Lightup Impact

𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: Centre for Wellness Organization led by David Ogutu 🇰🇪

Today, we celebrate a grassroots organisation working to create a stigma-free society around mental health.

🤝 Meet Centre for Wellness Organization, an organization providing communities with accurate mental health information while connecting people who need additional support to appropriate services.

✅️ Centre for Wellness Organization Impact:
• Sharing mental health information with communities
• Challenging stigma through awareness and education
• Referring clients to additional support when their needs go beyond the organization’s reach
• Connecting people with the information and support they need to make informed decisions about their mental health

💚 As part of the Lightup Impact community, they share:
“Lightup Impact has made a significant effort in seeing to it that our organization's systems are strengthened for local and international funding.”

🫶 Connect With Their Team:
Centre for Wellness Organization is working toward communities where people can access the right information and support around mental health without stigma.

📱 Facebook: Center for Wellness Organization
📞 Contact: +254 798 625 699 / +254 751 733 209

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝.

A moment of appreciation for a successful partnership with the African Union–European Union Youth Lab (AU-EU Youth Lab ) — our second collaboration following a successful partnership around last year’s 3rd Lightup Impact Grassroots Conference. Over the past three months, we have been working with 35+ grassroots organisations across Africa through a capacity-strengthening training designed around some of the areas that are critical to building stronger, more sustainable organisations:

🔸 Governance — strengthening the systems, structures and leadership practices that help organisations thrive.
🔸 Programme Design — supporting grassroots organisations to turn community realities and ideas into stronger, more intentional programmes.
🔸 Storytelling for Resource Mobilisation — helping organisations communicate their work, demonstrate their impact and tell stories that can build meaningful relationships with partners.

Last year, we came together around a conference. This year, we are building on that relationship to invest in the organisations themselves. That progression reflects what we believe partnership should look like: not a one-off transaction, but a relationship that grows, responds to emerging needs and creates opportunities for deeper impact.

We’re grateful to the African Union–European Union Youth Lab (AU-EU Youth Lab ) for continuing to believe in the potential of Africa’s grassroots organisations and for partnering with us to create spaces where young leaders can strengthen not only what they do, but how they sustain and grow their work.

A special thank you to Salim Ali Mazang'ang'a, a member of our Grassroots Youth-Led Founder Advisory Board (FAB), for creating this connection last year.

Here’s to partnerships that move from 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 → 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 → 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲.

𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 𝐆𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐮

Today, we celebrate a grassroots organization creating opportunities for youth with disabilities to build skills, livelihoods, and stronger communities.

🤝 Meet Gifted Community Center-GCC, an organization empowering youth with disabilities through skills training, mentorship, entrepreneurship, digital skills, urban farming, and inclusive climate action in Kenya.

✅️ Gifted Community Center Impact:
• Empowering youth with disabilities to participate actively in advocacy
• Equipping young people with practical skills for sustainable livelihoods
• Supporting entrepreneurship and digital skills development
• Creating opportunities for youth with disabilities to engage in climate action and community development

💚 𝐀𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞:

Being part of this community means connecting, learning, and collaborating with changemakers who inspire and support us to create greater impact in our communities.

🫶 Connect With Their Team:

Gifted Community Center-GCC is working to create more inclusive opportunities for youth with disabilities to build sustainable livelihoods and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

🌐 Learn more: https://giftedcommunitypwd.org/

𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

This year, we intentionally chose the humans behind the work (The grassroots leaders), and an opportunity found us.

We are excited to share that we were recently selected as one of five recipients of the Mountaintop Human Infrastructure Spark Fund by Mountaintop International, which supports community-led gatherings that strengthen relationships, mindsets, and abilities. As part of this opportunity, this September we’re bringing together over 30 grassroots organisations from East Africa for a conversation on the people behind community change.

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲: "𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆".

Across our community, we see young grassroots founders doing extraordinary work. But behind the impact are people who are often expected to carry everything — the vision, the organisation, the community, the fundraising, the decisions and, ultimately, the responsibility for making change happen.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬?

What makes this gathering different is that it isn’t designed around another workshop where leaders are given more tools to carry the load. Instead, we are creating space to ask whether the way we understand leadership itself needs to change.

Humanizing Leadership is our invitation to pause, reconnect and reimagine what leadership can look like when no one is expected to do it alone.

We’re deeply grateful to Mountaintop International for believing in this work early and supporting us to experiment with a different approach to leadership development.

This is an opportunity with the potential to open up a much bigger conversation: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆?

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

A few months ago, one of the grassroots founders in our network faced a problem that wasn't in her proposal. A key supplier unexpectedly increased their prices. The budget had been carefully built around the original costs, with every shilling already assigned to a specific activity.

The project hadn't changed. Reality had.

She wasn't short on commitment. She wasn't short on creativity. And she certainly wasn't short on resilience. What she needed was room to respond.
This is the story we don't talk about enough in this sector.

Founders are often expected to navigate changing communities, rising costs, emerging needs, new opportunities, and unexpected challenges — while working within budgets designed months earlier, when none of these things could have been anticipated.

𝑾𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓. The leader is the one who knows when an activity needs to be adapted, when a community needs something different, when an opportunity is worth pursuing, or when resources need to be redirected to where they will have greater value.

That judgment is part of the infrastructure of a grassroots organization. Yet traditional project funding often leaves very little room for it.

Unrestricted funding doesn't just fund costs. It trusts the person closest to the problem to make decisions about the solution.

That's what it means to build for the long term.

Become a Long-Term Builder. Fund the person, not just the plan- Valeria Santoro, Founder, Lightup Impact