My name is anika ofori. In 2006 I traveled to Ghana for the first time with my graduate school. On that trip I met an fell in love with a Ghanaian artist. In 2007 I returned to Ghana and we were married in a traditional ashanti wedding ceremony in his family's village in Kumasi. In his family's village there is no running water. There are no toilets. And safe drinking water must be purchased from local vendors, even though they have water sources. In 2009, his 12 year old sister died from disease. These experiences inspired to become a social entrepreneur, self-taught artist, fashion designer and natural products maker.
Since 2011 I have developed my social enterprise to create products that will not only improve consumer's lives but offer employment to artisans and help communities access sustainable solutions for safe water and sanitation. My first product to market was a natural products line using Afrikan Shea Butter and Black Soap. I am currently selling them at pop-up events, online and two local natural health stores. In 2012 I was given a manual to manufacture Ceramic Water Filters and in 2014 a manual to manufacture Ceramic Composting Toilets. So far I've been turned down for more than $1.5M in capital, including my most devastating rejection that came from The Global Innovation Fund just days before Ghana's worse flood in decades. Cholera was epidemic and lives were lost.
This year, through an incubator program called LaunchNOLA in New Orleans, I was able to reorganize what I am doing and find new innovation to drive the social mission forward. This campaign is to help launch that innovation! Nkwa Nsuo~Fresh Water Depots will have the minimum capacity to filter up to 1500/liters of water daily from any water source. 3 million people in Ghana don't have access to safe drinking water and 1 in 6 people in the world. I want to start in these locations and bring this solutions to other artisans around the world.
This campaign will also provide 300 emergency mini water filters and 30 bucket filter systems to partners in Kumasi, Accra and Port au Prince, Haiti.
