Don de Dieu lives in Burundi, where he works with youth in three different organizations: Cornerstone Old Student Association, Pan African Youth Leadership Development, and Youth Impact Mission. He was born in a small town, into a middle class family. Despite growing up in the context of war, his family was not lacking. He received his primary school education within his town, but then moved to a rural village to attend boarding school for his secondary school years. In this village, Don experienced a lot of change compared to the life he was used to. He began receiving fewer meals per day, he was required to travel to fetch water, and he was removed from his parents. This was very difficult for Don, as he was still just a young boy at this time.

Being raised during a time of war, Don de Dieu longed to make change in his country, and so his dream was to become the president of Burundi. Once he completed his secondary school studies, he attended Cornerstone Leadership Academy in Rwanda, in an attempt to pursue this leadership dream. However, Don was surprised to find that leadership is not about politics and diplomacy. Instead, he realized that leadership is about considering the opinions of others, creating influence through building relationships, and facilitating understanding of vision. As he learned more about what leadership truly is, he fell more and more in love with it. Don was also surprised by how welcomed he felt by Cornerstone. He remembers thinking, “This is not a school. It’s a family.” It was in this program that someone told him he “has a song to sing”, and encouraged him “to compose his song”. Don quickly realized that teaching leadership to young people was his song.

Around a similar time, Don began volunteering with Youth Impact Mission in Rwanda, then in Burundi. Transforming the lives of the young people through his teaching made Don feel satisfied and energized, and he longed to do it more and more. Some time after this, the director of Cornerstone contacted Don, asking him to volunteer for Cornerstone in Burundi. He accepted the position with excitement, and was quickly promoted to being an employee. He has now worked for Cornerstone for 2 years, and is grateful to God for the work that he does.

Don de Dieu’s mission is to become a voice which inspires and motivates youth to become the best version of themselves, and he dreams of seeing a united, prosperous and reconciled Burundi. His role model is Jesus and Don hopes that his own character will reflect that of Jesus. He believes that to be an agent of transformation, one must be equipped, and so Don is excited to attend the Abundant Leadership Institute where he will have the opportunity to develop his leadership skills and to become an abundant leader. Don wants to learn more about how to engage others into his vision, and he is looking forward to connecting with the other leaders and learning from them. He also believes that ALI will help him to develop better leaders in Burundi, which will help him to pursue the vision that God has given him.