17 Years of Trust. A New Chapter.
Pink Youth Rising is built on the foundation of and powered by Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa, a 17-year breast-cancer support organization in Rwanda focused on awareness, education, direct patient support, community trust, Village Ambassadors, and an annual walk that has become a national touchpoint.
The Foundation
For 17 years, BCIEA has provided direct patient support, built community trust, trained Village Ambassadors, and organized an annual walk that brings thousands together for awareness and solidarity in Rwanda. Founded on Systems Thinking principles, our first focus was shifting the mental model of women on the ground, the deepest level of the system. That work continues.
But alongside it grew a realization: sustained public-health change requires more than direct service. It requires a pipeline of people who understand systems, who can see how health outcomes are shaped by relationships between institutions, culture, access, behavior, trust, and policy.
Why Pink Youth Rising
Pink Youth Rising was created as an evolution of mission, to build upon the original work. Eighty percent of Rwanda’s population is under 35 years of age. Young people are the future. This led us to ask: what if we could develop the capacity of young people to understand and address public-health challenges before they enter professional life?
The answer is a platform that combines systems thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, ethical AI, and real-world campaign work — using breast health as the entry point, whole-body health as the public-facing lens, and youth leadership as the long-term outcome.
The Logic Behind the Platform
Why Youth
Young people are the majority of the population in Rwanda, and therefore the future. Young people can be trained to understand systems before entering professional life, building problem-solving capacity early, when habits of thinking are still forming.
Why Breast Health
Existing expertise, community trust, an established organization, real data, and 17 years of relationships provide a credible, grounded starting point.
Why Connected Health
Whole-body health as the public-facing lens creates a wider entry point for engagement, prevention, and partnership, without losing the anchor.
Why Systems Thinking
Public-health challenges are complex, interconnected, and resistant to simple solutions. Systems thinking provides the method for understanding and addressing them.
Why Now
The tools are available: ethical AI, a structured curriculum, interdisciplinary team design. The need is real. And the foundation of trust is already built.
Evolution, Not Rejection
Pink Youth Rising does not replace the original mission. It extends it, from direct service to capacity building, developing the people who will shape public health.
“I have been fortunate enough to have the support to build an effective breast-cancer support outlet for the people of Rwanda using Systems Thinking and realized that, in order for the work to continue and our impact to grow, we must equip the next generations and those to follow with the ability to see and understand the problem in a holistic way while having the ability to create solutions from a Systems Thinking foundation.”
The Method Behind the Mission
Systems thinking is the operating system of everything Pink Youth Rising does.
Explore Systems Thinking