Senior jazz studies major Harrison Dolan spent his summer in Ghana serving children without families and compiling a book of grateful thoughts. Photo by Grace DeSanti.
Harrison Dolan connected with children and taught music during his trip to Ghana
While other college students were lounging on the beach this summer, Harrison Dolan, a senior jazz studies major and philosophy minor, volunteered his time to teach and connect with underprivileged children in Ghana, Africa.
Through his friend Kayla MacEachern, Dolan found the organization Agape volunteers which brought him to Jaynii.com. There he applied to a volunteer program that consisted of teaching music education to underprivileged kids at the Jaynii Streetwise Foundation.
The Jaynii Streetwise Foundation serves children who either do not have parents to support them or have parents who do not have the money to give them basic needs. There are a group of 15-20 kids who live there.
According to Dolan, the children at the foundation were mostly between 13 and 15 years old. The oldest was 18 and the youngest was just 3 years old.
Dolan’s daily life was consumed with the kids. Together they ate, played games and explored the city of Jamestown, Ghana. Dolan found that the main focus of his trip was to help and connect with the children, so he decided to only push music education on those who showed an interest.
One of the children, Michael Coffee,18, showed a strong interest in music. Dolan taught him different cords and talked to him about the importance of improvising. One day, Coffee took over the stage at the Jamestown Cafe. He insisted to Dolan and other children that it was “their turn” to perform music.
“Within 5 minutes we are all on the stage,” said Dolan. “I have a drum, [Theophilus, 17] had a drum, [Coffee] had a guitar, and [Robert Heffer, a fellow volunteer] was singing, and we do “All of Me” by John Legend, just like impromptu, out of the blue in this cafe. That was definitely a real way to connect with those people, especially because [Coffee] just took it on his own accord and said ‘It is our turn. We are playing music now.’”
A few months prior to his trip, Dolan received a “gratitude journal.” Dolan would ask friends, family and strangers to write down what they are grateful for in a page in his journal. He brought the journal to Africa with him to get a fresh perspective what gratitude is.
Dolan found that the people of Ghana show more gratitude towards the simple pleasures in life.
Samuel Mii Okai Mensah, 13, one of the children of the foundation, wrote in the book, “The reason I am grateful today is that when I woke I washed my face and brushed my teeth and eat rice and stew and I went to play some football, thank you.”
According to Dolan, religion is noticeable ingrained into Ghanian culture. All of the children of the foundation prayed on a daily basis.
Naphtali,13, wrote in the gratitude journal, “The reason why I am grateful today is that when I woke up I brushed my teeth and took my breakfast, I told my grandma that the food she gave me I was not satisfied and she told me to wait so that in the afternoon she would give me money for food. But I went out for a walk and when I came I saw Emanuel and Harrison and Harrison bought me some food and by the grace of God I am satisfied. Thank you God.”