Young leaders who raise young leaders.

Last year our trainers stood in front of 43,140 students in 210 school halls across Rwanda and Burundi. This is what happens next.

Founded in Kigali in 2009 by graduates of Cornerstone Leadership Academy. Led by Rwandans and Burundians today.

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Students wave at the camera during a YIM school visit
Students at a YIM school visit, Rwanda.

It starts in a school hall.

A YIM trainer stands at the front of an assembly and asks the question the whole programme is built on: where are you going?

Sessions on vision, character and servant leadership follow, and on the practical things too: how to plan, how to start something, how to keep going when it fails.

210school halls last year, and a YIM Club left behind in every one. A visit costs us $25.

Students assembled in a school yard for a YIM visit
A school visit. Every visit leaves a club behind.
The hall fills for the Annual Vision Conference
Annual Vision Conference, 2019.

Then the student leaders gather.

Every year since 2009, the Vision Conference has filled school halls with student leaders for days of teaching on unity and reconciliation, integrity, hard work and leadership that serves.

Last year more than 2,000 came in Rwanda and more than 1,000 in Burundi.

$19pays for one student's whole place at the conference.

Back at school, someone keeps showing up.

A conference can change how a young person sees their life. A friendship keeps it changed. So YIM stays: in clubs that carry on long after the visit, and in small "Doing Life Together" groups where mentors and students share life, not just lessons.

It is the Cornerstone conviction we were founded on: relationships first, tasks second.

A mentor and students together after a gathering
After a Doing Life Together gathering.

And then they lift others.

A student leads a session with a microphone
A student leading a session.

"With my colleagues, we have opened up a restaurant in Nyabugogo. Before the programme, I was afraid of failing. I have since realised that fear leads to business failure."

Samuel Muhawinimana, Kigali Leading Technical School

"I started my own business of making bags using local materials. I am able to help my parents in paying part of my school fees."

Phoebe Gasasira, Kigali Leading Technical School

A student at Nyamata High School was helped out of drug addiction through YIM. He is now one of its trainers.

Steven Burora, YIM mentor

Quotes from The New Times, May 2017. More stories

One young person, lifted, lifts others. We call it transformed to transform.

Sam BirondwaFounder

"I am sending you to build my people's hearts, not houses."

Sam grew up an orphan in a house with thirty other children. In April 2008, on a bus to Kigali during the month of remembrance, he heard those words. A year later he started Youth Impact Mission. His reason has not changed: if we do not teach our youth how to love, live and leave a legacy, someone else will teach them how to hate and be destructive.

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What we do

Vision ConferenceThe heart of YIM: days that change how a young person sees their life.3,000+ delegates a yearA speaker at the 2019 Annual Vision ConferenceSchool visits and YIM ClubsWe go to the students, then we stay.210 schools a yearStudents gathered for a YIM school visitUnlock Potential ExperienceFrom a good idea to a first business.EntrepreneurshipA student leader speaks at a YIM sessionDoing Life TogetherLeadership is learned in friendship.Small groupsA mentor with students after a Doing Life Together gatheringCare for familiesLeaders serve their neighbours.24 students sponsoredYIM volunteers put a roof on a family homeCall to action campaignsYoung people speaking to young people.Drug abuseA student speaks to his peers

Give monthly.

  • $10 gives a family a year of health cover.
  • $19 sends a student to the Vision Conference.
  • $25 brings YIM to a whole school.

Monthly gifts let us plan a year of school visits ahead, and reach more schools every term.

Give monthly

Youth Impact Mission Rwanda is a registered national NGO (No. 550/RGB/NGO/LP/10/2019), with a sister organisation in Burundi. We were born from the Cornerstone network, which has raised leaders of integrity across East Africa since 1988. Our annual reports and policies are on our impact page, and how we tell young people's stories is set out here.