When Doga Makiura arrived in Rwanda in 2012, the 18-year-old was amazed to find not the stains of the 1994 genocide, but a tidy airport, impressive high-rises and welcoming people.

"I was astonished that a country so hopelessly mired in the aftermath of (genocide) could have recovered so miraculously," Makiura recalls, of the nation where 800,000 people died. "I was enthralled."

He was visiting Rwanda in August 2012 as a member of e-Education Project, a nonprofit organization run by young people that aims to give students in poor nations worldwide access to education through DVDs.