Colleagues of Michael Sharp in the Democratic Republic of Congo have established a nonprofit organization focused on peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The Michael Jesse Sharp Foundation received government authorization to operate July 2 and is based in Bukavu in South Kivu Province. The foundation will monitor cases of human rights violations, create opportunities for dialogue and support nonviolence and human rights activists.

While working for the United Nations in 2017 to verify human rights violations, Sharp, 34, and his colleague Zaida Catalán were executed by unidentified assailants. Sharp was a former Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Mission Network worker whose service experience inspired his work digging into atrocities.

“The primary founder was a colleague and friend of MJ, Moise Bitumbushi,” said John Sharp, his father, “they called each other brother. They worked together during his MCC assignment and when MJ went to the UN, MJ hired him as an investigator paying him with his own money. MJ was a frequent guest at Moise and Yvette’s table. They named their third son Michael Jesse Sharp Bitumbushi.”