This week we are proud to highlight AAmAAL Institute, Aflatoun’s partner in Iran and one of the most active champions of social and financial education in Persian. AAmAAL is a non-commercial, non-profit institution that invites everyone to join “a collective effort for the social and financial empowerment of children and youth.” That invitation is not just a slogan. It shows up in how they design their programmes, work with schools and families, and collaborate with partners like Aflatoun.
AAmAAL’s work starts from a simple conviction: if we want empowered children and young people, we must first empower the adults who work with them. The institute focuses on building the skills and confidence of teachers and facilitators. They develop a rich set of learning materials and training offers so educators can guide children through both social and financial topics in a balanced way. Their goal is not only that children learn how to save, budget or plan, but also that they build empathy, resilience and a sense of responsibility towards their communities. As AAmAAL explains, what makes their approach unique is the attention to both social and financial education, and the balance between the two.
On the ground, AAmAAL works across three main areas: education, publishing and partnership. Through education, they run courses and activities that help children and young people practise real-life skills, often in cooperation with local schools and community organisations. Through publishing, they create books and learning materials that turn sometimes abstract concepts into stories and exercises that feel close to children’s daily lives. And through partnerships, they build a network of allies – from civil society to other institutions – who are committed to long-term social change. Together, these three strands create an ecosystem in which children are surrounded by supportive adults, meaningful content and a wider community that believes in their potential.
The partnership between AAmAAL Institute and Aflatoun International sits at the centre of this ecosystem. Over the past years, AAmAAL has translated and contextualised a broad range of Aflatoun programmes into Persian – from early childhood content to primary and youth curricula, as well as thematic modules on social and emotional learning, environment, violence prevention, peace and positive lifestyles. Instead of only translating the words, the team has worked carefully on examples, stories and exercises so they reflect local culture, language and reality. This is demanding, patient work. But it is also exactly what makes Aflatoun’s model come alive in different parts of the world.
This effort is important not just for Iran, but for the wider Aflatoun network. In our internal exchanges, colleagues have underlined how proactive AAmAAL has been in this area, and how keen they are to see these materials used more widely. Their work offers a ready-made foundation for organisations in other Persian-speaking contexts that may be looking for adapted social and financial education programmes. Instead of starting from zero, future partners can build on what AAmAAL has already created, while still tailoring activities to their own setting.
Within Aflatoun, colleagues in Education, Communications and MERL are looking at how these contextualised resources can be shared more widely, for example through our partner platforms. This also offers an opportunity to highlight the care and effort AAmAAL has put into translation and adaptation, and to gently showcase how local ownership can enrich our global work. By featuring AAmAAL as Partner of the Week, we also hope to encourage other organisations – particularly those working in Persian – to discover these materials and explore possible connections.
What stands out when you look at AAmAAL’s work is how closely it mirrors Aflatoun’s core vision. AAmAAL is described as an invitation to build “a better world with and for children and young people” through balanced social and financial education, and they emphasise that empowered children need empowered teachers. This is exactly the kind of long-term, locally led commitment that makes our network stronger. By translating, contextualising and actively using Aflatoun programmes, AAmAAL shows how a global approach can become deeply rooted in local realities.
We are grateful for AAmAAL Institute’s ongoing collaboration, for their leadership on Persian-language materials, and for the way they keep pushing all of us to think more carefully about language, context and inclusion. Together, we are moving closer to a world where every child can access quality social and financial education in a language they understand, with examples that reflect their own lives – whether they are in Tehran, Tbilisi or beyond.