Welcome To PEP Africa International “Sharing Skills, Changing Lives”

Our History

Melvin & Rev. Gilles

NGANJI GILLES founded PEP Africa at the time they were in their 20s. Gilles was a youth leader at a small community Baptist Church in New Town. At the same time, Melvine worked as a Community Relay Agent at the newly HIV/AIDS integrated Center in the regional Hospital Limbe, Cameroon. They spent years in remote communities organizing youth work, missionary outreach, educating young people about the A, B, Cs of safe sex practices, and avoiding exposure to HIV/AIDS while spearheading advocating for social justice gender equality. During their missions in rural communities, they met with a generation of young people, youths, and children who have known nothing other than caring for people living with AIDS and striving for survival daily.  Every day, they hear reports of new HIV/STI infections, increased Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), old death, and escalating numbers of youths under the influence of drugs. They met with young people gripped by anger and fear; others had learned to dull their feelings with a quality of silence that often follows the frustrations. Having lost someone of AIDS, young people shared their experiences with them, hoping that they would make the difference to bring them some hope, some stability, some opportunities, some safety, some shelter, or even some food. They spent long hours with vulnerable children, youths, and women who refused to give up hope for a better tomorrow and turned to them to make their claims. How can they make a difference?… How can they provide an answer to the many challenges faced by these ordinary but extraordinary women and children?… In 2000, they decided to make a difference through an organization dedicated to Africa’s development struggles. They created PEP Africa to empower young people with skills and tools and amplify their voices in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They stepped in to contribute to support the “Youth on the Move” flagship initiative, which puts young people at the center of the U.N.’s development plan to create an economy based on knowledge, innovation, adaptable skills inclusive labor markets. They started meeting with government officials, authorities, and stakeholders in the development, interacting with other civil society leaders and peers to look for means and ways to address youth’s social and development challenges in Cameroon. They were excited to share their experience with whosoever was interested in learning about their work and willing to join them in supporting Africa’s developmental struggle. Today, their experiences have increased their understanding of youths’ issues and allowed them to contribute in their small way.