At two o’clock one morning in South Africa, Louise Nkusu Lusangu’s phone woke her.
Colleagues in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo finally had a connection and wanted to know if she was ready: “Louise, can we work now?”
She got up, and they worked together until four in the morning.
In Kinshasa, a colleague whom Dr Mortimer Papy Mohele Bosalo had invited to a TGLF course came home from work around nine at night, tired, and could study only on his phone.
Mortimer waited for his signal.
“I got out of bed to work with him”, he said.
On a day off in September, Dr Kevin Kalonda started writing to his recruits one by one at seven in the morning, because WhatsApp had blocked his group messages.
He stopped at 11 at night, after swapping 80 personal messages.
All three are TGLF Ambassadors, alumni who have made the commitment to spread the mission of The Geneva Learning Foundation to their colleagues.
These moments do not appear in the dissemination register, which counts how many people the Ambassadors reach.
By 19 August 2026, TGLF Ambassadors had reached 10,027 people for the new “Malaria: turning the tide” programme.
Ambassadors assemble every Wednesday to take stock of their progress, share experience, and support each other.
In the Assemblies held between 3 June and 16 September 2026, most of the stories shared were about staying with colleagues until they finished.
Someone stayed with you first
Many Ambassadors described the same beginning: someone noticed you and kept in touch.
Basile Ngontcha remembers the messages during his first course that pinpointed exactly where he had stopped and invited him back.
“It was impossible to escape”, he said.
Martine Yowa joined through a link that a colleague she has never met shared in a national WhatsApp group.
Her encouragement came from far away: “There was nobody who could push me, but through the Foundation, Reda’s messages, Charlotte’s messages, all of that pushed me”.
Of the peers she did not know who helped her during peer review, she said: “It was really touching, and it really pushed me to go all the way to the end”.
For Nurse Mireille Mbiya, it took years.
Her recruiter kept explaining what the Foundation was and kept offering to help.
Mireille said of her: “she was persevering”.
She joined in the end, “since I am an intellectual, let me also go on this adventure of intellectuals”, and her recruiter helped her on her phone until she earned her certificate.
Nyclege Mwisinga Alain joined the platform in August 2024 and then went quiet, until Basile and Marlène Kapinga contacted him.
“These two people activated me, gave me the taste to continue”.
Today, 19 of the 22 colleagues he mobilised are making good progress in their first TGLF courses.
He explained why he does it: “it is my duty, too, to do it for others”
You give back what you received
Louise describes her goal this way: “my own goal is not to leave anyone alone with their difficulties”.
She calls, adapts to the hours when a colleague has a connection, and waits when the network fails.
In Cameroon, Brigitte Meugang sits with colleagues who have never had an e-mail account, opens one with them, and registers them on the spot.
Each person then joins her WhatsApp group, because she follows them until the certificate.
When she received her own certificate, she filmed it and shared it with the group to show what each of them could achieve.
Some Ambassadors have stayed with colleagues through grief and illness.
One Ambassador checked in on colleagues who had lost relatives or fallen sick during the course and reported that, “feeling that they were considered, these colleagues went back to their training, and they are continuing”.
Dr Franklin, in Chad, chose to follow one person closely instead of many from a distance: “Having many people registered and, at the end, nobody reaching the end of the training, is like doing nothing”.
When Louise’s recruits finished, they called to say “thank you very much for everything you did”.
She told them she had not done it alone.
Commitment that money cannot buy: why do Ambassadors value learning and community?
When Ambassadors invite a colleague, the same question often comes back: who pays?
Will there be an allowance, a meal, a salary?
Ambassadors answer it directly.
Brigitte’s answer was repeated by other Ambassadors in the same assembly: “knowledge is a great wealth. It goes beyond the money you are looking for”.
She added: “If you want to look at the money, you will not save lives”.
Proof helps.
One Ambassador showed her certificate to two colleagues who had not finished the first course, and when they saw the signatures from abroad, they re-enrolled.
“They thought it was a joke”, she said.
In health centres in Cameroon, Basile saw the same effect with his mission letter: “they already feel that what I say carries weight”
Ambassadors lead change that saves lives
Dr Olivier Djah, a district medical officer in Abidjan, has been with the Foundation since 2019.
He followed his first course from a bus, reconnecting each time the network came back.
During COVID-19, at a Teach to Reach exchange, “a colleague from Cameroon really shared their experience with me”.
That experience helped Olivier start vaccination in his own district: “It helped me right away, it helped me right away in my district”.
For the malaria course, he enrolled 113 people.
Others described a change in how their community sees them.
One Ambassador said “Today, I am an influencer in my community”, and credited the courses he completed.
After joining another training network, Brigitte came back to thank the team: “And I acknowledge this warmly today”.
Leadership is not a title, it’s a choice
Patrice Bamulenga described the role this way: “it is not an honorary title that we get from TGLF for being Ambassadors, it is a commitment, not to TGLF, but to ourselves and to our own community”.
A few weeks later he added: “the community is watching us, the community is observing us”.
The Geneva Learning Foundation sees Ambassadors as leaders.
Patrice facilitated the Ambassador Assemblies on 22 July, 19 August, and 2 September, and Marlène led social time on 2 September.
Patrice proposed a meeting of Ambassadors only, to find new ways to mobilise, and said its aim was that “we can surprise TGLF, we can surprise Reda, we can surprise Mama Charlotte”.
Louise reminded everyone that nobody imposes this work: “we ourselves wanted to do it”
Ambassadors measure the cost of commitment and service to others
You have also been open about how hard this work is.
Dr Clémence Mitongo said “I expected about fifty colleagues to register”, and fewer came.
Louise was unhappy that few Ambassadors reported their mobilisation in the dissemination register.
In the mobilisation debrief, one Ambassador worried that follow-up could start to feel like harassing people.
Kevin described the cost of his long day: “it is about knowing how to sacrifice your time”.
Mortimer found a limit.
When some colleagues felt disturbed by his calls, he stopped: “you do not force people here”.
You do not need to work around the clock to be a good Ambassador.
Following a few colleagues to the certificate matters more to us than reaching many who never begin.
And in a week when you are too busy to follow up or attend the Assembly, you are still an Ambassador.
TGLF Ambassadors open doors, and doors open for them
Peer learning at the Foundation depends on colleagues who notice, remind, wait for the connection to come back, and ask, as Louise’s colleagues did, whether now is a good time to work.
Week after week, Ambassadors have been those colleagues.
This is why TGLF invites Ambassadors to facilitate live sessions, and why new roles are opening: country and regional representatives, a Global Leadership Council for each programme, paid facilitators, and a consultancy roster.
Selection will recognise results, length of commitment, and consistency.
Paid commitments are for specific tasks outside the Ambassador role, so the voluntary work you do as Ambassadors keeps its value.
We will build these roles with you.
On the first Wednesday in June, one Ambassador wrote in the chat: “This period of silence seemed so long to me that I thought I had been rejected”.
We read that message, and we intend to stay in touch with each Ambassador, as Ambassadors do with others.
Before next Wednesday, think of one colleague you will stay with this week.
Who is it?