American YouTube star and philanthropist Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, has built a nearly US$10 million community in Ghana’s Eastern Region as part of an initiative aimed at tackling child labour in cocoa-growing communities.
The project, known as Abena Dakwa Village, includes a school, teachers’ accommodation, a clinic, clean water infrastructure, renewable energy, a marketplace and facilities intended to support the economic development of the community.
MrBeast and his team completed the project in about a year, with construction reportedly taking eight months.
The school can accommodate more than 300 students and comes with playground equipment, while 10 furnished houses have been provided for teachers.
The community also has a library, a community centre, a marketplace and a clinic.
Two large water towers have been installed to provide clean drinking water, while an off-grid solar power system provides electricity to the community.
The project further includes agricultural facilities and fish tanks designed to help residents produce food and generate income.
A major component of the project is a five-year school feeding programme under a partnership involving Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation.
The programme will provide free daily meals to students, with the initiative also designed to support local farmers and improve nutrition and school attendance.
The Rockefeller Foundation has committed funding towards school meal programmes in Ghana and Kenya, with Ghana’s programme initially covering 10 schools across nine communities in the Eastern Region.
The initiative links school feeding with local agriculture, including efforts to encourage cocoa farmers to adopt agroforestry and intercropping practices.
MrBeast’s Ghana intervention forms part of a wider Beast Philanthropy programme targeting child labour in cocoa-growing communities.
The organisation says its Ghana programme currently covers 11 cocoa-farming communities in the Eastern Region and has more than 10,000 direct beneficiaries.
Beast Philanthropy is working with organisations including the West Akyem Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union, CARE and Fairtrade Africa on the initiative.
The programme focuses on education, food security, clean water, healthcare and livelihood opportunities as part of efforts to address conditions that contribute to child labour.
Who is Mr Beast?
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, was born on May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States.
He began creating YouTube content as a teenager and became known for large-scale challenges, giveaways and philanthropic projects.
His YouTube channel has grown into one of the world’s largest, with the platform announcing in June 2026 that he had become the first individual creator to reach 500 million subscribers.
Donaldson is also the founder of Beast Philanthropy, a charitable organisation through which he supports humanitarian projects around the world.
His business interests include Feastables, a snack and chocolate company, as well as other media and entertainment ventures.
In Ghana, his latest project has put the issue of child labour in cocoa-growing communities back in the spotlight.
Beast Philanthropy says about 1.56 million children are engaged in child labour in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa-growing regions.
The organisation’s Ghana programme is seeking to address some of the economic and social conditions that contribute to children working in cocoa-producing communities.
The Abna Dakwa project is expected to provide education, healthcare, clean water, electricity, food and livelihood opportunities to residents while keeping children in school.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
