Our Story
Akwaaba Volunteers was founded in 2015 by Jordan Palmer and King Boateng. Jordan spent time in Accra as volunteer and fell in love with the people, culture and the country and King grew up in Accra before pursuing a career as a professional footballer in the UK. Both founders share a passion for creating better opportunities for young, disadvantaged people in Ghana through 4 key areas, health, education, sports and working with animals.
Akwaaba Volunteers aim is to “Brighten the future of the next generation”, alleviate poverty and create better opportunities for underprivileged children and disadvantaged communities. Our projects are based in Labadi, a suburb of Ghana’s capital city. We work closely with our community and work in areas based on the needs of the community. Through our projects we aim to empower, develop and create sustainable futures to alleviate poverty and change lives.
Why Accra?
3.5 million children in Ghana live in poverty and over one third of those live in extreme poverty.
There are 61492 children living on the streets of Accra. Girls under the age of 10 represent 59% of this total number.
Children in Ghana are 40% more likely to live in poverty than adults.
One quarter of students in Ghana never complete primary school. 65% of children under 18 don’t attend school in Accra.
Urban poverty is increasing with a rapidly growing urban population and an increase in segregation as inequality gaps grow larger.
Accra has the highest unemployment rates and lack of basic housing and sanitation (with a housing deficit of 1.7 million units and projected to increase to 2.4 million in 2018.
Our Values:
To make a long-term positive change to the lives of the people we are working with. We believe every child deserves happiness, respect and the right to dream.
To create sustainable projects based on the needs of our community. By working closely with the community, we can work together to create simple and low cost solutions through our projects.
To be transparent with how we run our projects and the use of our funding to create better understanding and trust
To empower local people to create their own futures.
We love what we do, work hard and give our volunteers the best experience possible
Click here to learn more about our children.
King Boateng
Co – Founder and Country Director
King was born and raised in Accra, at the age of 11 he was selected by Right to Dream Football Academy to pursue a career as a professional footballer. In 2008 King moved to the UK to play football for Fulham F.C. After a serious injury King returned to Ghana where he played for WA All Stars in Ghana’s premier league.
King has now retired from professional football but still plays along side our elite academy and coaches at our Street 2 School Soccer Project. He is passionate about using sport as a tool to give more young people access to education and to change lives in Ghana.
Jordan Palmer
Founder and CEO
After finishing school in 2012, Jordan volunteered in Ghana for 2 months as a Hockey coach and teaching at a local school. Following this she travelled around the world, stopping off in 6 continents and over 30 countries.
Despite seeing the world, Jordan’s heart was still in Ghana. The passion for learning, happiness and creativity of children who had so little captured her and she began to learn more about the communities needs and how she could develop projects in key areas to do more to help give children in Accra better opportunities.
In 2015 Akwaaba Volunteers was born.