Youth Association and Development (AJDM) was created in 1995 in order to enable citizens, particularly young people, to play a more active role in policy making and development in Mali. Faced with growing poverty in Mali, and the limits this placed on young people for accessing basic social services, the AJDM opted to support the initiatives of self development for the benefit of the most disadvantaged layers of society, including women and children in difficult situations.
The AJDM approach is participatory and interactive. It places the beneficiaries at the centre of the activities, with emphasis on their effective participation and empowerment. Gender is systematically taken into account in all the interventions of the AJDM. AJDM activities are essentially based on the following principles:
- Efficiency and effectiveness of development initiatives according to the actual needs of the beneficiaries,
- Flexibility in the intervention, without the imposition of point of view but in fairness, respect for the other and better distribution of basic social services;
- Sustainability of the actions undertaken, based on the strengthening of the capacities of the beneficiaries in a spirit of phasing out of the AJDM according to a strategy of transfer of skills and empowerment of the beneficiaries.
Major achievements
- Psychosocial support: between 2011-2014 AJDM ran a project tackling sexual exploitation in Bamako, Kayes, Sikasso, Ségou and Mopti regions.
- Recreational and theatrical evenings to neutralise the worry and distress of girls who are victims of violence and sexual abuse.
- Social cohesion and the culture of peace: a 2014 project to support social cohesion and peaceful cohabitation. The project involved intercommunity meetings and psychosocial support.
- Identification, documentation, and research: training on the identification, documentation, research and monitoring of children in situations of conflict.
- Explosive remnants of war: training on how to deal with the explosive remnants of war.
