How it started

Abusua Akoma was started by four friends in Ghana who came together to form a foundation for helping people. They wanted the work to be regular and open to anyone who had something to offer, rather than a few limited efforts.

What the Foundation wants is plain: every effort and every contribution reaches the people it was meant for, in full. Guidelines, standards and working mechanisms support that, along with documentation and technology where they are needed, so a contributor can be confident that what they gave arrived.

Much of what the Foundation is now was developed further by other relations — the design of the symbol, and a number of the ideas behind how the work is done.

The four turned out to suit the symbols. Nyame Dua is drawn as four arms around a centre, Akoma is the heart, and Abusua Pa is a grid. Brought into one mark they became four hearts around a sixteen-cell square — four blocks of four, one behind each heart. That was not planned.