Matthew Atokple is one of the co-founders of FTG. Through serving at City of Refuge Ministries (CORM) for more than four years as the facilities manager and helping the ministry become self-sustaining through various agricultural programs, Matthew has a strong desire and passion to transform the world around him through the love of Jesus and agriculture. His dream is to alleviate hunger and poverty in the world and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a young boy in a small village with farmers as parents, Matthew was raised with agriculture all around him.
Growing up, Matthew was determined to go to study business in order to escape a farmer’s life, but God had other plans for him. It was actually while he was living Dansoman furthering his education in business that he discovered his love for plants and the beauty in their growth. It was also during this time that Matthew underwent deep hardships and confronted true hunger. Out of suffering this adversity, Matthew’s passion to help others grew into a desire to prevent anyone from ever experiencing hunger.
Shortly after leaving Dansoman, Matthew headed to CORM, an NGO dedicated to ending child trafficking in Ghana, where he started working as teacher. Here is where Matthew’s passion turned into action. In 2018, as Matthew’s role evolved from teaching students primary education to teaching the kids, staff, and community how to grow crops to be used for the organization, his calling to serve God also continued to evolve. Using both creative and foundational farming, Matthew has successfully developed and demonstrated sustainable farming practices. Knowing the great impact these farming practices could make on communities, Matthew launched FTG in 2019 to further share and spread these techniques alongside Christ’s love to all those in need.