Our mission as Abilities Africa Foundation is to encourage and equip vulnerable groups and young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses through film, design and training to reduce the inequality gap and contribute to the economic growth of Africa.
The narrative of persons with disability in Ghana has unfortunately mostly been focused on their inabilities, their dependence on the rest of their society and their need to beg for alms.
This sadly has overshadowed many of the efforts and incredible things persons with disability are doing to improve their own lives, their families and communities as a whole. For this reason, at the end of 2020, one of the most challenging years in modern society, Martinson Assafuah-Chemel (Creative Director and founder of Abilities Africa Foundation) set of to tell the stories of entrepreneurs with disability who are not just making a living for themselves but are also contributing to the economic growth of Ghana. Being a paraplegic himself, telling both the challenges and success stories of persons with disability in Ghana and Africa isn’t just a worthy cause but a necessity for Martinson.
The success of the first film, “Abilities, Life of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities” includes a regular feature of the documentary film and interviews on national television stations like GTV and Pent TV, a feature in the UK Together! Film Festival 2021 and an international partnership with Zhiyun Tech who also believe in telling these untold stories of Ghana/ Africa. The film also served as a platform to showcase the businesses of the entrepreneurs and brought in more new clients to their businesses.
As part of our attempt to tell the stories of persons with disability in a new light, we saw the opportunity to not just film these amazing individuals who are creating and building their own businesses but also contribute to impact their lives and help them grow their businesses. Thus, it became imperative for us to establish Abilities Africa Foundation as part of our Social Corporate Responsibility, through which we can accomplish our objectives.
Abilities Africa Foundation is a registered LBG with the Registrar General of the Republic of Ghana since January 6th, 2022. It is currently made up of a four member board of directors.
Our objectives are the following:
1. Traveling throughout Ghana and Africa to film and tell stories of persons with disability’s contribution to the socio-economic growth of Ghana/Africa in the form of documentary/ feature films, animated films and audio-visual designs.
2. Training and equipping entrepreneurs with disabilities to help them grow their business. The training will include financial education, I.T. training, Creative Design, Branding, Marketing, Social Media Marketing and entrepreneurial skills training.
3. Provision of grants and supervision to selected businesses run by entrepreneurs with disability. These grants are in the form of money and equipment needed to support or expand their businesses.
4. Engaging with stakeholders/ policy makers, advocating for the needs of persons with disability in creating accessible infrastructure, removing the many hurdles faced by entrepreneurs with disability and providing incentives for entrepreneurs with disability.
Excepts of our 2021
Email: aaf@stylusinnovativestudios.com
Tel: +233 27 366 8418/ +233 26 522 5236
