The Mastercard Foundation started its amazing partnership with CorpsAfrica back in 2021. Since then, the CorpsAfrica and Mastercard Foundation partnership has reached new goals with more funding. Here is how it all started and what the partnership has achieved so far.

CorpsAfrica

CorpsAfrica is a non-government organization committed to training African youths. It hires them as volunteers and sends them to high-poverty communities where they not only learn valuable life skills that will help them find dignified and empowering future employment but also help to transform impoverished communities.

Liz Fanning founded CorpsAfrica, a former Peace Corps volunteer. While volunteering in Morocco, Fanning became inspired by its eager youths who were desperate to contribute to their communities. She founded CorpsAfrica in 2011, the first program launching in Morocco in 2013, and has since expanded the organization to 10 countries. Fanning’s mission was a simple one: to transform Africa’s reliance on external aid and empower its educated young people to give back.

CorpsAfrica started in Morocco, working across five territories with only seven volunteers and leading community-led projects focused on agriculture and education. Today, the number of volunteers in Morocco has expanded to 30 volunteers per cohort.

Today, CorpsAfrica deploys more than 1,700 educated young Africans to live and train up to a year in rural communities. Together, they have completed more than 800 community-led projects, from building schools and wells to supporting farming and livestock farmers. Their amazing work is thanks to privately sponsored funding and game changing partnerships like The Mastercard Foundation.

The Mastercard Foundation Partnership

Mastercard Foundation started its partnership in 2021, funding the organization $17 million over a three year contract, with the aim of broadening the impact of CorpsAfrica. In 2023, the Mastercard Foundation funded a further $59.4 million to Corps Africa due to their successful partnership, helping to launch a further expansion to South Africa in 2024 and developing more projects to help inspire and aid African youths in their future careers.

The Mastercard Foundation’s mission is to help 30 million youth in Africa to access jobs that are fulfilling and dignified by 2030. The Foundation gives funding to many other similarly led projects in the hopes of achieving this goal, and they are well on their way to achieving this goal.

The Impact

Thanks to funding from the Mastercard Foundation and other partnerships from 2023-2024, CorpsAfrica has achieved:

• 80% increase in volunteers, creating a 124% increase in new jobs for communities and volunteers involved.
• 231% increase in development activities, including agricultural sustainability, the building of wells and schools and so much more.
• 74% increase in community-led projects.

Liz Fanning, the founder and executive director of CorpsAfrica, stated this in regards to the funding that The Mastercard Foundation received: “This funding could not have come at a more important time.”

The money that the Foundation provided will not only help with its goal and mission statement to facilitate and help Africa’s young people  gain important life-changing skills, but also provide the resources to help rural communities towards sustainable living.

Concluding Thoughts

Through this partnership, real life impacts have occurred across Africa for the communities CorpsAfrica is actively working in as well as for the volunteers who receive hands-on training in real life situations. The volunteers involved learn critical thinking and problem solving skills, while also learning a multitude of different languages, giving them skills they can use to further their careers. The communities impacted receive resources, education and support through the organization’s efforts. This would not be possible if it were not for the vital funding from partnerships that are just as motivated to change the lives of Africa’s youth as Mastercard is.

– Shannon Waters

Shannon is based in Middlesbrough, UK and focuses on Business and New Markets for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons