Our Mission
CorpsAfrica recruits and trains African youth to serve in rural communities within their own countries, partnering with them to co-create sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen livelihoods, and build resilience. In doing so, we are advancing a pan-African movement rooted in volunteerism, entrepreneurship, and community-led development.
Our work prioritizes youth, women, children, people with disabilities, and refugees who often face barriers to education, healthcare, clean water, food security, employment, and economic opportunity. By working hand in hand with communities, CorpsAfrica ensures that every initiative is inclusive, impactful, and grounded in local priorities.
Our Origin Story
CorpsAfrica was founded in 2011 by Liz Fanning, a former Peace Corps Volunteer who saw firsthand the power of community-driven development, and the potential of young people, especially young women, to lead change in their own communities. While serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, Liz met young Moroccans eager to serve, only to realize the program was open exclusively to Americans. That experience sparked the vision for CorpsAfrica: an organization where African youth drive meaningful change at home.
To bring this vision to life, Liz created CorpsAfrica in 2011 to give university-educated African youth a transformative opportunity to serve in their own countries. Today, CorpsAfrica Volunteers engage directly in community development, strengthen their leadership skills, and explore their role in shaping Africa’s future.
How we Work
Volunteers receive training in human-centered design, asset-based community development, project management, and monitoring and evaluation. For up to a year, they live with host families in remote villages, fully immersing themselves in community life.
Through close listening, trust-building, and collaboration, Volunteers co-create small-scale, high-impact projects that reflect local priorities and strengthen community resilience.
The impact of a CorpsAfrica experience extends far beyond a single year of service. Volunteers emerge as leaders, mentors, and entrepreneurs, applying the skills and lessons they gained during service to their careers and communities, and inspiring the next generation to see themselves as leaders.
Our Lasting Impact
Since launching its first program in Morocco in 2011, CorpsAfrica has expanded to 11 countries across the continent and plans to reach all 54 African nations within the next decade.
So far, we’ve placed more than 1,700 Volunteers across Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. Together, they’ve completed over 800 community-led projects, building wells, schools, roads, and irrigation systems, establishing education programs, and supporting vegetable and livestock farms.
By investing in African youth and rural communities, CorpsAfrica tackles cycles of poverty while preparing the next generation of leaders to drive lasting change across the continent.
Explore CorpsAfrica
CorpsAfrica Staff
Behind every project and community partnership is a dedicated team working to empower Volunteers. →
Leadership Team
Meet the people guiding CorpsAfrica with integrity, vision, and dedication to impact. →
Reports and Financials
CorpsAfrica is committed to transparency and accountability in everything we do. →
Program Partners
CorpsAfrica’s Partners collaborate to drive our mission and community impact. →
Our Core Values
The CorpsAfrica model is built on values that put local ownership at the heart of everything we do. These principles are as community-driven as the projects themselves, ensuring that every initiative reflects the priorities, strengths, and vision of the people we work alongside. We are committed to creating meaningful, lasting change, and we hold ourselves accountable for the results we deliver.
Locals helping locals
Young Africans can be part of the solution for their own countries. By relocating to remote communities in their own countries for one year, they fully integrate by learning local customs, participating in daily activities, and becoming trusted community members.
Collaboration
CorpsAfrica Volunteers serve as liaisons between their communities and the outside world, including a wide range of Program Partners such as NGOs, development-related businesses, government officials, academics and social entrepreneurs. These Partners share their expertise and assist with project implementation.
Listening and capacity building
We stress the importance and power of listening. Volunteers lead change by engaging people in conversations and facilitating community meetings. Development efforts are most effective when they are “demand driven,” giving community members the opportunity to identify problems and to take the lead in solving them.
Monitoring and evaluation
No effort is complete without thorough monitoring and evaluation. Volunteers are taught how to facilitate a needs assessment in local communities and measure impact and sustainability. CorpsAfrica measures the effect on the lives of Volunteers who have gained valuable grassroots community development experience.
Accountability and transparency
It is critical to demonstrate successes as well as failures to Program Partners, communities, and other stakeholders, so we can be held accountable for everything we do. It keeps us motivated and encourages us to be the best we can be.
Our goals
Our goals are the compass that guide CorpsAfrica in our efforts to achieve youth-driven, collaborative, African-led development.
Engage
Engage African youth in community-led service that builds pathways to purposeful, successful careers.
Inspire
Inspire a strong pan-African community and network of public service.
Connect
Connect rural areas to the resources and innovations of diverse NGO partners.
Build
Build the capacity of rural villages, with a focus on women and girls, to achieve self-sufficiency across all sectors.
Support Our Work
CorpsAfrica addresses two of Africa’s most difficult challenges: engaging youth and helping rural communities overcome extreme poverty. We recruit and train motivated volunteers to live and work in rural, under-resourced areas in their own countries. They collaborate with the community to design and implement small-scale projects that address their top priorities and, by doing so, gain the skills and experience that lay the foundation for personal and professional success.
CorpsAfrica trusts youth and communities to help each other.
CorpsAfrica is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – Federal tax ID#: 45-2470692