Let Us Stay Alive
Dr. Solange Simpunga and team
DRC & Rwanda | Central Africa
In North Kivu, eastern DRC, indigenous women and girls had been facing compounding layers of exclusion for generations: armed conflict, displacement, gender-based violence, and near-total absence from any decision-making space. Almost no organization had been built specifically to serve them. Let Us Stay Alive was founded in 2012 to change that. "Indigenous women and girls are not only survivors of adversity," said Executive Director Dr. Solange Simpunga. "They are also protectors of culture, caregivers, entrepreneurs, community mobilizers, and leaders." The organization registered legally in DRC in 2013 and expanded into Rwanda in 2021 as the need for trusted, locally rooted support continued to grow across the region.
Let Us Stay Alive’s work centers on something measurable mostly in its absence: the cost of silence. Director of Monitoring and Evaluation Martine Benimana recalled a woman who attended early community dialogues without speaking at all, believing that violence and exclusion were simply the terms of her life. Through Let Us Stay Alive's awareness sessions on rights and reproductive health, she began seeking services, then participating in conversations, then encouraging other women to do the same. "This is what change looks like," Benimana said. "Moving from silence to voice, from vulnerability to empowerment, and from receiving support to leading change for others."
Let Us Stay Alive
That shift, from beneficiary to advocate, repeats across all programs.The organization has a simple measure for whether the work is holding: are people still coming? Are they sending their neighbors? That sustained presence is the foundation everything else depends on. "The true impact relies on trust and relationship, which takes time to build," said HR lead Alice Tembele. "When funders really provide long-term support, they are not just buying a checklist of activities. They're investing in local leadership, community trust, and the resilient systems needed to make change last." That long-term commitment is precisely what the organization has spent over a decade building toward, community by community, conversation by conversation.
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