WHO WE ARE
African Youth Development Fund (AYDF) is a Non-Profit Company registered with CIPC, registered as well as a Non-Profit Organization with the National Department of Social Development as per the NPO Act 70 of 1992. AYDF has a PBO Status, approved by SARS as tax exempted in terms of section 30 of the Income Tax Act.
Registered in 2004 as a sister organization to Miles and Associates International (MAI), AYDF was positioned to carry out the community development work started by MAI. As a Non-Profit Company, it could raise funds with government, private sectors, global funding agencies, mining sector, etc
In 2012, a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) was established as part of AYDF. This was a move to have a vehicle that would work with the government and local agencies. AYDF as a Non-Profit Organization has been in partnership with the Gauteng department of Social Development since 2012/13 in the implementation of the largest youth focused prevention campaign on drug education program called Ke Moja “I’m fine without drugs”.
Though the relationship between AYDF and Social Development comes as far back as 2005, it was back then when AYDF was approached by DSD National and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to assist with the conceptualization of the national substance abuse campaign focused on children and youth called the Ke Moja “I’m fine without drugs”. AYDF had a privilege to help facilitate the inception of that program by first looking at the content, and two by training the national and provincial DSD officials. And that would be followed by the process of go to the provinces and to train the local DSD officials and the NPOs funded at provincial and reginal level.
AYDF through the sister company Miles and Associates International, implemented community development programs using sports (basketball) as a draw card to teach life skills programs. The rich experience comes from having done work for organizations such as Love Life, and in countries like Lesotho, eSwatini, Zambia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, etc. MAI was instrumental in leading the programmes that AYDF would later benefit from the experience.
The founder Mr. Michael Lamar Finley in his interview mentioned the following, “When I came in South Africa in 1995, I didn’t expect I saw, going in townships seeing black communities in a state that they were in. I started a basketball programme in the community of Alexandra, and what I had seen in a matter of few months on how the kids were responding to the program, my vision was born.” AYDF has employed that model ever since, while basketball was the catalyst! Sports and recreation played a huge role in transforming children and youth in teaching lifeskills programmes and help them make positive informed choices about their lives. The implementation of the substance abuse prevention and awareness programme gave birth to what we would call the “Alternatives” to social ills.
This would mean anything and everything that the youth can engage themselves in and excel as means of prevention to drugs, sex, dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy, etc. a number of alternatives options were considered from Indigenous games to Sports, Dance, Poetry and Substance Abuse Prevention through Academic Excellence (SAPTAE). AYDF programmes has been instrumental in influencing the education space, the research by UNODC has revealed that learners are less likely to get involved in activities like drugs & alcohol, sex, dropping out of school if they are doing well in their schoolwork. AYDF has organized and ran a few school camps in school premises to assist learners to form study groups and be supported by external facilitators as tutors.