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Digging for Tomorrow | From Survival To Governance
A woman affiliated with FUDEI, the organization coordinated by Rachel Malulu, works the soil along a street median during a community reforestation activity in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 21, 2026. Against a wide open sky, her powerful stance with a hoe digging into volcanic earth in a city that has known too much destruction embodies the philosophy that drives Malulu's work: that rebuilding the environment and rebuilding society are inseparable struggles, and that women are their most reliable architects. In a region where the humanitarian crisis has displaced millions and eroded trust between communities, each tree planted by FUDEI members is both an ecological act and a declaration of intent that the women of Goma choose life, growth, and the future over the despair of war.
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Sowing Cohesion | From Survival To Governance
Portrait of Rachel Malulu coordinator of FUDEI (Femmes Unies pour le Développement Endogène et Intégral), plant and water seedlings along a street median in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 21, 2026. A representative of UWEMA Asbl DRC "La Voix de l'Espoir" is visible in the background, reflecting the collaborative spirit that defines grassroots peacebuilding in North Kivu, where civil society organizations pool their limited resources to create visible, tangible change. For Malulu, the act of women kneeling together in the soil of Goma's streets watering, planting, tending carries a meaning that extends far beyond horticulture: it is a reclaiming of public space, a restoration of dignity, and a message to a conflict-weary city that its women refuse to surrender its streets to violence and neglect.
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Rachel MALULU | From Survival To Governance
Rachel Malulu, coordinator of FUDEI (Femmes Unies pour le Développement Endogène et Intégral), speaks passionately at her office in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on March 9, 2026. Behind her, certificates of recognition including a Trophée International des Excellences de la RDC and a FUDEI distinction line the shelves alongside stacks of organizational archives, bearing silent witness to over two decades of community-driven work in one of the world's most volatile regions. Wearing a Forum Provincial des Jeunes Filles sur le Leadership Féminin T-shirt, Malulu speaks with the urgency of someone who knows that the window for peace is always fragile, always contested. Her conviction that peace must be visible, tangible, and rooted in the communities where people actually live has made FUDEI one of Goma's most distinctive voices for women's empowerment and environmental peacebuilding at a time when the city's future remains deeply uncertain.
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Peace Germinates in Volcanic Stone | From Survival To Governance
Hands carefully tend to seedlings planted in Goma's characteristic volcanic rock soil during a reforestation activity organized by FUDEI, the women's organization coordinated by Rachel Malulu, in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 21, 2026. The image small green shoots pushing through black lava stone is a metaphor made real for Malulu's entire philosophy: that life, peace, and community resilience can take root even in the hardest, most damaged ground. Goma sits at the foot of Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and has been further scarred by decades of armed conflict that have stripped the region of both its forest cover and its social fabric. In planting trees here in this soil, in this city Rachel Malulu and the women of FUDEI are making a statement that no international communiqué has yet managed to make with equal clarity: Goma is still alive, and its women intend to keep it that way.
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Anny Joanice | From Survival To Governance
Anny Joanice Nizigiyimana is a Burundian social entrepreneur, youth leader, and advocate for women’s economic empowerment who is redefining what leadership looks like for young women in the Great Lakes region. At a time when many young women face unemployment, economic exclusion, and limited access to opportunities, Anny chose to turn entrepreneurship into a tool for transformation. Through Innovation Plus Plus in 2020, the organization she founded, she has created pathways for women to move from vulnerability to economic independence by combining entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, and innovation. Her work harnesses the power of eco-artistic recycling, transforming textile waste, used tyres, and plastic materials into products that generate income while promoting environmental responsibility. Beyond skills training, she equips women with the confidence, financial literacy, business knowledge, and leadership capacities needed to build sustainable futures for themselves and their communities. In 2023 Across Burundi, from Bujumbura to Gitega, Kayanza, Bubanza, and Ngozi, Anny has trained and mentored more than 200 women in entrepreneurship and supported dozens of young women to launch income-generating activities. Through her initiatives, women have gained access not only to skills and equipment, but also to opportunities to organise themselves into cooperatives, strengthen their economic resilience, and claim their place as active contributors to local development. Her impact extends far beyond the communities where she works. As a trainer, mentor, and coach, she has delivered more than twenty capacity-building programmes and reached thousands of young people through leadership initiatives, entrepreneurship training, advocacy campaigns, media engagements, and public dialogues. Her voice has been amplified through national and international media platforms, where she continues to champion women’s economic empowerment, youth leadership, and inclusive development. Anny also occupies leadership positions in several national, regional, and international networks dedicated to women’s entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and environmental action. Through these spaces, she advocates for greater representation of women and young people in decision-making processes and works to ensure that their voices shape the future of their societies. Her journey reflects a broader story unfolding across the Great Lakes region: young women are not waiting for change to happen, they are creating it. Through innovation, entrepreneurship, and collective action, Anny is helping build a generation of women leaders who are transforming barriers into opportunities and proving that economic empowerment is not only a pathway to independence, but also a pathway to leadership, influence, and social transformation.
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Generations Gathered Around a Tree ©Isaac Bujirwa | Sote Pamoja DRC & FCRJ London
A FUDEI volunteer and an elder resident of Goma tend together to a newly planted tree on a street median in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 21, 2026. The image a young woman and an old man, side by side, nurturing a fragile sapling on the asphalt of a city that has known too much war distills the vision of FUDEI coordinator Rachel Malulu into a single, quiet frame. Under her leadership, FUDEI's tree-planting initiative has become more than an environmental program: it is an intergenerational, cross-community act of civic repair, drawing together Goma's residents around a shared stake in the city's future at a moment when eastern DRC's peace process remains fragile and the humanitarian needs of millions of displaced people continue to go unmet.