Tania Fernandes instructing class on health benefits of proper hygiene.

Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC) intern Tania Fernandes has returned from Ghana, where she worked to educate locals about the health benefits of proper hygiene.

"I really wanted to work in Africa after I graduated," said Tania, 22, who lived in Tolon-Kumbugu, Ghana for nine months, where she worked as a health promoter.

When you actually listen to the people and hear what they do from day to day, and find out what's important to them, that's when you can make a difference."

Part of her work involved putting together a educational radio show. She said radio is the most effective medium as very few Ghanaeans have televisions or computers. She said during the course of the shows the children created and aired commercials with simple songs about personal hygiene.

"We hoped that people would sing along with the jingles. 'Wash your hands, wash your hands'," she said. She explained preaching proper hygiene is a key tool in fighting the spread of infectious diseases. And although language barriers did make things difficult, she found it possible to understand a person's body language without knowing the local dialect.

"It was probably the first time I realized you don't need a common language to communicate." Fernandes said the villages she worked in had no electricity, no running water, and no cellphone reception. She says it's very different from technologically-dependent life in a Canadian city. "In the end... you can live without it for nine months," she said.

"When I came back it was a sensory overload." Fernandes said she hopes to return to Ghana one day.