Deep in a remote village in Meru, Stella kneels under a tree in an almost bare landscape in a small rural community, letting dirt run through her fingers as she ironically marvels at the beauty of this land devastated by deforestation.

“If not us, then who?” she asks, looking up at her small team of community volunteers with whom they were learning the art of kitchen gardening to achieve food security.

Stella is one among a new generation in Africa who are choosing not just to work but also to serve. Through CorpsAfrica, young graduates like Chifundo Chibaka and Stella Kidera are redefining what it means to lead change at the grassroots level.

What is CorpsAfrica?

Operating across ten countries in Africa, CorpsAfrica is a non-government organization that, through volunteerism and belief that Africans are best positioned to lead collaborative, transformative, and sustainable change within their communities, places college-educated African youth in rural communities to help them identify and solve their most pressing local challenges.

“CorpsAfrica gave me a platform, taking me into the community and letting me experience life with the community in their daily context to help identify and come up with tailored solutions to address their most pressing need,” says Chifundo Chibaka, a professional in Genetics and Plants breeding, and Communications Officer for CorpsAfrica Malawi.

The recruited youth undergo training to use Human-Centered Design and asset-based Community Development approaches to engage the community and customize tailor-made solutions.

“The principle of our approaches is tailor-made solutions that work for the people,” says Stella.

Stella Kidera: The Lady Who Planted Confidence

Stella Kidera holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology. When she volunteered at CorpsAfrica, she was seeking an opportunity to put her skills to use and make an impact in the community, a chance that many corporations did not take on her due to lack of field experience.

“The organization is tailored for the youth, and they took a chance on me, gave me the opportunity to grow as an individual and also make impact in the community,” says the city girl whose first posting to serve in a rural community came as a new experience.

In her community of service, food security was in crisis as a result of the reduced yield associated with the adverse effects of climate change.

“The community was quite receptive, and through civic involvement, we initiated community-led projects, educating the community about malnutrition and constructing kitchen gardens,” says Stella.

Through these community-led initiatives, Stella steered training on financial literacy and “how to start a business and improve income generation in households,” she says.

“I also initiated mentorship programs for young girls on the value of self-worth, dangers of early marriage,” she says. Moreover, based on her illuminating training at CorpsAfrica before going into the field, Stella was not afraid to engage in much-needed conversations that have been ignored in most communities.

“In my engagements with the young girls, we addressed self-esteem issues and carried out sex education, which is mostly considered a taboo topic even by teachers at school,” intimates Stella.

Speaking on her mentorship efforts of the community’s young girls, Stella says, “We’re prisoners to what we’re familiar with. Sometimes, all someone needs is a new option.”

She also sparked environmental awareness through tree nurseries and gabion construction.

“Charcoal making was rampant, which left the land bare and vulnerable to agents of erosion.  We started by planting indigenous tree beds and nurseries, and as the landscape was rich in rocks and sand, together with the community, we initiated and built gabions to mitigate the risks of further erosion,” she says.

Chifundo Chibaka: The Geneticist Who Built a Bee Movement

“When I got sent into the community, I engaged the youth, and their main concern was income generation to be financially secure. Using our approach of asset-based community development, we identified that we could use the one resource that the community had in abundance without disrupting their way of life,” says Chifundo, emphasizing that each solution should be tailored to every community’s needs.

Chifundo, together with the youth, initiated an apiculture project and, benefitting from the knowledge and expertise of one of the elders in the community who had plied the trade for years, were able to launch a successful youth-led business.

Lauding the project’s success in environmental conservation, Chifundo says, “People are afraid of bees. Once we set up, the beehives acted as a buffer stopping people from encroaching; now new tree nurseries are being set up and an additional economic opportunity for the youth.”

Chifundo intimates that the field experience influenced massive personal growth in him.

“In the field, I discovered that I loved storytelling and explored my new-found interest in videography and photography to tell stories of impacts made by the project in the local community,” he says.

Highlighting the CorpsAfrica approach in community empowerment, Chifundo says, “The problem with development is coming up with generalized solutions instead of tailor-made solutions. The principle of our approaches is to tailor-make solutions that work for the people.”

The CorpsAfrica alumni emphasizes that it is crucial to have the community take ownership and lead the project to assure its completion and eventual success. Moreover, their focus when helping tailor solutions is to come up with those rooted in sustainability.

The transformative training at CorpsAfrica does not only equip the volunteers with the right skills to use in the field but also the humility to serve. With volunteering emerging as a new frontier for youth leadership to effect change, they didn’t just help; they built structures, confidence, and lasting networks.

“CorpsAfrica didn’t just train me, it introduced me to myself,” says Stella.

Both are excited about the upcoming ACC 2025 conference slated for June, which will bring together more than a thousand youth changemakers from across ten African countries.

“This is a chance to give a lot of young people exposure and experience something different, interacting with different people, coming together and learning from one another in the spirit of Ubuntu. A chance for the youth to be heard, this will be a unique opportunity,” says Stella.

Chifundo highlights that this will be a pan-African platform for policy engagement, youth representation, and cross-border innovation.

“We will have a lot of stakeholders who can affect change and policies. We will have them listen to us and take up ideas from the youth to implement,” says Chifundo.

As the winds of change blow across the continent, the African youth have an opportunity to shape their destiny and the future of the continent.

“It’s not about words anymore, it’s about action,” says Stella.