How an offer reaches someone.
How it works
How Abusua Akoma works
Four ways that build to create impact for those in need - gathering and coming together; connecting minds and hearts, bringing skills and support to ensure the right things are getting done, and providing accountability for those who give so selflessly.
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1
The Abusua Akoma Gathering
Share what you have... or if you are in need, we ensure you receive help and care with dignity.
A non-commercial gathering where people and organisations come together to offer anything useful — time, money, skills, mentorship, food, clothing, computers, furniture, equipment and other goods. Those who need support can ask for help with confidence that they will be treated with dignity, respect and consideration.
- Open to individuals, families, organisations and businesses
- Nothing is bought or sold; nothing is commercial
- Asking for support carries no penalty and no stigma
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2
Connecting Hearts
Matching needs with the right help.
People do this part, helped by settled practice and a little technology. Someone finds out what is needed, looks at what is available, and puts the two together — so that support reaches the people it will help most, when and where it will help most.
- Needs are described before solutions are proposed
- Offers are matched on practicality, not on visibility
- Coordination is recorded so nothing is promised twice
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3
Chain of Hearts
Community assurance and safeguarding.
Some offers need more than goodwill between two strangers. A Chain of Hearts is a small group — trusted volunteers, witnesses, coordinators, observers — who see an activity through from the request to the handover, confirming each step while protecting the dignity, privacy and safety of everyone involved, and particularly of anyone vulnerable.
- Independent witnesses for higher-risk handovers
- Confirmation at each step, from request to outcome
- Extra care where children or vulnerable adults are involved
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4
Trust Through Transparency
Accountability and responsible service.
We check who people are, protect their data, safeguard anyone at risk, account for every contribution and look after our volunteers. Receipts and records are kept, and reviews and audits are open to donors, beneficiaries, volunteers and partners — so anyone with a stake can see what was needed and what happened.
- Records kept for every contribution received and passed on
- Privacy protected by default for everyone who asks for help
- Reviews and audits open to donors, partners and beneficiaries
How a need reaches us
We go and find them, or somebody who gives tells us
Most of what the Foundation supports it has seen for itself. Visits to schools, to orphanages, to hospitals and to families already known to us are how we learn what is short, and planning those visits is a large part of the work.
The rest comes from the people who give. Somebody offering something often knows exactly who needs it — a family, a school, a ward, a neighbour — and a recommendation from them carries the knowledge we would otherwise have to go and gather.
We do not take requests through this website, and that is deliberate rather than an omission. An open request line makes a queue, and a queue makes a promise: that somebody is reading, that an answer is coming, that waiting is worth it. We would rather find a need and meet it than invite people to wait on us.
Please read this
If someone is in danger, call the authorities
Abusua Akoma is not an emergency service. We are not medical, and we are not the police. If this concerns someone’s health, their safety or their life, contact the emergency services, a hospital or the police.
What we do — finding the person who can help — takes time to do properly. An emergency does not have that time, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Monitoring, evaluation and accountability
What we check, and who may see it
Monitoring is whether the thing arrived: what was given, where it went, and whether it reached the person it was meant for. Records and receipts are kept for every contribution.
Evaluation is whether it made the difference it was meant to make. A delivery that arrived and helped nobody is a delivery we got wrong, and it is worth knowing which.
Accountability is who decided, what it cost and what came of it — open to donors, to the people supported, to volunteers and to partners. Anyone with a stake may ask, and reviews and audits are open to them.
The result
What it adds up to
Every act of giving, receiving, volunteering and caring leaves the community a little stronger. As trust grows, more people take part, and more needs can be met.
Questions
Common questions
How it works
How do you decide who receives support?
By starting with the need rather than the offer. Someone describes what would help, and we look for the match on what is practical rather than on what would look good. Every arrangement is written down, so nothing is promised to two people at once.
What is a Chain of Hearts?
A small group who see one act of support through from the request to the handover — a witness, a coordinator, someone who can confirm that what was agreed happened. Most offers never need one. Anything valuable, and anything involving a child or a vulnerable adult, does.
Trust
How do I know my contribution reached someone?
Because we write it down. What comes in and what goes out is recorded with receipts, and you can ask to see the record for your own gift.
Will my details be published?
No. We ask for the least we need in order to arrange something, we will tell you what we hold, and nobody's circumstances appear on this site or anywhere else without their say-so.
Ready to offer something?
Time, skills, goods and services, cash, or something we have not thought of.