Bolgatanga is now the new home to the 18 Participants of this year’s Global Xchange. The participants which consist of 9 Ghanaians and 9 British were hosted at the Hill Top Hotel for a pre departure briefing and workshop to psyche them for the Bolgatanga trip. In April 2009, the Ghanaian participants joined their colleagues in the UK (Plymouth) for 3 months where they undertook several events and trainings as part of this years exchange programme. The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga, Hon. Opam-Brown Akolbire has expressed his delight and thanked the organisers of the programme for choosing Bolgatanga which he described as a very beautiful town with very warm and friendly people and assured them that the people of Bolgatanga are very excited about their visit. Nurideen Mohammed the Programme Supervisor said the overall aim of the programme is to create awareness of the potential of Bolgatanga as well as serve as positive ambassadors to the international community which in the long term will attract investors and tourist to Bolgatanga. Sharing their experiences from Plymouth, Moses, one of the Ghanaian participants explained that their activities were divided into four sections which included Fair Trade which the participants shared ideas on global trade between countries as well some commodities that are commonly traded as well the Global Economic crunch. The second and third sections were centred on deforestation and climate change issues and ‘Ananse’ stories where participants shared stories from their part of the globe and lastly ‘Every day life’. Some other project they undertook were the community Action Day which saw them raising funds for an association of women suffering from drug addiction and other medical conditions and could not take care of themselves. There was also the ‘Ghana Link Day’, on this occasion, the Ghanaian participants told their UK colleagues of the every day Ghanaian life which included the kinds of food they eat, the family system, the educational sector, markets, culture as well as the just ended December general elections. Becky Thendly, a UK participant in a summary thanked the Hon. MP for his time and reiterated the group’s aim of going to Bolgatanga which is to work with the local schools forming Eco Clubs, which aims at educating school children on climate change as well as the Municipal assembly to organise a sustainable project which will go a long way to help the people of Bolgatanga even after their visit. She also used the opportunity to request for bicycles from the assembly for their daily community visit and thanked the British Council and Voluntary Service overseas (VSO) for their initiatives. The group has since left for Bolgatanga for their three months stay. Global Xchange, through International Volunteers, seeks to build active global citizens committed to working for positive change. Global Xchange is partnership between the British Council and VSO. This programme works with 18-25 year olds from the UK and Ghana giving young people the opportunity to live and work together in communities as volunteers on a six-month exchange, with 3 months in each country. Source: British Council