Catalyze Magazine January 2022 Edition

Liz Fanning
Founder and Executive
Director, CorpsAfrica
“I always say I never knew what I wanted to do but I spent my career preparing for it.
Also, don’t be afraid to fail. Just roll up your sleeves and get to work.”
The Peace Corps sends Americans to African countries, but CorpsAfrica uses talent that is
homegrown. We recruit, train and dispatch college-educated young Africans to remote villages in
their own countries, where they facilitate solutions to problems identified by local people. So far,
more than 300 volunteers have served in four countries — Morocco, Senegal, Malawi and Rwanda
— impacting an estimated 150,000 rural Africans. Our approach not only benefits the villagers, it
transforms the lives and life goals of our volunteers.
The problem I’m trying to solve
Some countries in Africa are among the poorest in the world. In several where we work, nearly
half the population lives below the poverty line. Meanwhile, Africa is rich in underutilized talent,
with hundreds of universities graduating educated youth who can’t find enough jobs to employ
them. By tapping their idealism and energy, CorpsAfrica empowers these young adults to be part
of the solution. Our volunteers spend nearly a year in a village, learning what the locals view as
their biggest needs and connecting them to organizations with the resources to help. Our wideranging
projects include wells, irrigation (including a recent, innovative solar-powered system),
toilets, self-sustaining kitchen gardens (750 and counting), and even an NBA-sponsored
basketball court to give kids in a refugee camp a productive activity. When COVID-19 broke out,
our volunteers were perfectly positioned to educate residents on the best ways to protect
themselves.
Advice to others who want to make a difference
I always say I never knew what I wanted to do but I spent my career preparing for it. My 25 years
of fundraising experiences are what allowed me to start this organization in 2011 and hit the
ground running. When people tell me they want to do something similar, I advise them to make
sure their ego is in check, let the project find them, and be flexible. Even in Africa, where our
volunteers from the cities think they know poverty, they discover pretty quickly how humbling it
is to live in a village without running water or electricity. That humility is what enables them to be
of greatest service. Also, don’t be afraid to fail. Just roll up your sleeves and get to work.
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