MAFA ACADEMY

MAFA Academy is a youth organisation based in Senaki, a small municipality in western Georgia. The organisation was officially founded in 2025, but our work started much earlier, in 2020, as a local youth initiative group created by active young people who wanted to bring more educational and international opportunities to their community. Over the years, this initiative gradually grew into a more structured organisation working on local, national and international youth-related activities. Our work is strongly connected to rural youth development. Many of the young people we work with come from villages and small towns where access to non-formal education, international programmes, career guidance and youth spaces is still limited. Because of this, one of our main goals is to reduce the gap between young people living in central urban areas and those living in rural regions of Georgia. We try to create opportunities that help young people become more active, confident and connected to both local and international communities. Another important part of our work is inclusion and diversity. We have experience working with young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, including Azerbaijani and Armenian communities, as well as young people with fewer opportunities and different social or economic barriers. Our activities focus on creating safe and supportive environments where young people can express themselves, develop practical skills and participate more actively in society. MAFA Academy uses non-formal education methods in its activities and combines youth work with digital tools, creativity and community engagement. We organise workshops, discussions, local initiatives, youth exchanges, educational campaigns and project-based activities focused on youth participation, digital literacy, inclusion, wellbeing and personal development. We also work on promoting international mobility opportunities through Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, helping young people access experiences that are often difficult to reach from smaller municipalities. One of the unique aspects of our organisation is the connection between youth work and digital culture. We have experience using esports and gaming as educational and social tools for engaging young people. Members of our team have organised student esports camps and activities where gaming was connected with teamwork, communication, leadership and digital competences. We believe that digital youth work can be a powerful way to involve young people who may not usually participate in traditional youth activities. Our team also has experience cooperating with local stakeholders and municipalities. During our years as an initiative group, we actively communicated with local self-government structures and youth councils, shared recommendations related to youth policy and participated in discussions about local youth needs and community development. This experience helped us better understand the challenges faced by young people at local level and strengthened our motivation to work on long-term solutions. In addition, MAFA Academy has strong connections with Tbilisi State University through different educational, youth and student initiatives. Members of our organisation have been actively involved in university life, student representation and educational projects, which has created valuable links between academic spaces and grassroots youth work. Today, MAFA Academy is actively involved in Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps programmes and already holds the ESC Quality Label. Our long-term vision is to become a strong sending and hosting hub in Georgia, especially for young people from rural areas and underrepresented communities. Through international partnerships, youth work and innovative approaches, we aim to support a new generation of active, skilled and socially engaged young people.