A tennis racket. A safe space. A new chance.
3SF is a grassroots tennis foundation based in La, Ghana created to give children a way out, a way forward, and a place to belong. We use tennis as a tool to take kids off the street, open up new career paths, and build confidence through movement, discipline, and mentorship.
We started with nothing but passion, a lace cloth for a net, iron rods to hold it up, and the open space in front of our house. The kids trained barefoot. We shared rackets. Balls flew over our low wall and were often lost. But still, they came from the streets, from the neighbourhood, from places where children are often forgotten. And they played.
Our dream is bold but simple: to train Ghanaian kids who can stand on global courts one day, not just as athletes, but as proof that possibility can come from anywhere. We want to give them a dream they may have never dared to dream and everything it takes to chase it.
Four years on, we’re still here using sport to keep children healthy, focused, and away from harm. We want to give them more than tennis. We want to give them structure, healing, and hope.
Hey Girl Foundation Ghana began as a conversation between two Ghanaian women, Anastasia Okine and Nana Afia Abrafi Amponsah who were tired of watching girls shrink under the weight of colorism and period shame.
We didn’t start Hey Girl because it was trendy. We started it because we lived it. We grew up in a world where the lighter you were, the more beautiful they said you were. Where young girls were forced to miss school because they didn’t have access to something as basic and natural as sanitary pads. We couldn’t unsee that.
So, we built something that speaks to the heart of it: a foundation that exists to end colorism and menstrual poverty in Ghana, while restoring confidence, dignity, and power to the very girls who are too often overlooked.