12 Year-Old Philanthropist Helps Children in Ghana

Kerry Koranteng is not your ordinary tween. At just 12 years old, Kerry is an entrepreneur and philanthropist with her own nonprofit, the KerryK Foundation. This young girl boss is also the CEO of KerryKLips. She creates lip care products from her home and sells them online. Proceeds from her sales go to help children in need in deprived areas.

 

Kerry collects new shoes for children in Ghana. She was inspired at age eight after visiting Ghana for the first time, where she saw children begging for money on the streets without shoes and in shabby clothes. She says, “I started to give away my shoes initially, but it wasn’t enough. From there, my pageant sisters also donated shoes to help. Then, when I was introduced to the Millhouse Charities, it picked up. They donated over 1000 pairs of shoes to my organization”. Kerry says that she wanted to keep busy during quarantine and began to share her mission on her social media platform. It allowed her to connect and engage with those who wanted to help. 

 

‘I noticed almost all of the children didn’t have shoes on, or their shoes had holes in them. I know that can be dangerous. So I thought, why can’t I help them get new shoes”?-Kerry Koranteng.

 

Her mother says watching her daughter’s work is fulfilling and makes her proud. The child of two Ghanaian parents, Kerry’s family visits their home continent each summer. Kerry loves traveling back to Ghana. She says she loves connecting with her Ghanaian family during those trips.

 

A young mogul in training, Kerry Koranteng, balances her charitable work and creating products for her business with school and her extracurricular activities. She is currently a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and is active in pageants. Her KerryKLips brand helps to pay the shipping costs associated with shipping shoes to Ghana. In addition, KerryKLips includes lip gloss, lip scrubs, and lip balms. A lover of science, especially chemistry, Kerry says, she loved creating the products and felt it would help her do more with her charity work.

 

Kerry wants to expand her charitable contributions to include hygiene kits in Ghana and other parts of Africa. “I feel grateful that I’m able to have a chance to give back to the children in Ghana, and I love seeing the faces of the children when I give them new shoes,” Kerry says. 

 

To donate to the KerryK Foundation, visit their website or GoFundMe.

 

Danielle Sanders is a journalist and writer living in Chicago. Find her on social media @DanieSanders20 and @DanieSandersOfficial.