Advertisement
MrBeast builds Ksh1.3B village in Ghana to help children leave illegal labour
20th September, 2026 07:47 AM
American content creator and philanthropist MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has built a nearly Ksh1.3 billion village in Ghana as part of an effort to help children involved in illegal labour return to school.
The YouTuber unveiled the project in a new video documenting the construction of Abna Dakwa Village, a community designed to give families affected by child labour access to housing, education, healthcare, clean water and other basic services.
Sharing the project on Instagram on Saturday, September 19, 2026, MrBeast said the idea was to create an alternative for children who would otherwise be working on cocoa farms.
“We built a literal city to help get kids out of illegal child labour,” he wrote.
Inside MrBeast’s Ghana village
The project was built on previously undeveloped land and took about a year of planning followed by eight months of construction, according to reports on the project.
At the centre of the community is a school with capacity for more than 300 students. The development also includes 10 homes for teachers, a medical clinic, a community marketplace and two water towers to provide clean drinking water.
Solar power has also been installed to provide electricity, while agricultural facilities and fish tanks are intended to help the community develop sources of food and income.
The students will also receive free meals for five years, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.
Helping children return to school
The project focuses on children working in Ghana’s cocoa-growing communities, where poverty and limited access to essential services can contribute to child labour.
His wider Ghana programme is focused on moving children from cocoa fields into classrooms through education, healthcare, economic support and community investment. The organisation reports that 1.56 million children are engaged in child labour across cocoa-growing regions of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
The approach is not only about getting children into classrooms. The programme also aims to support families so they have alternatives to relying on children’s labour.
That includes improving schools, providing meals, expanding access to clean water, supporting farmers and helping households develop income-generating activities.
MrBeast aims at the chocolate industry
The Ghana project is also linked to MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate brand and his criticism of child labour within parts of the cocoa supply chain. During the project, he challenged chocolate companies to pay closer attention to where their cocoa comes from and how children are affected by the industry.
“Big chocolate will not care about rampant child labor until you guys watching this video do something about it,” he said, calling on consumers to show that they do not want children exploited.
MrBeast’s work in Ghana
The village is not MrBeast’s first major project in Ghana.
In 2025, he funded a surgical centre through Ghana Make A Difference (GMAD), an organisation that rescues and supports children affected by child labour. The facility provides free medical care and was established to address the healthcare needs of children who had survived exploitation.
Earlier in 2026, MrBeast was also reported to have invested about Ksh129 million in a Ghanaian community, helping provide a school, clean water and teacher housing. The project reportedly earned him an honorary “Chief of Development” title.
His latest project takes that work further by combining education, healthcare, housing, water, food and economic opportunities in one community.
For the children the project is intended to support, the central aim is simple: to make school a realistic alternative to hazardous work and give their families better access to the services and opportunities needed to build a more stable future.
