Early childhood offers a unique opportunity for positive learning experiences, which lay the foundation for children to reach their full potential. Environmental and other factors have a powerful influence on attitudes learned at a young age, shaping their future development. Hence, the emphasis on initiating social and financial education at this early stage, equipping them with the tools to change their circumstances and effect a positive transformation on their society.

Aflatoun’s core programme focuses on children of primary school age, because new attitudes and behaviours are most easily absorbed during this time. It is a fundamental period in personal development, where literacy, numeracy and basic skills become ingrained and part of everyday life. Our curricula can be used within formal primary education, but for those without access to schools we have developed the Non-Formal Education manual.

Tailored specifically to teenagers, the Aflateen programme stimulates young people to question their identity and the world around them more. Young people aged fourteen to nineteen years-old work through modules that blend elements of social and financial education. They also learn about money and markets that affect their lives. This helps them navigate the modern world and prepare them for an increasingly complex and demanding job market.

Alongside the Aflateen programme, we’ve developed the Aflateen + programme which focuses on gender equality and economic prosperity for girls and women, addressing issues faced by girls and women in developing countries. Because of this, the main target group of Aflateen + are girls aged between 15 and 18. The Aflateen + programme gives girls and women the opportunity to learn about their rights and tackle not only ethical issues, but economic and financial ones too.

The Life Skills and Financial Education for Peace Curriculum is based on the Aflatoun curriculum but adapted to a (post) conflict context. The programme has the potential to assist in conflict transformation by giving children and young people the skills to promote understanding and critical thinking vital to analyse the underlying cause(s) of conflict. They become active participants in society and can develop their skills to stimulate local economies through the creation of micro enterprises, which has the power to contribute to sustainable peacebuilding.

“Youth” is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood's independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. Therefore, 'youth' is often indicated as a person between the age where they may leave compulsory education, and the age at which they find their first employment. This latter age limit has been increasing, as higher levels of unemployment and the cost of setting up an independent household puts many young people into a prolonged period of dependency.

This supplement aims to contribute to a basic understanding of child protection and proposes activities for caregivers and children to become aware of the importance of protecting children’s rights. This material is based on the vision that children and their communities have important roles in fulfilling child rights, and more importantly, rights which protect them.

The goal of this supplement is to involve different actors in the decision-making and implementation process of the Aflatoun programmes. With a range of activities for children and their families or caregivers, and for the community in general, this supplement seeks to encourage public participation and communication in order to improve the experiences children and their communities have with the Aflatoun programme.

The objective of this supplement is for participants to reflect on how their habits and actions affect the environment around them. It encourages participants to think critically about ways to reduce, reuse and recycle waste in their local communities and helps them to respond actively to growing environmental challenges.

This supplement aims to introduce the topic of violence prevention, how to identify instances of violence, and how to deal with these situations. Aware of the importance of families and the community in ensuring that children can develop and thrive in a violence-free environment, this curriculum includes both activities for children and their families or caregivers.

The 21st century is often described as an age of unprecedented pace of change and uncertainty related to technological evolution and climate change. In response to these challenges and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, Aflatoun International, with support of the partner network, created the Social Emotional Learning Supplement.