We are a local Non-Governmental Organisation based in Ituri province in Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are a community led organisation founded to work with the youth and for the youth and our way of working have made us champions in community based approaches. We work with grassroots communities to assess priorities, develop appropriate actions, implement courses of actions for change and evaluate changes as they gradually happen.
‘We strive to remain as local as possible and as international as necessary’
Youth FIRST
ADD strongly believes it is possible to achieve sustainable development if the current leaders learnt to treat the youth as key stakeholders and active actors rather than considering them as mere novices and naïve citizens who should be told what to and not to do. We strive to build communities which give power and leadership to the youth, making them masters of their destiny. We therefore put them at the centre of all our actions and interventions as we greatly believe in their full potentiality to dream big and work hard to bring their dreams to reality. We identify and assess skills, competencies and talents of the young generation, provide guidance for them to develop positive dreams and ambitions, identify inspiring role models and find good people who can help them realise their dreams. Our work also consists of changing mentality, defying conservative cultures and guiding the youth towards global trends. Our priority groups consist of those marginalized by oppressing cultures, stigmatized by what is called social norms and those who are abusively called deviants. Though we wished to work with as many youths as possible, our capacity does not allow us to do so. We therefore define the categories of the youth to work with. This include:
Those who are out of school and who can no return for many reasons.
Those affected by discriminatory social norms and customary laws. Those oppressed and abusively called deviants.
Boys and Girls who were victims of sexual exploitation and gender based violence.
Self-made boys and girls. Those who strive to succeed by themselves because they lack social support from parents and other family members. Some of them call themselves ‘hustlers’. They work hard to improve their lives but their efforts are often unnoticed. And when noticed, their actions are considered as social deviation though these actions don’t not harmful. This group is the majority in our region. Others who find it difficult to get education
ADD also works extensively with refugees, returnees, displaced people, and, importantly with those who were trapped in conflict, behind the lines or isolated in occupied areas (the ‘stayees’). This includes the normally unreached: the unemployed or partly employed who have never completed their education, house-girls and houseboys, young people with no means to go to normal schools, those who are normally missed out, passed over or ignored, street children and children with disability.
