We were lucky to catch up with Kindra Parker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kindra, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
After being invited by a friend to be a speaker for the My Girl Pride program in Kwahu, Ghana it filled my heart with joy. I went back home… but a piece of my heart stayed with those 20 girls that day. I was trying to work on projects and endeavors, but all I could think about were these girls, their sweet faces, eyes full of promise, and how I couldn’t wait to get back to them.
It all started when I went back in 2019 and chose to use my concert ticket money for the Afro Nation Festival to have instead wifi installed for the first time for the entire community in Obomeng-Kwahu. My donation gave free wifi access to 3K people. While I was sad that I missed my favorite artist Burna Boy, the feeling of gratitude to be able to make such a huge difference made up for it. Later on, my friends reimbursed me out of pure generosity and that’s when I knew firsthand that it really does take a village to build a village! So I founded MentorHer Ghana as a 501c3 in the US and later as an LBG nonprofit in Ghana.
The next steps were intuitive. I raised money via Facebook donations among my friends and purchased cameras, headsets, and A/V equipment. Once we had equipment I developed our first program, the Digital Mentorship Program, where each of the girls I met with got a personal mentor they met with one on one virtually. Then I found a teen self-help book and reached out to the author who helped me make a deal with the publishing company to ship me books in bulk, and then I packed everything up and shipped it over to Ghana to get started!
Since 2020 have served over 200 youth in Kwahu and we have a current enrollment of 150 girls, with a running waitlist.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The first this to know about me is that I’m multifaceted. I currently have 3 companies. I am the founder of a nonprofit in Ghana, and I also have a Corporate Marketing and Consulting Company Parker Peridot Consulting Group, as well as an Entertainment Marketing Consulting firm Larimar Entertainment. Under my companies, I am currently the Festival Director for the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival and also the Detroit local lead for Sofar Sounds a company that produces secret pop-up music concerts globally. I live in both the US and Ghana to make sure I’m available for all projects. Being Bicontinental is a lot of responsibility but has its advantages. It’s great to be able to have a global perspective on creating events and solutions and identifying consumer and customer behaviors. Having worked in every major US market, as well as Europe and Africa I pride myself on having a well-rounded understanding of people in general. At the end of the day, I’m a people person, that believes in an excellent work ethic and I love to use my talents to make sure people are happy and satisfied with their experiences. My specialty is Experiential Events, no matter what sector I’m working in it always comes down to how well the brand impresses upon the consumer. I have a keen ability to put myself in the shoes of the consumer, realize what I would want, and then execute that vision from the brand side for the client. I have clients with more than 20+ years old relationships because they know that I approach projects and people with a long-term vision of the success story. I’ve led corporate events, private events, festivals, parties, and government events I’ve also created proprietary events for some of the top global brands in the world. I pride myself in my vision, my comprehension of objectives, and my ability to develop and execute a strategy that makes everyone a winner.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I moved to Martha’s Vineyard from Detroit in 2013. Coming fresh out of a divorce and climbing my way out of a financial rut, I knew I had to make some bold moves to create the life I wanted again. I researched every event that was coming to the island that looked like fun and instead of attending, I offered my services to volunteer. I ended up volunteering for the prestigious Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. I did this for several years. The last year I volunteered I hosted one of the major sponsors for their site visit. It was a car company so I took the initiative to map out some potential routes for their test drives, put together welcome packets with useful information about the island, and took them on a tour so that they could familiarize themselves with the market. They ended up asking the Festival owners if I could be assigned as their sponsor liaison during the event. I ended up doing my regular volunteer service and being their sponsor liaison because I knew that I understood their need as a major sponsor, I wanted to make sure they were happy. My double duty sacrifice paid off because a year to the date of that festival the automotive brand called me and asked me to accept a position as their national Multicultural Events Manager. I happily accepted and spent years there honing my chops and working with an incredible mentor who essentially gave me the tools and the acumen that I needed to launch my own consulting company during the pandemic when contract and remote work became highly popular.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In 2018 I began visiting a small town in the Eastern Region of Ghana to speak to young girls because the town had an epidemic of 700 teenage pregnancies the year prior. I kept returning to the town and eventually in 2019 I donated money to install wifi in the town’s community center. It was the first public wi-fi available to the 3000 residents. I wanted to make a difference in the town, so I started a 501c3 when I returned to Detroit in January 2020 (before everyone’s life changed.) When the pandemic hit in February 2020 I knew no matter what I had to keep pushing forward with my initiative for the girls in Ghana. I reached out to the author of a teen self-help/ self-esteem book and told her my mission and asked if there was any way she could assist me in getting books to my girls in Ghana. She introduced me to the publisher and requested that I receive 50% off of the books which was a huge help. Then, while I had everyone’s captive attention, I raised money via Facebook to purchase A/V and tech equipment. I raised enough money to purchase and ship everything to Ghana and then I created a virtual mentorship program for the girls. After that, since I knew that everyone was stuck in the house, I used that time to recruit mentors to work with my girls virtually. I managed to run a successful program for 6 months virtually and it became the flagship program for our organization.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mentorherghana.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/motowngirlkp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MentorHerGhana
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kindraparker/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mentorherghana
- Other: https://www.parkerperidot.com https://larimarentertainmet.com