Out of an estimated 20 million refugees, displaced persons and other vulnerable groups around the world today, 50 per cent are children. Most of them have experienced traumatic forms of violence. The conflict that made them refugees has often disrupted their traditional family and community structure. Forced from their homes and communities because of racial, religious and ethnic persecution, uprooted by war and violence, refugee children and their families are resettled in refugee camps, shanty towns and other new communities throughout the world. Members of the refugee community need to have the space and support to heal, to become a part of their new community and to adjust to their new world. While all adolescents are at a crucial stage in their development, refugee youth also encounter the challenge of finding their new identity in their respective communities in the face of culture shock.

The AjA Project transcends conventional humanitarian efforts by providing refugee youth with innovative multimedia and vocational education. Our unique educational endeavors focus on the development of technological, vocational, and creative skills. The AjA Project is committed to transferring the power of knowledge to youth in struggle across the world. The AjA Project has an international focus and operates three programs: Disparando Cámaras para la Paz (Shooting Cameras for Peace), involving internally displaced youth in Colombia; Record of Truth, involving refugee children on the Thailand/Burma border; and Journey, our local initiative in San Diego.

The AjA Project also administers a traveling multimedia exhibit of our students' works - "Lives in Transition : Expressions of Refugee Youth." The AjA Project's newest initiative is "Documentary Interchange"- in which AjA students from all three sites are paired up as pen pals and share their lives with each other through the exchange of letters and photographs.