Featured Projects

Identified, designed, implemented,
​and owned by local communities.

CorpsAfrica Volunteers move to their sites with open minds and no pre-conceived notion of what project they will implement. Their most important role is that of listener. Pre-Service Training gives them the tools necessary to facilitate conversations to help the community identify its highest priority development need, and the introduction to Development Partners and other resources they might bring to their sites.

Volunteers are responsible for:
  • Performing a needs assessment on the project idea
  • Creating a budget and project proposal
  • Bringing in appropriate Development Partners to help design and implement the project alongside the community
  • Serving as a liaison between the partner and the community
  • Monitoring and evaluating the progress and success of the project
  • Submitting timely reports for full accountability and transparency – all while living in the community.
Some Previous Projects

SENEGAL PROJECTS
<<Liz Fanning Computer Room>>
​Abdou Cisse identified this project and worked with the staff of the primary school of the village of Diembereng to build a computer room to reduce the digital gap of the children in this rural area. Before the project, the children could not recognize the different components of a computer and had never before used computer tools. The room was equipped with 15 computers, and now they are having computer classes regularly. The community wanted to thank CorpsAfrica for this project, and named the room in honor of CorpsAfrica’s Founder, Liz Fanning. 
Community Bakery 
In the village of Darou Salam 1, the women are responsible for almost all household expenses, including education and food for their families. They lost their main source of income, gardening, due to water issues with well in their perimeter. Youssou Gueye facilited a community bakery project to create employment and revenue for these brave women. Two young men that initially left the village returned to be employed by this women-owned business. Each day, the women of Darou Salam 1 produce and sell around 300 loaves of bread. They share their profits at the end of the month.
Local Food Processing Unit
Faty Ka facilitated a project for a local processing unit for women, to give to the community an example of income-generating activities and encourage them to abandon dangerous and informal gold sites. Faty Ka served in the village of Segou near a gold-mining area in Kedougou region. In this community, many people frequent dangerous and informal gold sites in search of money to feed their families. These people face the loss of their land. This project helped the women to be equipped with a machine for the transformation of fonio, a traditional cereal popular to the African diaspora, as well as the production of peanut and cocoa butter. Faty Ka has also supported women in the labeling of their products to market at regional and national food fairs.
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Women's Garden 
In the village of Boucotte-Oulof, the women’s main economic activity is gardening. There is a touristic market in Cap-Skiring 3 kilometers away. However, deterred by the inability to draw water within the garden, many of the women had abandoned gardening activities. Rokhy facilitated a project to rehabilitate gardening with the purchase of solar equipment. The irrigation plan is composed of two panels and one pump in addition to small tools such as shovels and watering cans. This allowed the women to restart their activities and earn income by selling their products at the local market. 

 
Household Waste Collection
Amadou Alpha Ba facilitated this project with the collaboration of the association of the young people in the village of Missirah. While the association is located in the protected area of the Saloum Islands, the area persistently suffered from lack of sanitation and household waste collection. 200 garbage cans were purchased and distributed to the women and the young people. They organized for trash pickup every two days with a donkey. The community proposed a monthly contribution for upkeep, as well as savings to purchase additional garbage cans.  The village chief offered his land to serve as a dump. For the launching of the project, the team organized awareness campaigns on the preservation of the environment in the primary school. They also initiated clean-up activities within the village.

MALAWI PROJECTS

Irrigation Scheme
Alinafe Chikombole, along with 23 small scale farmers of Matapwata village in Chipoka, are currently working on irrigating 1.5 hectors of land growing different crops. The plan is to dig up three wells that then have a rope pump installed so the group can irrigate year-round. Currently the group has managed to dig one well, grow maize and prepare a small nursery for the leafy vegetables. The group is also doing village banking to increase individual household and total income. Overall this project seeks to increase income and yearly agricultural productivity. 
Organic Fertilizer
​With the help of the community, Mphatso Chembekeza is initiating the production of organic fertilizer to be used in the deteriorated fields to produce higher crop yields. The project aims to use locally available resources including Compost Manure, maize bran, water and a small amount of chemical fertilizer to produce organic fertilizer that can be used in maize, soya, tobacco or Irish potato fields to ensure food security and as a source of income. As part of the project the group will secure a solar pump, which they will use to irrigate two acres of maize on swamp land. Each individual member of Mchenga Farmers club has also made a compost pit which they will harvest for group or household fertilizer.  Eventually, the club plans to reach further markets and create and sell an organic fertilizer brand. 
Basketball Court 
Alpha Ba is a CorpsAfrica Exchange Volunteer from Senegal. He has been serving at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi since 2017. In collaboration with Jesuit Refugee Services and a group of young basketball players from the camp (the "Dream Team"), Alpha secured support from the NBA to build a new basketball court for youth at the camp.  The court will serve as a space for ongoing sports programs promoting dignity, social inclusion, and overall well-being for youth in this protracted refugee situation. See video above for more insights into this exciting project! 
Community Bakery
Dalitso Mndala, together with a group of women and men from his community, are constructing a local bakery. They plan to purchase bakery equipment and start up baking materials for the business. In addition, the group will be trained on baking scones. From their knowledge, they will aim at producing 200 scones a day to sell to nearby local markets.  From this project, the men and women will have a reliable and sustainable source of income from the sales of the business, thereby improving their living conditions.
Irrigation Farming Project
Promise Trust Chiwalo and a farmers’ group in his community have been taking care of the vegetable seedlings they have produced for their irrigation farming project. They have already purchased all required farm inputs, and they are currently in the process of purchasing a solar irrigation pump. In this project, the farmers' group will cultivate different types of vegetables on a one-acre piece of land, and the vegetables will be sold at the local markets. This will help to provide a better and sustainable livelihood to the 12 members of the farmers' group, increasing their household income in turn.

MOROCCO PROJECTS
Solar Panels to Reduce Electricity Use 
Ilyas Belhous discovered that his community members are active but have been wasting money on electricity. They came up with the idea of replacing the electricity with solar panels to save money. The local association will use this money to implement other projects for the development of the village. 
Multifunctional Room
We can never have a good societal model without investing in education, and that is why Soukaina Boukchouch chose to implement her project in the Asflala community. The project consists of a multidisciplinary space where a library area has been set up. The space will also be used for school and extra-curricular support sessions for students, workshops and trainings for young people, and adult literacy classes.
Building and Equipping a Classroom
Abderrahim Ajarif is working with the local association in his site of Tewerdiwin to address the local challenges of school dropout and illiteracy. They will do this by building an extra classroom next to the old one in the nearest primary school. The project aims to provide access to quality education for children and create an environment that facilitates positive learning and childhood development.
Latrine and Playground for Kindergarten 
Fatima Souhal built a latrine and playground for the kids in the kindergarten in her site. Fatima and her counterparts implemented this project to provide the kids a latrine with access to water and electricity and a space where they can move freely during breaks. The project will increase kindergarten attendance and retention, giving the new students a positive start to their schooling experience. 
Reconstruction of Irrigation Reservoir 
Since 2011, when the old reservoir was damaged, living in Iaabassen village became very difficult. A huge swath of harvest land dried up because of the absence of water. Hence, in collaboration with local association and community members, Mustapha Lamriss set out to reconstruct the reservoir. They achieved their goal, improving the quality of life and building local capacity to increase development efforts in other areas.