Who We Are

Ackee Seed Foundation is a Netherlands-based NGO using creativity as a tool for social impact development in Jamaica and in the Netherlands. We produce cultural programming in the Netherlands and support community development initiatives in Jamaica, connected by a shared commitment to people, culture, and long-term change.

Our Story

Ackee Seed Foundation was born from something deeply personal and shared.

Our founder, Karla King, grew up in a small community in Trelawny, Jamaica. The kind of place where everyone knew everyone, and where people helped each other not because they had to, but because that was simply how life worked. There wasn’t always much to go around. But people made do, looked out for one another, and kept moving forward together. That upbringing planted something, unshakeable sense that giving back was never a question of if, but when.

For almost ten years, Karla has lived in the Netherlands. And through all of it, the state of Jamaica her island, her people, the communities that shaped her has never been far from her mind. Not just family and friends, but the wider picture. The potential she knows is there, and the barriers that keep getting in the way of it being realised.

When Hurricane Melissa hit, the question of when became how.

But Ackee Seed was never built by one person. The people who joined, our board members, our advisors, our collaborators are lovers of Jamaica. Of its culture, its creativity, its people, and everything it has to give. Philanthropists in their own right, each grounded in their professional and academic fields, each carrying their own version of that same innate drive. For them, as for us, building something that contributes to Jamaica’s development comes naturally. It is an extension of who they already are.

Together, we created something we believe in deeply. An organisation built not on urgency alone, but on a long-term commitment to the island and its communities.

The name says it all. Everything we do, we plant as a seed, an idea, a resource, a relationship, a creative spark with the intention of nurturing it into something that can grow and continue long after the moment has passed.

Fi Wi Ackee

Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and the heart of its national dish. Originally brought to the island from West Africa, it took root in Jamaican soil and culture so deeply that nowhere else in the world comes close to the relationship Jamaica has with it. It is resilient, it is nourishing, and it only truly flourishes where it belongs.
So we plant our seeds, in the belief that what grows from Jamaican soil, given the right conditions, can feed a community for generations. One seed at a time.

Our Vision

A world where creativity flows freely between Jamaica and the Netherlands. Where rural Jamaican communities have the resources and support to grow on their own terms, and where the diaspora in the Netherlands has space to gather, create, and stay connected to their roots. Each side feeding the other. Both moving forward together.

Our Mission

To use creativity as a vehicle for social impact and community development in rural Jamaica, through cultural programming in the Netherlands and community-led initiatives on the ground, connected by a shared commitment to people, culture, and long-term change.

    • We listen and research before we act

    • We build relationships before we send resources

    • We work with communities, not for them

    • We create lasting feedback loops

    • We use creativity as both a fundraising tool and a development practice

    • Human-centered

    • Community-led

    • Practical and sustainable

    • Transparent and accountable