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Social Behaviour Change, Education and Job Creation

Young people empowering their peers to become Africa's ethical leaders of tomorrow...

Our Story

Two gold-youth Peer Educators in school uniform

Africa’s youth are its greatest treasure, filled with potential, purpose, and the power to lead. At gold-youth, we see gold in every  young person and exist to help them discover it.

Founded in 2004, gold-youth was born from a vision of young Africans living purpose-filled lives and unlocking the continent’s full social and economic potential. Our name stands for “generation of leaders discovered”; we believe that when youth rise as ethical leaders, communities transform.

Through our peer education model, we harness positive peer influence to spark lasting change, using an “each-one-reach-one” approach. In 2011, we expanded this vision with gold-youth Enterprises, a social enterprise that creates sustainable income to fuel our mission and provides future employment pathways for our alumni, gold Grads. From 2015, we established and grew this alumni network through community, connection, and opportunity pathways. By 2024, gold‑youth marked 20 years of youth‑led change and reflected on two decades of relationships, learning, and preparation for continental scale.

Today, gold-youth is a growing movement mobilizing young Africans to step into leadership, shaping a brighter future for themselves, their communities, and the continent.

Our Structure

gold-youth is building a sustainable model for impact across Africa.

We operate through a hybrid structure that combines non-profit and for-profit vehicles, giving us the flexibility to deliver social impact while developing sustainable, income-generating opportunities over time.

We have audited operational entities in six African countries: South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Rwanda and Malawi, as well as a UK entity that supports international fundraising.

Our ambition is to increasingly leverage this hybrid structure to become a more sustainable social enterprise, reducing our dependence on grant funding alone while keeping our social mission at the heart of everything we do. We are on this journey and continue to rely on a mix of philanthropic funding, partnerships and emerging earned-income opportunities to grow our impact.

As we expand, we are also intentionally keeping our organizational structure simple. Rather than establishing a new gold-youth entity in every country where we work, we are developing our Rwanda-based African structure to support future programmes and partnerships across the continent.