Acher Niyonizigiye’s parents were from different ethnic groups, which meant through each round of cyclical violence, they lost members from either side of their extended family. From those early years, he felt he was out of place, born in the wrong country, until he had an encounter with God. As a deep-thinker, he wrestled with questions of cause and effect in his nation. Why do Burundians kill each other so often? His ultimate conclusion after years of observation and analysis was that the root problem was one of poor leadership emanating from a moral crisis and superficial discipleship.
His commitment to serve Burundi came from this realisation. So he founded Green Land Alliance. He has been investing himself in developing young leaders, with a strong focus on moral values. He is also involved in discipleship activities and has just launched a church-based discipleship program throughout the country. God has been faithful, and he is encouraged by the results of what he has been doing. Green Land Alliance (GLA) is a non-profit organisation involved in leadership development. They target young people to provide them with basic (servant) leadership and entrepreneurship skills. The vision is a peaceful and prosperous society built by a generation of visionary and moral leaders. For over five years, they have trained more than 1,500 people, most of whom are leaders of associations, businesses or churches.
Some of the outcomes of the training are new personal businesses, a collective business (with a hundred stakeholders), and changes of leadership practices in churches and associations. From November 2020, GLA launched a nationwide movement of servant leaders. The aim is to have teams in every province by the end of 2022. They thank all their supporters for contributing in making this a reality.