CorpsAfrica

CorpsAfrica is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2011 by a former Peace Corps Volunteer seeking to recognize and build on Peace Corps's enormous success by offering the same transformative experience to emerging leaders in Africa - giving them the chance to be a part of the solution for their own countries. CorpsAfrica applies the newest and best approaches to international development, including empowering local communities, promoting collaboration among NGOs and our development partners, monitoring and impact evaluation. We recruit men and women to move to high-poverty communities within their own countries for a year and initiate projects that fulfill key needs in their communities and whose impact and success can be carefully measured and monitored. 

At CorpsAfrica, we're seeking mission-driven individuals who are passionate about creating a tangible impact. Inspired by the Peace Corps model, CorpsAfrica provides African youth with the opportunity to live and serve as Volunteers in rural communities for up to a year. Volunteers receive training in human-centered design, project management, and community development. They collaborate directly with local community members, helping them identify and implement sustainable, high-impact projects that alleviate poverty and enhance livelihoods.

Since 2011, we've launched successful programs in eleven African countries, engaging hundreds of Volunteers and fostering a powerful pan-African network dedicated to volunteerism and community-led development. 

CorpsAfrica offers an impactful career path and the opportunity to contribute directly to fostering resilience in rural communities and providing youth with life-changing service opportunities. 

CorpsAfrica recruits and trains university-educated African youth to serve in rural communities within their own countries. Our mission is to work alongside these communities to create sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen livelihoods, and build resilience. In doing so, we are promoting 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 accessing education, healthcare, clean water, food security, employment, and economic opportunity. By collaborating closely with communities, CorpsAfrica ensures that every initiative is inclusive, impactful, and aligned with local priorities.

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 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.