About Vijana Africa
The future is not defined by conflict.
Vijana Africa is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization with affiliate offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi. Founded in 2013, we advance peace and conflict transformation through education, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement, working alongside young people and communities to build peaceful, inclusive societies.
Our Story
Young people belong at the center of what comes next.
We founded Vijana Africa in 2013 in the Democratic Republic of Congo around a simple conviction: young people and their communities should be at the center of building peace and opportunity.
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains central to that work, and the connections extend beyond its borders — technology, information, and the choices we make are part of a shared world.
Explore our programsOur mission
Vijana Africa advances peace and conflict transformation by equipping young people and their communities with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to address community needs through education, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. We support youth-led ideas and initiatives that build peaceful, inclusive societies.
Our Journey
Since 2013: a growing mission.
What began as grassroots peacebuilding and education work in Goma has grown into an organization that also researches, convenes, and advocates from the United States. Today, our work reaches across community peacebuilding and protection, education and digital access, youth leadership and organizational development, and economic opportunity.
Our Work in Congo and the United States
Program activity in Congo. Institutional engagement in the United States.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, our teams run the Vijana Mobile School, Community Peacebuilding dialogue, Gender-Based Violence Prevention awareness sessions, and Msingi wa Maendeleo’s organizational capacity-strengthening work with youth-led civil society groups.
In the United States, we carry forward public education, diaspora and community conversations, conference convening, university collaborations, and dialogue with policymakers and institutions on responsible technology and critical-minerals sourcing. This work predates Tech Peace for Congo’s March 2026 public campaign launch and continues alongside it. We co-organized the 2024 Horizon Conference with Kiota Global at James Madison University, collaborated with James Madison University students in fall 2026, hosted a community gathering on investing in peace with Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding ahead of the United Nations International Day of Peace, met with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ambassador to the United States in Washington, DC, and brought Tech Peace for Congo to the Congo Tech Expo in New York.
Read our field and institutional storiesConnected to this work
Our Approach
How our mission takes shape.
Our mission names education, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement as the approaches we take to conflict transformation. Operationally, we organize that work across three strategic pillars — Peacebuilding, Civilian Protection and Social Cohesion; Education and Youth Development; and Economic Empowerment and Community Resilience. The pillars are how we carry the mission out day to day, not a separate agenda.
Peacebuilding, Civilian Protection and Social Cohesion runs through Community Peacebuilding dialogue and Gender-Based Violence Prevention’s referral work. Education and Youth Development runs through the Vijana Mobile School and, for youth-led civil society, Msingi wa Maendeleo. Economic Empowerment and Community Resilience carries our livelihoods and entrepreneurship work forward through Youth Leadership & Economic Opportunity. Congo Evidence Observatory and Tech Peace for Congo, our two flagship initiatives, extend that work through research, technology, and accountability across all three pillars.
Our history, by the numbers
Since 2013
Founded in the Democratic Republic of Congo
From our organizational overview.
10,800+
People served across our programs
Since 2013, Vijana Africa has served more than 10,800 people through education, peacebuilding, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.
3 countries
Organizational base and affiliate offices: United States, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi
The United States is our organizational base and a center of advocacy, research, institutional engagement, and community work. The Democratic Republic of Congo is an affiliate office and our major center of program implementation. Malawi is an affiliate office, reflecting historical organizational and program experience.
Leadership and Governance
Our people and our governance.
Rodrigue Makelele — Founder & CEO
Rodrigue founded Vijana Africa and, as Founder & CEO, provides strategic leadership and oversight across the organization’s work in peacebuilding, education, and youth engagement, ensuring our mission and goals are achieved. He also chairs the Board of Directors.
Beyond the Founder & CEO, our executive leadership, operations, communications, and Mobile School field teams — along with our Board of Directors, former board members, and advisers — are introduced on our people page.
Meet our peopleOur Board of Directors provides strategic guidance, financial oversight, and institutional accountability, helping ensure our work advances our mission and stays grounded in the communities we serve.