Kezia Asiedua Sanie is a 21-year-old final-year law student at the University of Ghana. She's the founder and President of For The Future (FTF) Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, with the aim of identifying underprivileged children in society and alleviating their plight through organizing charitable events and innovative charitable.

Kezia started FTF as a small charity together with friends back in High School in her first year. FTF has now grown into a fully structured and registered organisation with pioneers, members, associate members, an executive board, and an advisory board. Majority of the pioneers and members are students in various universities in Ghana.

FTF is currently running three initiatives; the ShareAid initiative, the Student Training and Education Project (STEP), and the For The Future (FTF) Village project,  which doubles as For The Future Ghana’s flagship project.

Under the ShareAid initiative, FTF collaborates with other NGOs and corporate bodies to distribute goodies to underprivileged children in different communities in Ghana. So far, the organisation has collaborated with SchoolInABag, a UK-based charity manufacturing rucksacks, and filling them up with stationery and hygiene kits. SchoolInABag contracts Trashy Bags to put the bags together and fill them up on their behalf for collection and distribution to schools in very remote areas by us. Companies like BelAqua, Bel Beverages, Twellium Ghana, and Doughman foods in the past, have also sponsored this initiative.

In January this year, Peduase Valley Resort invited the team and beneficiaries over to have lunch and a good time with their members of staff. The beneficiaries also loved the experience since none of them had ever been to any resort as such.

The Student Training and Education Project (STEP) was launched in February 2021 to identify underprivileged children in Ghana and sponsor them through school, while nurturing them and ensuring their total wellbeing. FTF wanted to make a real impact, and that meant they had to move away from the one-day donations where items are given to the children. FTF decided to be part of their lives in helping them be the best version of themselves as their destiny helpers.

Through this initiative, FTF also found great opportunities for their beneficiaries to help them learn outside the classroom in order to unearth and polish their strengths and talents, to give them holistic education. FTF has partnered with Asustem Robotics through some staff members of Ashesi University to teach one of our beneficiaries who is gifted in making toy cars with wood to undergo training in Mechanical and Automobile designs, Robotics, Arduino, and Electronics. FTF also partnered with a private school in East Legon called the WIT School to enroll beneficiaries in their Summer classes which were organised in August last year, where they were engaged in lots of extra-curricular activities.

ChessInSlums Africa, an NGO based in Nigeria making waves globally, has collaborated with FTF as their first Global Ambassadors to teach beneficiaries and other underprivileged children how to play chess and boost their intellect.

There are 10 beneficiaries currently under the ShareAid initiative with unique stories that FTF is supporting. The organisation discovered many of them in unpleasant situations and have been able to support them and have since seen great improvement. FTF shares their updates and impact stories every time on their socials every now and then.

In supporting the beneficiaries, one main challenge we noticed was their environment. FTF found all of them in harsh and unpleasant conditions, which affect them mentally, physically, which even crash their innocence as well. Majority of them live with a single parent who struggles to take care of them and cannot even help them with their homework after school. FTF has private tutors for their beneficiaries in JHS to have extra classes after school. Many of the children even lack parental control.

This birthed idea to create a safe haven and an enabling environment for underprivileged children where they can be nurtured, discover themselves, and reach their full potentials through the help of resource persons. This dream facility has been dubbed; “The FTF Village Project”.

This facility will be an eco-friendly and self-sustaining gated community to be sited in the lush, green ridges of Adukrom-Aprebi in the Eastern Region of Ghana on a 5-acre piece of land. It aims to provide a natural environment that promotes not only the physical but mental and social development of vulnerable children. It will also create job opportunities for neighbouring communities to help with sustainability. The ultimate goal of this project is to enable children to be free to be children whiles protecting the environment.

The FTF Village project was launched on October 20, 2021 at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) auditorium. Many notable members of society attended this event.

Honourable Joe Ghartey, MP for Essikado-Ketan Constituency, chaired it and the Guest Speaker was Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee, a former minister of State. Currently, FTF has paid for about 33% of the total cost of the land.

Kezia summarises what FTF stands for and what they seek to achieve.

"At FTF, we believe that everyone was born with a special gift from God. These gifts must be unearthed and polished for the good of society. Unfortunately, the unearthing never happens for some people because they lack financial support, emotional support, familial support, guidance, and opportunity, which often dashes their hopes and dreams. We live in a country where we see these children every day around us. In traffic, at our workplaces, at church, school, etc.

"We desire a country where many underprivileged children can have the opportunity to reach their fullest potentials irrespective of their social backgrounds. Life is a race of some sorts, and some people are already behind before the race has even started. No one chooses the parents or families they are born into. It is just by chance that some of us were born with silver spoons in our mouths. We can make the world a better place if we stretch out our arms to pull up our fellow human beings who are struggling.

"We believe in the power of community. We believe that the joint effort of well-meaning individuals of the society who want to be the change they want to see can go a long way to bring the desired improvement in the human resource, and even the economy of Ghana," she added.

FTF Ghana aims to have many more partnerships in the near future both in Ghana and abroad, in order to widen our reach and to discover and help many more children that are underprivileged for the future.