Sankofa Center has partnered with several universities and colleges to offer credit hours for field volunteering in our Social Work/Public Health program. Volunteers may also participate in this program independently, without any school affiliation.
The Social Work/Public Health program is an essential part of our outreach in which interns provide HIV/AIDS information during both our school and village outreach tours. Trained by Sankofa Center and working with our local interpreters, interns help our audience understand the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS as well as complex social implications that provide challenges to prevention, care, treatment, and stigma reduction.
Using guidelines set by Sankofa Center, interns spearhead discussion groups during our school outreach to help students retain facts about HIV/AIDS and dispel myths and misconceptions.
During village outreach interns are important members of our pre- and post-counseling and rapid HIV testing process. They assist in record keeping, test preparation and delivery of results to our local counselors. Interns also aid our counselors in identifying areas for improving client retention of HIV/AIDS knowledge, risk reduction, and access to support services. Interns are liasons for clients, introducing them to our health care partners to ensure a better transition of care.
Interns may choose to participate in our other programs but are not required to. Other instrumental intern duties include local recruiting and training of new interns to prepare them for their tenure in Ghana; capacity building; networking; and fund-raising.
