Built to be governed well before it grew.
Unseen Minority exists to amplify opportunities and dismantle systemic barriers for minority youth and entrepreneurs in Zambia.
Our origin
Founded in 2024, by two youths already inside the system
Unseen Minority was founded in 2024 by Christopher Jambila and George Mbewe, then Vice President and Deputy Speaker of the University of Zambia Student Union during the 2023/2024 academic year. From inside that institution, they watched how much of its mandate was spent representing young people in rooms those young people would never enter, and how little of it actually reached the students the mandate existed to serve.
Neither of them waited for a broader mandate, a new title, or anyone else’s permission to close that gap. They built the structure themselves: a constitution, a founding board, and an organisation whose only real qualification for taking part is showing up and doing the work.
A year later, that decision had a name: Imiti N’ashikula. Read how below.
Our theory of change
Growth that does not wait for permission
“Imiti ikula empanga,” trees grow to become a forest, is the proverb our name comes from. Taken as instruction, though, it teaches patience: wait your season, let growth happen in its own time, and permission will come once you have grown into it.
We think that instruction has a cost. It asks a generation to wait for a tomorrow that keeps arriving late, and by the time that generation has finally grown, their answer to the next one is the same: wait your turn. The cycle repeats because no one in it was ever asked to act, only to be patient.
Imiti N’ashikula is our answer to that cycle, and the philosophy the rest of Unseen Minority is built on. It does not ask young people to wait to be ready. It treats contribution itself as the proof of readiness: a completed project, a formalised enterprise, an issue brief presented to a council. Evidence, not permission, is what opens doors.
Each of our three programmes puts that argument into practice: Box of Hope addresses belief, Imiti N’ashikula addresses permission itself, and Shifting the Focus addresses being forgotten.
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permission
Governance & legal status
Where we stand, stated precisely
Documents complete
Constitution, Articles of Association, and an operational MOU template are drafted and adopted by the founding board, grounded in the NGO Act No. 16 of 2009 and the Societies Act Cap. 119.
Registration underway
Unseen Minority is registering under the NGO Act No. 16 of 2009. Formal registration with the Ministry of Community Development is our next institutional milestone. We are not yet a registered NGO, and we do not describe ourselves as one.
Ready for due diligence
Our governance documents, board structure, and programme frameworks are available to prospective funders and partners on request as part of any due diligence process.
Executive Director
Christopher Jambila
Executive Director & Co-Founder · LLB, University of Zambia
As Vice President of the University of Zambia Student Union (October 2023 – October 2024), Christopher represented more than 20,000 students in formal engagements with government ministries, university leadership, and corporate partners: executive-level stakeholder management exercised in one of Zambia’s most scrutinised representative offices. During his tenure he delivered a keynote address at an African Union–level dialogue and was personally commended by a sitting AU Ambassador.
At Unseen Minority, he co-founded and leads the organisation: designing protection-oriented programming for marginalized youth, drafting UM’s constitutional documents, governance framework, and operational MOUs, and managing the seven-person founding board alongside multi-stakeholder relationships across civil society, education, and community partners.
He holds an LLB from the University of Zambia, a legal grounding that shapes UM’s insistence on compliance, documentation, and precise public claims.
Chief of Operations
George Mbewe
Chief of Operations & Co-Founder · LLB, University of Zambia
As President of the Law Association at the University of Zambia School of Law, George represented law students and coordinated the association’s institutional initiatives.
He also served as Deputy Speaker of the University of Zambia Student Union, presiding over the legislative side of student governance, bridging the gap between students and the institution, and keeping oversight of UNZASU’s legislative processes running.
At Unseen Minority, he co-founded the organisation and serves as Chief of Operations, working directly with pilot partners, including Sonka on the Box of Hope programme in Ndeke Village, Kitwe.
Founding board
A board that looks like the people we serve
Unseen Minority’s founding board has seven members, all young people themselves, most still in the early years of their own working lives, drawn from law, finance, education, community development, and communications. That range was deliberate: an organisation built for young people should be governed by more than one kind of experience of being young.
We are not publishing individual portfolios here while registration is underway. What matters at this stage is that the board exists, meets on a defined schedule, and holds Unseen Minority to the same constitution and governance framework it wrote for itself.
Evaluating us as a partner?
We will share governance documents, pilot frameworks, and outcome designs as part of your due diligence.