The BallySU Foundation derives it’s name from ‘Bally’ which is the Irish Gaelic word for ‘village’, and SU which is  SaoirseUhuru, meaning ‘FreedomFreedom’ in Gaelic and  Swahili. The Foundation was set up by Alex Konuah-Amarteifio, a Ghanaian who lived in Ireland and the UK for 40 years and returned to Ghana with a vision.  His concept is to create villages that are self-sustaining in a self-organizing environment where creativity will flourish.


The areas under consideration are:


  1. 1.Education – formal, technical, ICT, vehicle training centre

  2. 2.Agriculture – development of agro-based Industries

  3. 3.Fishing – fish ponds, related activities

  4. 4.Salt winning – create a market & expand

  5. 5.Engineering – forms of energy, development of infrastructure, water, sanitation

  6. 6.Tourism – beach resort, related activities

  7. 7.Community Centre (heart of the village) – social activities, language learning centre, library, entertainment, sports, recreation, counselling, workshops, creche, activities for the elderly, acting skills development, office facilities, first aid centre, playground, community radio studio.

In Pursuit of Economic Freedom

Benefits:  Enable a community to rely less on foreign investment for employment.  Utilise mobile and internet tools to engage effectively with the community.  Manage local sustainable (where possible) projects that develop the community; relying less on government initiatives to enable change.  As a model to help develop other villages and towns.  Improve research & development collaboration and retain talent pool.  Create wealth by training the villagers in sustainable skills and developing the agricultural activities already in place.