YouTube star Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has unveiled a major humanitarian project in Ghana aimed at helping children leave hazardous work in cocoa-growing communities and stay in school.
The project, known as Abna Dakwa Village, reportedly cost nearly US$10 million and was developed after about a year of planning and eight months of construction.
WHAT DID MRBEAST BUILD?
The new community includes a school with space for more than 300 students, a medical clinic, marketplace and 10 homes for teachers.
The development also includes clean-water infrastructure, solar power and agricultural facilities designed to support the community over the long term.
Students are also expected to receive free daily meals for the next five years. Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation recently announced a partnership supporting school-meal programmes in Ghana’s Eastern Region, with the goal of improving nutrition and school attendance while helping keep children out of child labour.
WHY GHANA?
Child labour remains a serious problem in cocoa-producing communities in Ghana and neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.
Beast Philanthropy says approximately 1.56 million children are engaged in child labour across cocoa-growing regions of the two countries, with many involved in hazardous tasks. Its Ghana initiative currently covers 11 cocoa-farming communities and has a minimum five-year commitment.
The organization says its approach goes beyond building schools. It also includes support for farmers and families, child-labour monitoring, clean water, school meals and programmes intended to provide households with more sustainable sources of income.
MRBEAST CHALLENGES THE CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY
MrBeast also used the project to call attention to child labour in the cocoa supply chain and urged major chocolate companies and consumers to take the issue seriously.
The initiative is closely connected to his wider campaign through Beast Philanthropy to reduce child labour in West African cocoa communities.
Beast Philanthropy says the Ghana programme is designed so that local communities and cooperatives can eventually operate the initiatives themselves, rather than remain permanently dependent on the organization.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW
See how MrBeast and Beast Philanthropy built the nearly US$10 million project in Ghana and learn more about the effort to combat child labour in cocoa-growing communities.
