Jill Cowan spoke to the "Dispatch" and "Herald" on her return from Ghana, where she spent the month of July taking part in the Girlguiding Scotland Ghana Project.

The service project is run every three years and sees Scottish senior section and young Guiders take part in activities in Ghana where they also help train Ghanaian Girl Guide leaders.

Jill, who is a community learning and development worker with Angus Council, was part of a group of 11 Scottish Guides who went to Africa to preserve and enhance continuing links with overseas communities through Girlguiding.

Jill explained: "The Ghana project is also known as the Building Links project, which is a Scottish-only endeavour and only Girl Guides from Scotland can apply for it.

"In December last year I went forward for selection with another 32 girls from across Scotland.

"The selection process was at Netherurd House in Edinburgh and consisted of taking part in team-building games, and we were asked about what activities we would take out to Ghana if selected."

At the end of January, Jill was informed that, out of the 32 girls, she was successful and teamed up with another ten girls to prepare for the trip of a lifetime.

"After the team was selected we met up three times in the run-up to the trip. The main focus of these meetings was to discuss the main activity of the trip, which was a tree planting programme.

"We also developed the first Girl Guiding badge for Girl Guides in Ghana, as they have never had their own Guiding badge like what we have here."

The girls developed a badge called the tree of life and, after deciding on the activities required to gain the badge, they proceeded to design them and get the badges printed to take with them.

On reaching Ghana, the Guides got to work getting involved with the communities of two villages selected for the tree planting project.

"We went to two villages on our trip, one in the Eastern Region and the other in the Volta Region. At these villages and a couple of other areas we planted 1,992 trees," explained Jill.

"The Ghanaian Girl Guides we worked with were aged between 12 to 17, and we also worked with the other villagers, including young children and older women and men who came out to plant trees with us.

"The majority of the trip was taken up by the tree building and the badge work, but in the last week we were able to relax a bit and become tourists.

"This is when we got to see the attractions of Ghana, including Kakum National Park where we did the canopy walk.

"We also went to Independence Square and learned a lot about the history of Ghana."

As part of the team of Girl Guides doing such a good service in countries less fortunate than here in Scotland, Jill was quick to proclaim Ghana and its people.

"The experience as a whole was absolutely life-changing. What I got most out of my trip was seeing how kids live with the bare minimum. Sometimes they don't have running water or electricity and they certainly don't have television, computers or mobile phones.

"It was good to see how happy these girls were with really basic materials and they were so welcoming and always smiling, singing and dancing."

Jill also experienced living conditions with a difference: "The first village we stayed at we slept in a training centre, which was really basic with two toilets for 11 girls and one shower for 11 girls - one that didn't always work!

"This led to us sometimes having to wash out of half a bucket of water a day and at one point there were four of us to a bed.

"At the second village, we stayed in a school, still quite basic but a little bit more up-market than the first one!"

With the next Ghana project due to go out in three years, Jill is keen to return.

"An original member from this recent team will be asked to lead the new team out next time and, if given the opportunity, I would love to lead the team out," she said.