The training has two programs. In “Transitional Living Program” the youths receive housing, motivational counseling, and life skills and career training. In a subsequent “Independent Living Program” outside the Center, they learn the real independent life in an apartment, holding a job, paying rent, and taking care of other related life matters by themselves.
“Why are we going wrong?” raps Suleiman Mohammed, the leader of the AMURTZO Rap Group, “I’m talking to them but they are losing their minds, why are we going wrong?” Suleiman says that he was “going wrong” until he entered the AMURT program. Like many of his peers, he could not generate the money to pay for his education and had to drop out of school and drop into bad habits. However, he always worked on his creative talents, hoping that one day opportunity would knock at his door.
From March to October 2010 AMURT ran 10 Child-Friendly Spaces in Port-au-Prince. The purpose of the centers was to help children affected by the earthquake restore normalcy and improve overall well-being in their lives with psycho-social and educational support. Besides motivational and creative activities, children in the Child-Friendly Spaces program received a hot meal and nutritional support. In all 4,000 children and child minders have benefited.
Recognizing that peer educator groups have a tendency to disband once a project ends or funding dries up, AMURT integrated income-generation activities into the mission of the Komango peer educator group as a pilot program to bolster their longevity. The group started small by selling sausages and porridge at youth-organized soccer tournaments, in addition to their normal responsibility of discussing HIV prevention with people attending the events.
AMURT & AMURTEL sent an emergency response team to Padang, Indonesia immediately after the earthquake in West Sumatra on 30 September 2009. After the initial emergency response period, AMURTEL identified a need for Early Childhood Development (ECD).