Skip to content

Grad fundraises for Ghana schoolchildren

Kira Tilcock wants to benefit extracurricular activities during her six-month volunteer teaching placement.
45292whiterockkiratilcock
Marriott grad Kira Tilcock will raise funds during the Spirit of the Sea Festival to help buy equipment for extracurricular activities for children at a school in Ghana where she will be a volunteer teacher.

It's all about henna art and face painting – and helping schoolchildren in Ghana enjoy extra-curricular activities.

Visitors to Spirit of the Sea Festival this weekend who stop by Kira Tilcock's table at the foot of the pier may be getting some personal adornment, but it's also a chance for them to make a contribution to funds Tilcock is raising to enhance the children's activities during her placement as a volunteer teacher in Ghana.

On Aug. 15, the enterprising Earl Marriott Secondary grad will be heading to the Sacred Heart School in the small community of Akim Achiase in Eastern Ghana. It's a six-month placement through the Lattitude Global Volunteering program, and while she has raised the basic expenses to cover her trip and stay, she is hoping to raise some more money this weekend to buy equipment for additional activities.

The school she will be teaching at currently has some 200 students ranging from  kindergarten to junior-secondary age, she said.

"As a teacher you can do extra things with them if you can afford to pay for it," said Tilcock, 17.

"I hope to have enough to buy them some sports equipment and a few other things," she added, noting that she hopes to buy everything after she arrives in Ghana.

"That way I'll be helping their economy."

Arranging for a table in a high-traffic area of Spirit of the Sea seemed like a good way to maximize chances of fundraising, Tilcock said, adding she plans to sell bookmarks and novelty items as well.

Among those helping her during the festival will be friends Charlotte Leonard and Savannah Chanel, who has also hand-painted unique cards to sell for the cause.

Tribal fusion belly dance troupe The Fusionistas will also dance at Tilcock's table on Sunday.

"It's not like one of those charity events where money is divided so many ways – everything I raise will go directly for the kids," Tilcock said.

Tilcock, who may take engineering and environmental studies at Langara next year, said she had no thought about volunteering in Africa until she found out about the Lattitude program and the Ghana placement, but that it immediately resonated with her.

"When I found out about it, I started crying with happiness, which was a first for me," she said.

"Applying for the program was a very strenuous process, but it was worth it. I want to take this opportunity and make the most of it."