Category: Illumineers
Stories about our youth program, previously known as “Youth Spaces”.
Our Stories:
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Make Your Own Garden, Big or Small
Did you know that a little corner of your home can become a productive garden? You don’t need a large field or a big budget to grow your own food. In this video, Elie Cirhuza and Crescent Kanyesigye show you how a simple space around your house can be transformed into a productive and nourishing…
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A Collection of Moments Becomes a Story About Friendship
The Gorilla Highlands Experts video team has put together a little production about two weeks spent on Ugandan roads in 2025, with the highlight being the Illumineers’ Friendship Camp. Hard to believe they were able to pull together such a complete story from an amateur’s disparate shots and recordings! It brings back great memories and…
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The Quinoa House of Musanze
The Afroquin team has found a home! Illumineers alumni Maxime Kabanda (2023 cohort) and Emmanuel Rangiryayo (2024 cohort) now rent a house in Musanze, and have even obtained some tea-packaging machinery. They are getting ready for the standards inspectors to visit, as you can’t start production without a proper building. “The Illumineers program didn’t just…
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Friendship Camp: Where Connections Take Root
In the Gorilla Highlands, some encounters do not end when the tents are packed away and the campfire fades. They continue to open unexpected paths. Just over five months ago, Fred, Jonan, Patrick and Elie met for the first time during the Friendship Camp. For several days, young participants from the Democratic Republic of Congo…
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We Are Together: The Congo Boy of Lake Bunyonyi
🇺🇬❤️🇨🇩 Hear a voice that unites, straight from the shores of Lake Bunyonyi! Abraham Otebwa, a young Ugandan with a big heart, shares a powerful and sincere testimony: his unwavering love for DR Congo. 💗 His message reminds us of an essential truth: we — Rwandans 🇷🇼, Congolese 🇨🇩 and Ugandans 🇺🇬 — are one…
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Your Trailblazer Takes You to Congo (And Kampala!)
I only like Kampala on Sundays. This awesomely crazy city is much more relaxed, quieter and enjoyable on weekends. So being stuck alone in Uganda’s capital during the holiday season does come with a benefit: it feels like some kind of Sunday again and again and again! But why? Why was I not on Lake…
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It Hits Different: Illumineers Video, Friendship Camp Edition
The freshest, the most 🔥 version of the Illumineers promo video is here — with tons of footage from Friendship Camp! Feeling generous today? GoFundMe link is right here. 😎 You may also like: Ambassador Training Launched!Rwandafully Classy: 40 Baby Gorillas NamedNature. Culture. Together.Have You Heard?! We Won a Global Responsible Tourism Award!This Book is…
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Illumineers to Transform the Gorilla Highlands Region
One of the gifts Gorilla Highlands Experts (GHE) — specialists from a variety of fields — bring to our region is the annual Friendship Camp. The 2025 edition, which wrapped up on Sunday, proved once again that young minds have the power to together transform DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. These youngsters have been dubbed…
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Ambrose’s Lake Bunyonyi Quickie — For Lifetime Impact!
The absolute star of the first full GHE Friendship Camp day at Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi was Ambrose Kibuuka. He’s our co-founder, education and careers consultant, best-selling author of “After University, What Next?”, and possibly the busiest man alive. Yesterday morning he rolled in on a night bus from Kampala (took him 12 hours!), squeezed…
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