AJA-Mali: Education for Employment
AJA-MALI: EDUCATION FOR EMPLOYMENT IS THE GOAL
A small organization in Mali blazes a path in alternative education, helping young entrepreneurs get the training they need to build a better future.
There's a simple way of explaining the work of the Association Jeunesse Action (Youth Action Association, or AJA) in Mali's capital of Bamako. AJA's director Souleymanne Sarr puts it very directly: "The goal of our program is to create a Mali without unemployment."
Like many other poor countries, there is a dearth of opportunity for young people in Mali. The economy is small, the country is in debt, and there aren’t many businesses hiring workers. High unemployment is partly due to lack of education, which some people can't afford, but it is also due to the wrong kind of education. Government-run schools are generally overcrowded and under funded. They train students for regular jobs in companies and factories, when most of the economic activity is out on the street, in small-scale, entrepreneurial businesses.
Sarr saw the need for better training for employment in the real world of Bamako. Oxfam America helped him and his colleagues establish AJA in 1996. They built up the training program, created ways to fund the organization, and became an effective advocate for alternative education in the government.
AJA is now on the verge of self sufficiency. It's a model partnership, and shows what committed people with good ideas can do to spark progress when they get the right support.
