Changemaker
/change·maker/ changemakers n.
A grassroots leader transforming their community from the ground up.
African Road is built on a foundation of friendship with local partners and their communities in East Africa.
These partners – the Changemakers – inspire change through grit, integrity and sacrificial leadership. Changemakers are already recognized as dedicated leaders with a staunch commitment to their people or cause. African Road comes alongside to accelerate good work that is already underway but may need further resources to advance.
In addition to supporting Changemakers with strategic project funding, we are committed to equipping Changemakers with targeted capacity building through our Strong Roots Together initiative.
David Clemy
Uganda
Ugandan leader David is transforming communities with Village Community Banking, or VICOBA Plus. One part business training and two parts dreaming big and starting with what you have, VICOBA Plus is empowering entire communities to be self-sustaining.
As a young man, David began to help people by encouraging them to think outside the box. Combining small business training, group savings to generate capital, and “mindset shift,” these workshops help groups of ordinary people break the cycle of poverty together.
African Road has partnered with David since 2014 to bring VICOBA Plus to 34 communities across East Africa, generating over $18,000 in savings, launching over 90 businesses, training new facilitators to create new VICOBA hubs in Rwanda and Tanzania, and impacting over 3,400 lives.
Today, African Road is working with David as he creates an official manual, so trainers can spread VICOBA Plus workshops and empowerment throughout East Africa and beyond.
Consoler Wilbert
Tanzania
A lifeline to the vulnerable, Consoler and her supportive husband, Eliya, provide a home for 60+ girls and young women who are escaping from domestic servitude. This modern form of slavery is often violent and oppressive. Consoler makes sure the girls they care for are educated and taught life skills that will enable them to be independent.
African Road helped New Hope for Girls to start a small business selling sewing supplies that will support the organization’s vital work. We continue in partnership to help this remarkable couple become self-sufficient, and help turn their long-held dream of a ‘Forever Home’ into a reality.
Consoler is part of a dynamic duo: Her husband, Eliya, who graduated with a degree in accounting, helps keep the books on track and provides support – both in the home and in the sewing shop – to help things run smoothly.
Together they carry a heavy load, but they still find time to laugh and play.
Eliya Wilbert
Tanzania
Eliya Wilbert is a VICOBA Plus Lead Facilitator in Tanzania, and dad of New Hope for Girls.
African Road first partnered with Eliya Wilbert in 2015. We began with funding VICOBA Plus training for Eliya and Consoler in order to equip them to build NHGO’s financial stability. Eliya went on to receive facilitator coaching, and to establish a dynamic VICOBA Plus hub in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Eliya brings people together, and helps leads group formation and training expertise for VICOBA Plus. He is effectively facilitating community organizing and cross-pollination for small groups across the East African region. He is committed to his work of advancing gender empowerment in the Tanzanian context. And, he’s a devoted dad to over 60 girls through the New Hope for Girls Organization and Family.
Philbert Kalisa
Rwanda
Born and raised in a refugee camp outside his country of Rwanda, Philbert Kalisa understands the pain and complexity of reconciliation on a deeply personal level. After visiting Rwanda for the first time at the age of 29, Philbert witnessed the societal divisions created by the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis. Feeling the need to address these deep divisions, Philbert launched project REACH in 1996.
Over the last 29 years, REACH has helped transform enemies into friends and continues to addres the root causes of division through conflict resolution and community-based solutions.
Today, REACH is applying their network of community groups and seasoned expertise to contribute in a timely way to develop culturally appropriate approaches to well-being and mental health in Rwanda, meeting the growing needs of a changing society.
African Road is partnering with REACH, bringing VICOBA Plus to unity groups – financially empowering communities to grow strong together.
Peninah Mukashema
Rwanda
Peninah is President and Adiminstrator of the Togetherness Cooperative, and an integral part of the community. She began as a young volunteer at Togetherness, offering her skills in English and math to support the work of the community. She says, “When I met Steven, his vision of helping people, especially orphans, inspired me. I was born in a poor family, and so I always had that heart for helping others.”
After years of dedicating herself and serving beside the youth of the Cooperative, Peninah was elected President of Togetherness.
A champion for women’s rights, Peninah utilized her degree in finance and accounting to help launch the Women’s Bakery business at Togetherness and continues to encourage gender equity among members of the cooperative. She is also the lead VICOBA facilitator at the new Rwanda hub.
She is breaking boundaries and stereotypes left and right, setting an example for the young women of Togetherness.
Steven Turikunkiko
Rwanda
Mild-mannered hero and original African Road Changemaker, Steven is the inspiration behind our founding as an organization.
An orphan himself, Steven felt compelled to help orphans and widows after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. He brought genocide orphans together and helped them to form the
Togetherness Cooperative.
The Togetherness Cooperative is now a group of 145 young people and children who have their own land to play soccer, farm, access clean water, and start their own small businesses. Steven also inspired women from his own church to form the All Souls Women’s Cooperative. Because of Steven’s support, a rural community is thriving.
For more than 14 years, African Road has partnered with Steven to empower these communities — and his own family — to become self-sustaining.
Evariste Ndikumana
Burundi
Evariste is a truly remarkable leader for the Batwa people, the most marginalized indigenous group in Burundi. Evariste was the second Batwa person in his country to complete university. After graduating with a law degree, he has served multiple terms in parliament. Evariste has also formed a Batwa non-profit organization called ASSEJEBA. Together with his team, he passionately represents and serves the Batwa people.
African Road partners with Evariste by providing ID Kits — including ID cards, a vital identity marker in Burundian society — and projects and training to build capacity in Batwa communities.
Wangu Kanja
Nairobi, Kenya
Wangu note only arranges for first response to reported rape – including medical care and legal action when possible – but also arranges ongoing support groups, dance therapy, and small business development for survivors.
African Road is partnering with her to bring VICOBA small business and savings training for capacity and income building projects for her community.