Objective, vision, mission and core values of the Meet Kate Foundation

Meet Kate's objective is to support needy children and their families in the area of Gomoa and Agona district (Ghana) in their basic needs and rights. Among these are: education, housing, food and fun. We also strive to achieve two subgoals.

Firstly, we want the families and community but especially the parents of these children to take and keep responsibility for the welfare of their children. Meet Kate does not want to be a quick fix, we want to help figure out what the best solution is for the child, through thorough research and in consultation with the parents. We believe parents should play a big part in this process.

Secondly, Meet Kate makes sure that at the start of every project, self-reliance and sustainability is the goal. We create opportunities to make this possible. You might think of farmland, energy and water saving projects. Importantly, we also encourage a financial contribution by parents or caretakers (where possible), to help support their child. Meet Kate wants her projects to be fully financed from within Ghana, within 5 years.

Vision: Meet Kate supports needy children (ages 0 to 18), in the Central Region of Ghana, in their basic needs (food, housing, education, health care). Our main focus is on education for all children.

Mission: Meet Kate’s projects are intended to provide children in the Central Region of Ghana with education, health care, food and water, fun and good education. Many Ghanaian children are suffering under poor conditions after the death of a family member or unemployment in the family. Meet Kate sits down with the families and looks at the best options in the (near) future. Meet Kate believes that education gives children a chance at a better life, therefore every project of Meet Kate's somehow incorporates education.

Core values: the six core values of Meet Kate are: working on a small and local scale, positivity, cooperation, independence and transparancy. We explain them below:

Working on a small scale: The Meet Kate Foundation helps out small scale projects in Ghana. There is an advantage to working on a small scale: we can more easily inform our donors about where their money goes and what it is spent on. Meet Kate wants her donors to feel personally involved in our projects, since they are the reason the projects exist. We try to keep everyone up to date through our website, social media, newsletters and short films.

Working on a local scale: Meet Kate’s projects are founded in co-operation with local organisations. Western organisations sometimes tend to impose their western views on local organisations. We believe that, for a project to be sustainable, it needs to take into account the local customs. Meet Kate listens to the questions and needs of the locals to better set up new projects and meet the local needs.

Positivity: Poor African children with big bellies and flies on their faces. Unfortunately this is a reality in some African communities. There are however, many African children who play and laugh every day and have high hopes for the future, even though their lives are not always easy. Meet Kate wants to show this positive side; the hope and importantly the potential in every child. By helping children meet their basic needs and rights, we put smiles on their faces every day. This is the side of Africa we believe the world should also see!

Co-operation: As well as focussing on local needs and projects, Meet Kate also values complete co-operation. Differences in cultures between the west and Ghana can sometimes cause difficulties. Meet Kate has been working closely with Ghanaian organisations for the past 5 years. Our co-operation and communication is strong, because both sides make an effort to understand the other culture. Before making a decision, everything is discussed. Western views don’t outweigh Ghanaian views, compromises are always made.

Independence: Good intentions or nice gestures are not enough when it comes to development work. We shouldn’t focus so much on helping, but take the term develoment much more literally: by focusing on development. Developing projects, ideas and plans that truly contribute to improving the current situation and above all, stays in place when international donations stop. All of Meet Kate’s projects have been working towards independence and sustainability from day one. Local initiatives are used to raise money or come up with ways to generate money, for example by buying farm land and using crops for food and selling the surplus for profit.

Transparency: Meet Kate thinks it's very important that our followers and donors are well informed about our activities. Apart from an extensive annual report including annual financial statements, we are very active in social media. We give daily Facebook updates about our activities in The Netherlands, Ghana and UK as well as monthly newsletter updates. Even when things don't go as planned, we report them to our followers. We also answer every email and question personally, no automatic replies. We feel it's important that you know exactly where your donation is going!