in Ghana.
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The layout of
the programme is as follows:
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8.00 – 9.00
am Registration
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9.00 – 9.30
am Opening
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Self introduction
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Welcome
address
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Course
outline and Objective
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9.30 – 9.45
Pre-Course Examination
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9.45 –
10.30 Lecture 1: Traditional Medicine in Ghana
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10.30 –
10.45 Cocoa Break
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10.45 –
11.30 Modernization of Traditional Medicine practice in Africa: The
role of KNUST
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11.30 –
12.15 Modernization of Traditional Medicine practice in Africa:
Problems and Prospects
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12.15 –
12.30 Cocoa Break
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12.30 –
12.50 Post-Course Examination
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12.50 –
13.50 Tour of the Faculty’s Physique Garden
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13.50 –
14.50 Lunch
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14.50 –
15.50 Closing Ceremony
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·
Open Discussion/ Discussion of exams & Course evaluation
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Presentation of Certificates
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Felicitations
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Return to your
hotel for dinner and overnight.
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Thursday,
March 20, 2008
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After
breakfast , depart to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for a study tour
and volunteering.
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As a 1000-bed
capacity facility, which recently celebrated its 50th
anniversary, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
happens to be the second largest hospital in Ghana with about 2,500
members of staff. As a teaching hospital, it offers among others
undergraduate and postgraduate training in the country. As a teaching
hospital to the School of Medical Sciences
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of the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the hospital has
helped to train close to one thousand highly competent doctors serving
in various capacities in Ghana and the world over.
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The facility
is the main tertiary hospital serving the advanced clinical needs of
people in the northern half of Ghana through the provision of a wide
range of specialist services from oncology to neurosurgery. The hospital
is currently undergoing dramatic expansion unequalled in its history
with the establishment of new specialist clinics and construction of new
facilities including an ultra modern National Accident and Emergency
Centre. Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital has the following Directorates:
Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Surgery, Child Health, Polyclinic, Anaesthesia
and Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Dental, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat (DEENT),
Medicine, Diagnostics and Oncology. It has annual Out-Patient Department
(OPD) attendance of 450,000 and 42,000 in-patients.
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Spend the rest
of the day visiting interesting parts of the city and doing shopping.
Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.
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Friday, March
21, 2008
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After
breakfast, you will depart to Tepa, Ahafo-Ano North District in the
Ashanti Region of Ghana. Check into Rex Hotel for refreshment and
proceed to the Tepa District Hospital for a study tour and volunteering.
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The Tepa
District Hospital is the only hospital in this region of Ghana, serving
a population of about 890,000 people, mainly peasant farmers and a few
Government workers. The hospital was established on 31st May, 1974 by
the Ghana Cocoa Board to treat its staff and local farmers. Presently,
the hospital has a 56 bed capacity for the accident and emergency,
general ward and the maternity ward. It has a theatre, laboratory,
administration and mortuary block. There are three consulting rooms and
also a dispensary room. It continues to provide basic medical services
for the ever-growing population of this area and its surroundings.
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Return to your
hotel for dinner and overnight.
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Saturday,
March 22, 2008
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After
breakfast, proceed to the 120 acres Medicinal Farm of Africa First
located at Kwafo Krom, Tepa-Marbang border for a study tour of its
various medicinal plants.
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This project
is networking with local traditional herbal healers and other tribal
farmers medicinal throughout the length and breadth of Ghana and beyond
and applying both local indigenous knowledge and scientific technology
for the propagation, cultivation, processing, reformulation of
traditional herbal products into capsules, tablets, herbal
infusions/teas, tinctures, syrups, organic medicinal plants, food and
natural product chemistry for exportation and marketing.
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The project is
incorporating a greenhouse for education, research and outreach
activities with laboratory to carry out scientific experiments.
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The following
are some of the many plants of medicinal and commercial value already
existing on the land:
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1.
Ceiba Penandra or cotton silk tree, cotton tree, kapok tree, true kapok,
white silk cotton tree
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2.
Terminalia superba or black korina, limba, white afara
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3.
Triplochiton scleroxylon or African whitewood
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4.
Celtis or Trema orientalis and commonly known as charcoal tree, Indian
charcoal tree, Indian nettle tree
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5.
Albizia ferruginea
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6.
Calotropis procera – rubber tree
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7.
Holarrhena floribunda
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8.
Hevea brasiliensis or caoutchouc tree, hevea, para rubber tree, rubber,
rubber wood
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9.
Antiaris toxicaria or bark cloth tree, antiaris, false iroko, false
mvule, upas tree
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10.
Albizia zygia
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Alstonia boonei or alstonia, cheesewood, pattern wood, stool wood
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12.
Cordia Africana or East African cordia, large-leafed cordia, Sudan teak
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13.
Milicia Excelsa
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14.
Nesogordonia papaverifera syn. Cisanthera papaverifera Danta
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15.
Bamboo
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16.
Black Pepper
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The following
are some of the many plants of medicinal and commercial value now under
cultivation on the land:
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1.
Cocoa
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2.
Acacia Senegal
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3.
Aloe Vera
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4.
Moringa Oleifera
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5.
Tamarind
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6.
Teak
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7.
Ginger and a variety of spices
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8.
Pineapple
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9.
Oil Palm Trees
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10.
Voacanga Africana
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Return to your
hotel for dinner and overnight.
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Sunday, March
23, 2008
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After
breakfast, check out and depart to visit a few Ashanti craft villages to
observe craftsmen at work and to purchase souvenir gift items from the
wide assortment of handicrafts on sale. Ahwiaa - specialising in
woodcarvings such as stools and fertility dolls; Ntonso - where the
primary activity is the Adinkra mourning clothe and tie-and-dye and
finally to Bonwire, home of the famous Kente clothe. Break for lunch and
continue to Accra. Drive past several scenic villages and charming
towns through the evergreen forests. Check in to your room at Fiesta
Royale Hotel in Accra for overnight.
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Monday, March
24, 2008
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Depart after
breakfast to go on Accra city tour the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Park,
National Museum and W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan Africanism. Drive past
the Independence Arch and Black Star Square - Accra’s ceremonial
grounds. View in the distance Christiansborg Castle, office of the
President of Ghana. Your last stop on tour will be the Arts and Crafts
market where you may try out your bargaining skills on the local vendors
and to “shop till you drop”.
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Break for
lunch at a local restaurant. Return to your hotel for overnight. B.L.
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Tuesday, March
25, 2008
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After
breakfast, you will be on your own until departure to airport.
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