Meet the Board

Notable Visitors

Edem Kosi Richard Adjordor
Ghanaian Director/Co-Founder
Click Here to Hear From Edem About HardtHaven
Edem Kosi Richard Adjordor is 27 years old, the Co-Founder and Ghanaian Director of HardtHaven and a member of the International AIDS Society. He lives in Kpando, Ghana and his parents are Madam Rosemary Aku Wordey from the royal Kendra Clan of Kpando Dzanti, and Mr. Peter Wallace Adzordor from the royal Dzoka clan of Kpando Konda, in the Volta region of Ghana.

Edem completed secondary school in Kpando and has attended the Teacher Training College in Amedzofe. When Edem was only 17 he and several of his friends started a youth organization called the Volta Star Family Fun Club. Edem also started computer store in Accra with His cousin Harrison Addom, called Radiant Vision, and was the Operations Manager for several years in addition to being a volunteer teacher in Konda.

Edem is currently the Regional Coordinator for the international web-based Global Youth Action Network and is the Co-Founder of Coalition of Youth Groups in the Volta Region. He has attended dozens of youth and development workshops and even organized several workshops for youth in his region in the past couple of years. Edem won 2007 World Bank small Grant Youth award to educate youths in Volta Region on the Mellinum Development Goals. (MDGs) and was elected as the youth representative at the national level at the just ended Jubilee Leaders Youth Summit.

Edem works unpaid for HardtHaven (hopefully we can afford to start paying him next year) and spends most of his days at the Home helping with the kids, fundraising, working on projects, working with volunteers, and raising support in the community. Edem has contacts all over the world, is extremely motivated and creative, and is an essential part of HardtHaven. He hopes to be able to travel to Europe next year to raise awareness and funds for HardtHaven.

Joy Hardt
Executive Director/Co-Founder
Joy Hardt is 24 years old and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of HardtHaven. She is a Naval Officer in the United States Navy Nurse Corps currently stationed at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. She will soon be working in the in-patient psych ward and is a team leader for the command Chemical-Biological-Radiological-Nuclear Decon Team in addition to being a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.

Joy is working towards her Masters in International Relations through Webster University. She is a member of the International AIDS Society and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Joy attended the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008), which was held in Mexico City August 2008.

Originally from Spokane, Washington, Joy attended Eastern Washington University then studied abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia. She ultimately graduated from the Intercollegiate College of Nursing through Washington State University in December 2007 with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing.

Joy has experience as a Disaster Services Volunteer for the American Red Cross and spent 2 weeks in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina providing relief. She also volunteered with the Spokane Mountaineers Search and Rescue team and spent 3 years as a Firefighter-EMT for Spokane County Fire District 3.

Joy has traveled to Ghana 5 times, Togo, Benin, Amsterdam, Sierra Leone, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Canada, Belize, and Mexico. Her last trip was to Ghana in March 2009 to work with Edem, Lisa, and Sonjelle on HardtHaven expansion projects.

Sonjelle Shilton
Country Administrator
Sonjelle Shilton first came to volunteer at HardtHaven in August of 2007, staying for a period of 6 weeks, during that time she was so impressed with Edem and felt such a connection to the children that she decided to come back to work as the Country home administrator. She volunteered a second time at the home in this capacity from February 2008 to July 2009. Once Sonjelle returns to the U.S, she will continue to remain active in the HardtHaven organization, she is a board member and will help to coordinate activities for HardtHaven on the U.S end, as well as serving as the secretary for HardtHaven and helping to produce a planned quarterly news letter about the goings on and upcoming events at HardtHaven.

As Sonjelle was the first long term volunteer in a very young organization she has had the pleasure of being on the ground floor and experiencing the growing pains of HardtHaven. HardtHaven has transformed in many ways in her eyes. Starting off as a home for 15 vulnerable children and expanding to a home that provides full time care for 19 children that now helps to maintain the health and hope of 30 children and their families in the surrounding comminutes, as well as helping to care for women affected by HIV/AIDS that were previously left without not only medical care, but personal contact.

Her time at HardtHaven was at many times challenging; figuring out how to be the primary care giver to 19 children, trying to learn the local language and customs and helping to put together an organizational system sometimes seemed overwhelming. However the rewards of working here outweighed the challenges to a large degree. Seeing one of our girls, who we were told in August 2007 had a 6 month life expectancy attend school for the first time in her life in September 2008. Watching Christopher, now almost two, run around the yard chasing chickens and thinking back to the time in April 2008 when she and other volunteers slept on the hospital floor next to his bed worrying if he was going to pull through the night.

Sonjelle graduated with an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in 2007. At Rutgers she became interested in Africa after studying African history, volunteering at HardtHaven is the first step in a long journey of living and helping in Africa. She is returning back to the U.S to continue her schooling in September 2009, and hopes to pursue a Masters degree in Nursing. Once this degree is completed she plans to return to Africa to continue to work with children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, hopefully one day making her home permanently in Africa.

Lisa Fuller
US Director/Volunteer Coordinator
Lisa Fuller is 33 years old and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a registered nurse and after many years of providing bedside care for Oncology patients, she now manages global clinical trials for Biogen Idec. Lisa is also a part-time graduate student at Boston University and is working on a Masters of Business Administration in Health Sector Management.

Lisa had always wanted to volunteer in Africa and found her way to HardtHaven through Cosmic Volunteers. Her first trip to Kpando was in December of 2007 and she fell immediately in love with the country, the people and especially the children. Once back in the US, she became increasingly involved with the organizational aspect of HardtHaven and made her second trip to Ghana in March of 2008. She has recently joined the Board of Directors for HardtHaven and is currently planning her next trip to Kpando.

Jessy van de Beek
Home Administrator
Jessy van de Beek is 28 years old and is from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Ever since she was a little girl, the issues in developing countries attracted her attention. After graduating from the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam with a master's degree in International Public Health, she will start working at HardtHaven in June 2009.

During her masters she spent a period of four months in Benin accomplishing a qualitative research on the Beninese Health Care System. The research was part of a PhD and a cooperation between the ministry of health of Benin and two universities. She interviewed different actors on the process of procurement, distribution and maintenance of medical devices and health care technologies. She analyzed the interviews and used the results to make recommendations for the improvement of the current process. In the upcoming months Jessy and her supervisor will work on a publication.

In Benin Jessy did not only accomplish her research. While she was analyzing the results and writing the report, she worked in two orphanages. One orphanage in Cotonou, the main city, and one in Allada, a village near Cotonou. The main activities were playing with and taking care of the children, which she loves to do.

The stay in Benin confirmed to Jessy that she is very committed to work in a developing country and she would love to share and expand her knowledge and skills. She is very excited to start the job as home administrator.

Bobby Hanson
Webmaster
Bobby Hanson is 25 years old and is webmaster of The HardtHaven Foundation. He currently lives in Darien, Connecticut, USA. Bobby graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder as an Ecomics major in 2006. Since graduating Bobby has been interested in helping chilrdren in need. He found this great opportunity to work with HardtHaven through a peace corp friend in Ghana. He had a strong background in making websites and has loved donating his time to help give the children a better chance at life.

Bobby has always wanted to travel and understand how other parts of the world live. Once he graduated from college he found a job working with websites full time. On his first vacation he took the great opportunity to come to HardtHaven and meet all the kids in the HardtHaven family. It was the best decision he has ever made. The kids in HardtHaven left such a great impact on his life that he can't wait for his next chance to visit them agian. In the mean time he is doing everything he can to help us from the US.

Management advisory support:

• Eli Adetor - District Director of National Disaster (Ghana)
• Timothy Dougherty - Peace Corp Volunteer (US/ currently living in Ghana)
• Tim Thomas - Executive Director, MTV's Staying Alive Foundation (US)