Association Jeunesse Espoir (AJE)
AJE is a non-profit organization working for the protection and care of children and youth in advanced vulnerability situations.
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3 Reviews
In summer 2014 (and some before and after), I spent almost two months in Senegal with AJE. I was hosted in a family just a few minutes walk from the center. My host, Madeleine, was very kind with me and we used to share our lunch together and other members of the family came and eat or just chat with us.
I join a picture of tiebudjenn (fish and rice):
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I used to go to the center in the morning and in the afternoon to give french classes to children, french or english classes to young girls and also to "grands talibés", young boys grown up in a Daara, called street children.
Teaching in a center of this kind is completely different from everything you can have experienced before: every child has a different level, somebody can write only in arabic alphabet, somebody can speak french but not write, somebody can write and speak easily but want to learn more about history, geography and lots of other subjects. Girls come to improve their level and find in the center a place where to study in peace after all their household chores and close to people who encourage them to learn because it's their right.
They are so curious and interested in what you explain to them that you can easily forget the hot temperatures of senegalese summers!
Senegalese people are open and they are happy to share with you their projects and aspirations. So I could learn and participate to every step of the mission: from the recruitement of the children in the daara after long speeches and negociations with the imam to get the right for the children to attend to our classes.
Once they invite us to speak with the director of a prison to convince them to let us give to the prisoners the opportunity to learn during their stay in prison. We proposed above all vocational training and I think that the meeting with the director and the prisoners had been one of the hardest and intense moment of my experience.
Actually at that moment, I really realized how education is important for AJE who deeply believes that learning can change the path of a human being if he/she wants. I'm so proud of them and I wish they will be able to realise all their projects.
Mandela said "education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" and AJE is definitly working to make this true.
Legui legui AJE!
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J’ai rencontré des personnes vraiment généreuses, simples avec le sens de l’hospitalité.
Je ne peux que remercier le personnel de l’AJE qui est absolument extraordinaire par leur engagement, leur accueil, leur confiance et leur encadrement. Je me suis très vite intégré à l’équipe et aux diverses missions très intéressantes que propose l’association.
Travailler avec ces jeunes enthousiasmes d’opter d’une force incroyable fut vraiment une très bonne leçon de vie, j’ai énormément appris sur moi-même.
J’ai pu partagé des moments privilégies avec des enfants attachants, souriants, curieux qui ont envie d’apprendre et de s’ouvrir au monde extérieur.
C’est une expérience que je n’oublierais jamais et que je souhaite à tout le monde de pouvoir faire."
Additional Info about Us
accompanying the volunteers in the different
Since its inception in 2013, AJE has worked for the protection and care of children and youth in vulnerable situations. Among the beneficiaries of this social services are talibés children, children in a total social breakdown, children at risk of estrangement, and children living in situations of advanced precariousness within their families. We have targeted these populations in seven areas: health, formal and informal education, vocational training, economic integration, nutrition, sport, and recreation.
Recently, the AJE Board of Directors chose to focus exclusively on four of the areas to strengthen the program's impact.
The four main areas of intervention are:
1. Education
2. Health
3. Professional training
4. Economic insertion
Our vision is to make the northern region of Senegal an area where children and youth in vulnerable situations, who represent the weakest link in the Saint-Louis region, enjoy protection and are supported in their quest to find their way out of poverty towards economic independence.
Our mission is to support children and youth in vulnerable situations in the northern region of Senegal through:
- Education (by ensuring that they remain in school or return to school).
- Health (by enrolling them in the universal health coverage program launched by the state of Senegal).
- Vocational training (by registering them for vocational training school when they can no longer return to traditional school).
- Economic insertion (by guiding them when they have completed their training towards economic integration and independence).
Our values are:
- The Cult of Excellence. Always aim for excellence in the work completed within the organization.
- Dignity. Respect for human dignity regardless of race, religion, provenance, and ideology.
- Autonomy. Accompaniment and motivation of children and youth in vulnerable situations so that they are the agent of their development.
- Integrity. Everyone who is a member of the Association must have unfailing moral and mental integrity to serve the beneficiaries effectively and equitably.
- Competence. The AJE must always rely on proven competencies for each area.
AJE is a very dynamic and serious organisation, with a conscientious and friendly team.
I spent most of my time to follow up young people in professionnal formation. It was very interesting to visit vocational training centers, to interview headteachers and to meet young people and their families. All of them were so grateful for the help giving by AJE to provide them a professionnal future.
I also had some experience in education by giving some lessons in french and mathematics.
But I think that my most powerful experience was in medical care. I thought that I was not made for that and that I would not be able to give medical care. But I was totally wrong. Thanks to the precious advices giving by the medical team of AJE, I learned a lot of things and I enjoyed giving medical care to children. Sometimes it was hard but I feeled very useful fulfilling this mission.
There is always something going on with AJE. Each time, I lived unexpected moments. I will always remember the prizegiving day in a school based in Ross Bethio and the discussion around the life conditions of prisonners in the St Louis's jail.
As I work in a school, I was very happy to organise a letters exchange between Senegalese and french schoolchildren. It was nice to work with them, in the two countries, on the writing of the letters and to explain the project to each family.
I encourage everyone who wants to have a great experience to come in AJE center. It will change your life as it had changed mine !"