I first landed in Accra in 2022 and immediately fell in love — with the energy, the food, the people, the feeling that something was possible there that wasn't possible anywhere else. I'm married to a Ghanaian, and our child is Ghanaian American, so this wasn't just travel for me. It was homecoming. But even with family there, even with personal ties to the country, the logistics of actually living abroad were harder than anyone told me they'd be. Where do you find a doctor who understands your background? What does rent actually cost in a neighborhood that isn't a tourist trap? Who do you talk to when you're having a hard week and everyone back home is asleep?
Because the hardest part of moving abroad isn't the distance — it's doing it alone.
I spent hours in Facebook groups where the answer to every question was "it depends on your lifestyle." I scrolled through Reddit threads from 2019 that may or may not still be true. I pieced together information from strangers who meant well but hadn't lived in the country for years. There was no single place built for people in transition — people who were serious about making a move, not just visiting. No platform that combined the practical tools, the real cost of living data, and the kind of community that only comes from people who actually know what it feels like to land somewhere new and have to build a life.
The information existed somewhere. It just wasn't anywhere you could actually find it — not in one place, not verified, not recent, and not written by someone who had actually been through it.
I built Asaafo because I was uniquely positioned to. I'm not a tech founder who read a market report. I'm a Black American woman, a mother, an entrepreneur, and someone who has been navigating the space between two worlds for years. I understand what it means to move with purpose — not just to relocate, but to belong somewhere new. I have the lived experience, the community ties, and the deep personal investment to build something that actually works for people like me. And I found that there are a lot of people like me.
My vision for Asaafo is simple: I want it to be the first thing someone opens when they decide to move abroad, and the last thing they need to open because it already has everything. I want a woman in Houston planning her move to Accra to feel the way I wish I had felt — informed, connected, and supported before she even gets on the plane. I want a man in Lagos building a new life in Lisbon to find his people on Asaafo before he lands. I want expats everywhere to have a home base that moves with them, no matter where in the world they go next.