The official name of the organisation is derived from the phrase Okodie Akwantuo Kuo, an Ashanti Twi (Ghana language) expression which translates loosely as JOURNEY OF EAGLES. The official registered name of the organisation is Kasei Oak Foundation. Kasei is a suburb of Ejura in the Ashanti Region.
OAK Foundation started in 2013 as PAM Girls Advancement Club (PAMGAD). The club was the brainchild of Portia Agyei Yeboah, whose burning passion for the education and career development of young girls from poor homes, was nurtured out of the circumstances of her own childhood.
Portia grew up in a family so poor they could not afford to put her in school from an early age. She was later given to an extended family member who promised to educate her. However, this family member handed her to a petty trader in Northern Ghana as a servant. While her peers were in school, Portia spent her days fetching firewood from forests and hawking foodstuffs in the open markets of Tamale.
After five years of servitude, Portia’s family found her and sent her to school. She started primary school at age eleven and through sheer determination, hard work, and the magnanimity of benefactors, she was able to complete Senior High school and gain entry to the University of Ghana, where she studied for a Bachelors of Arts Degree and now has a Masters Degree in Organisational Leadership and Governance. Portia is the first female to graduate from the university in her entire family.
After graduating from the University of Ghana, Portia realized that her passion still lay in volunteerism and not-for-profit work. Consequently, she invited her friend, Mavis Durowaa Mainu, to form PAMGAD, now Kasei Oak Foundation.
Portia and Mavis set up OAK Foundation with other female friends such as Irene Owusu Amoako, Evelyn Naana Essel-Cobbah, and Barbera Ewurasi Sam.
After three formative years, Portia established a social enterprise division, first to raise funds to support its charity work, but more importantly to promote agriculture and agribusiness as vehicles for the economic empowerment of young women. Furthermore, it serves as a platform for delivering its objective of growing professional women in Africa.