Keta Foundation - What We Do
We Support projects for the volta region of ghana, africa
What We Do
01.
— We Find & Fund
We have identified a variety of much needed projects for the Volta Region that will make a major impact in Ghana.
Our primary focus areas are education, health, agriculture, housing, environment, communications, infrastructure, energy, and tourism.
02.
— We Build Networks
We actively seek out partnerships in a variety of business verticals to advance development projects in the Volta Region.
From clay mining to mobile food processing platforms to modern modular quick-build homes, we partner with the innovators that can make the biggest impact.
03.
— We Educate
In Ghana, a primary beneficiary of U.S. donations will be Freedom University.
Based in Keta, Volta Region, Ghana, Freedom University will host students, faculty, staff and alumni who wish to become informed social activists in the battle against modern slavery.
This project is funded under the aegis of the Freedom Corps Ghana Pioneer program.
planned initiatives and projects
We have identified a variety of much needed projects for the Volta Region that will make a major impact in Ghana. Our primary focus areas are education, health, agriculture, housing, environment, communications, infrastructure, energy, and tourism.
Projects range from the restoration of various buildings of colonial and historic significance, such as Fort Prinzenstein, to the development of anti-malaria home treatment teams, an artisanal fishery and wildlife center, medical clinics, affordable housing projects, telecom improvements and eco-tourism and immersive education experiences.
Freedom University Keta
Freedom University, Keta, Volta Region, Ghana, was founded June 18, 2013. The mission of Freedom University is focused on housing, health, nutrition, education and the creation of opportunity for Ghana, and all Africans. Because of its unique setting – Freedom Campus is literally adjacent to the former infamous slave shipping port of Fort Prinzenstein – Freedom University has a never-ending obligation to remind the world of what happens when human beings are stripped of their dignity and traded as chattel. The practice of slavery continues around the world today, as always, fueled by avarice, poverty and ignorance. Freedom Campus will be at the vanguard of the war against the factors that allow slavery to flourish – in Africa and elsewhere: poverty, disease, ignorance and lack of opportunity. Our primary thrust is to offer an opportunity to earn a decent standard of living and hope for the future to the youth, women and men of Ghana.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 2 years
- Estimated Need: $29,600,000
Freeom Corps Ghana Pioneers
Slavery in its many insidious guises is alive and flourishing in Ghana, and throughout the world. Today, as always, it is fueled by avarice, poverty and ignorance. We seek to eliminate these root causes of modern slavery through a unique mix of education and activism. It is with this in mindthat a two week Keta-based program for the study of slavery and Anlo-Ewe history has been developed under the umbrella of the Freedom Corps Ghana (FCG) Pioneers Program. The FCG project is the first to combine scholarship with activism, using lessons from the past to attack and transform the conditions – greed, ignorance, poverty, intolerance, and lack of respect for individual freedom, dignity and well-being – that allow slavery to flourish. Freedom Corps Ghana Pioneers will become the vanguard of informed, influential activists in an on-going battle to eliminate this evil practice.
- Estimated Program Need: $313,400 per annum
Fort Prinzenstein Renovation
Forty-five (45) slave forts were built by the Europeans along the West African coast during the 1500’s, and thirty-six (36) of those are in Ghana. Fort Prinzenstein was one of four (4) major forts built by the Danes. Fort Prinsenstein (‘Prince’s Rock) was used to hold slaves awaiting transportation to the Caribbean. The town of Keta, in which Fort Prinzenstein is situated, is to the west of a sandbar and was founded by Ewes migrating from Togo. On crossing the sandbar the leader Wenya told his followers, “Mieva do kea ta“, or “Mekpo ke fe ta“, meaning that they had reached the sand head.
Fort Prinzenstein is rapidly approaching a state of complete disrepair unless we intervene. The preservation of this significant historical element of slavery is critical not only to Keta, but also to the mission of Freedom University and to the fight against modern slavery around the world.
Norris Hill & Partners Ghana, Freedom University Keta, and the Keta Foundation have secured permission from the Keta Municipal Assembly, His Majesty Togbi Sri III (King of the Anlo-Ewe people), the Chiefs and private owners, to integrate existing buildings into the Freedom University expansion program, some of which are 18th century Danish colonial constructions. Of primary consideration is the permission to restore this key structure adjacent to Freedom University – the historic Fort Prinzenstein.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: TBD
- Estimated Need: TBD
Freedom Conference Hall Restoration
As part of the development of the infrastructure required for expansion Freedom University, we have determined that Freedom Hall needs extensive renovation. Furnishings and re-furbishing of current Keta municipal hall (Freedom Hall) for polyvalent use of Freedom University and Keta Municipal Assembly is essential. This will create a home to support conferences, class rooms, receptions, lectures, meeting rooms, crisis and emergency headquarters. We will utilize local teams to upgrade the existing building that we envision to become Freedom Conference Hall. This includes deploying teams to install a variety of much needed materials, air-conditioning units, Audio/Visual systems, exterior enhancements, a waste disposal system, generator, landscaping improvements, walkways and reliable security systems.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 6 months
- Estimated Need: $150,000
Komla Dumor Freedom House Restoration
Part of our Freedom University expansion plan and similar to the Freedom Conference Hall Restoration project, we will integrate the restoration of a building that will be re-named in honor of the celebrated BBC ‘Voice of Africa’, and staunch supporter and original Dream Team member of Freedom University, to the “Komla Dumor Freedom House”.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 6 months
- Estimated Need: $224,000
Keta Lagoon Artisanal Fisheries & Wildlife Institute (KLAFWIN)
There are two inseparable sets of needs. The first is that of the health and future of Keta Lagoon. The second, the Economic Well-being of the Fishermen, including their health, that of their families, and the Keta community, at large. It is imperative that holistic sustainable solutions be found to the current problems in order to increase productivity, eliminate wastage and maximize revenues. Our plan is precisely that: Creative, pragmatic solutions that will be welcomed by the fishermen and the community.
It is with this critical economic, social and environmental disintegration in mind that we plan to build, equip and staff the first Keta Lagoon Artisanal Fishery and Wildlife Institute (KLAFWIN), an environmental, economic, social, scientific and informational resource designed to create opportunities for ongoing scientific studies, species and environmental protection and information and education center.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 18 months
- Estimated Need: $1,830,000
Keta Global Slavery Summit
With this need in mind, we are organizing a landmark three week conference in Ghana, the Keta Global Slavery Summit, from July 1 – 20, 2016. This summit will serve as the first-ever colloquium to blend scholarship and social activism to combat modern slavery. We will explore pragmatic solutions for attacking fundamental factors in the development and propagation of slavery: ignorance, poverty, lack of opportunity, intolerance and greed. For the first time, scholarship will be joined with social activism to examine the pathologic histology of modern slavery, and attack it through science, commerce, education, technology and other weapons at our disposal.
Each session is open to all summit participants and will be attended by experts from the relevant fields, as well as government, NGOs, and the private sector. This is a fully pragmatic exercise, one that engages the best minds that we can bring to bear on problems and opportunities in Ghana, and to some extent, Africa as a whole. Much like a stone cast in a pond, each participant becomes a new, informed activist-ripple imparting their knowledge and our influence when they return to their communities.
- Estimated Program Need: $195,600 per annum
Anti-Malaria Housing Campaign
Malaria is hyper-endemic in Ghana, accounting for an est. 44% of outpatient attendance, 13% of all hospital deaths, and 22% of mortality among children less than five years of age. In partnership with Norris Hill & Partners, we will launch a Volta Region project, capable of being rolled out throughout Ghana. The project will be launched as a non-profit venture, initially focusing on dwellings of the poor, infants and children, and health providers in Keta Municipal Assembly. Norris Hill & Partners, in conjunction with Inesfly Africa and with support from the Keta Foundation, will offer preparation and painting services necessary to protect schools, hospitals, clinics, homes and office buildings in the Volta Region. While combatting diseases that take a dreadful toll on the people of Ghana, at the same time, the project will offer training and equal gender employment among youths and adults in the Volta Region.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 4 years
- Estimated Program Need: $1,134,400
Regional Communications Improvement Plan
Reliability and stability remain the key issue of Ghana telecom offerings. The Ghana telecommunications sector, while moving forward, is doing so at a fragmented and slow pace. Another significant problem is the reliability and connectivity offered by the major existing carriers. These carriers are handicapped by internal issues of mismanagement and a culture of poor service and quality.
Essentially, we wish to bypass traditional routes and deploy a modern system that is inexpensive, simplified and only needs the least physical infrastructure and maintenance. In conjunction with Norris Hill & Partners and MESHCOM West Indies, we will create a modern telecom system for the Volta Region. We will deploy a wireless mesh network to create a reliable, scalable and sustainable communications, internet and broadcasting system for the Volta Region.
- Estimated Time Frame for Completion: 6 months
- Estimated Need: $185,000