The Kasa-Vubu Youth Center has officially opened its doors in Kinshasa. Designed as a space where young people can access accurate information, engage in open dialogue, receive support and take action on sexual and reproductive health and rights, the center is now entering its most important phase: becoming a space that young people can truly make their own.

On October 29, 2026, the Kasa-Vubu Youth Center was officially inaugurated in Kinshasa. Built and equipped by Ipas DRC with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), in collaboration with the National Adolescent Health Program (PNSA), the center brings to life a vision that began long before its doors opened: creating a dedicated space where adolescents and young people can access information, engage in dialogue, receive support and become active agents of change.

The inauguration marks not the end of a project, but the beginning of a new chapter.

A center designed to come alive through young people

Across the Democratic Republic of Congo, adolescents and young people continue to face barriers to accessing accurate and trusted information about their sexual and reproductive health. Stigma and taboos around sexuality, limited opportunities for open dialogue, fear of judgment and a lack of awareness about available services can leave young people without the information and support they need to make informed decisions about their bodies, health and futures.

The Kasa-Vubu Youth Center is designed to help bridge these gaps by providing a welcoming space where young people can ask questions, exchange experiences, learn about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and better understand where and how to access the services they need.

But the center’s ambition extends beyond providing information. It is intended to become a place where young people connect, learn from one another, develop their own initiatives and take an active role in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in their communities.

As Ipas DRC’s Board Chair, Faida Mwangilwa, emphasized during the inauguration, the ambition is for the center to become a “headquarters” for an engaged generation of young people, supporting action on sexual and reproductive health and rights, comprehensive sexuality education, sexual and gender-based violence, adolescent pregnancy, child marriage, and preventable school dropout linked to sexual and reproductive health challenges.  

A place to learn, be heard and connect to services

With its doors now open, the center will host a range of activities designed to turn the physical space into a vibrant hub for learning, dialogue and youth engagement.

Educational sessions will provide young people with opportunities to strengthen their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights, including bodily autonomy, unintended pregnancy prevention and gender-based violence. Peer-to-peer learning and dialogue will create opportunities for young people to ask questions openly, exchange experiences and learn from one another.

The center will also provide confidential spaces for listening and individualized support, with referrals to appropriate health services when needed. Rather than replacing existing health facilities, the center will help young people better understand and navigate the services available to them.

Social and behavioral activities will complement these efforts by addressing the beliefs, social norms and community dynamics that shape young people’s sexual and reproductive health choices and experiences.

At the heart of this approach is a simple principle: prevention must begin before young people face a crisis. This means ensuring that they have access to accurate information, trusted spaces for dialogue and clear pathways to services so they can make informed decisions about their bodies, health and futures.

A space where young people’s ideas can take shape

The Kasa-Vubu Youth Center will not only be a place where young people receive information. It is also designed as a space where they can create it, shape it and share it with others.

A podcast studio has been integrated into the center, giving young champions the opportunity to develop and record their own content on sexual and reproductive health and rights and share it through digital platforms and social media. By providing access to production tools within the center, young people will be able to develop their own messages and reach their peers without production costs becoming a barrier to their engagement.

This gives the center another important role: becoming a space where youth-led ideas, content and initiatives can grow.

Members of Youth Sprint will have an important role to play in bringing this vision to life. Through a peer-to-peer approach, young people will help shape activities and conversations that reflect the realities, questions and priorities of their peers.

Bringing youth-led initiatives together

The center also responds to the need for stronger coordination by providing the Youth Sprint coalition with a dedicated space where youth-led initiatives can come together, collaborate and grow. The center will serve multiple purposes: a source of trusted information, a space for listening and referral, a hub for peer-to-peer learning, and a meeting place for young people working to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.

This multisectoral approach was also central to the vision shared at the inauguration. The center will support stronger coordination among youth-led movements, access to accurate information, and referrals to appropriate sexual and reproductive health services.

Beyond the inauguration: bringing the center to life

The ribbon has been cut, but the inauguration is only one milestone. The true success of the Kasa-Vubu Youth Center will be measured in the months and years ahead: by the young people who walk through its doors and find trusted information, by those who feel safe enough to ask questions, by the ideas and initiatives developed within its walls, and by the messages created there that reach young people far beyond Kasa-Vubu.

Beyond the building itself, the ambition is also to invest in infrastructure that can serve communities over the long term. During the inauguration, Ipas DRC’s Country Director emphasized that strengthening health systems goes beyond training alone. It also means putting in place equipped structures that can sustainably bring services closer to communities.

The next chapter is therefore about bringing the center fully to life through young people’s leadership and the continued engagement of the PNSA alongside Ipas DRC, so that it can serve young people today and for generations to come.

Ultimately, the success of the center will not be defined by the infrastructure alone, but by what young people do with it: the conversations they start, the content they create, the solutions they develop and the actions they lead for their peers and communities.