General Information

History and Goals
Established in 2002, MMCC/AECC has grown into a countrywide education program focusing on teaching children to lead. MMCC/AECC’s basic philosophy is that children know best how to communicate with other children. The goal is to give children the tools they need so they can themselves develop creative and novel ways of spreading fun education throughout Afghanistan.

National Urban Capacity Center
The MMCC/AECC’S flagship urban capacity center, the Children’s Culture House, is located in Kabul. It gives 120 permanent students, both boys and girls, the space to learn and develop their skills on a daily basis. This main center is the place where new ideas and pedagogical methods are developed.

Provinces
Mobility is key to the success for the MMCC/AECC as so many of Afghanistan’s children live in the countryside. Its professional adult artists tour and perform for children across the country. In its Bamyan centre, the methods developed in Kabul are modified for rural areas. Colourful containers full of equipment (Funtainers) are supplementing MMCC/AECC’s presence in rural areas.

When MMCC, Mobile Mini Circus for Children, started its activities in 2002, less than one million Afghan children attended schools and there were hardly any school buildings and infrastructure.  While NGOs and government programs focused on delivering the basics to the Afghan population such as food, shelter, security and education, MMCC in the same period specialized in developing and introducing soft values that brings children together and create joyful communities.

Since 2002 MMCC and its local partner AECC, Afghan Educational Children Circus, has performed and made workshops for more than 2.7 million children in 25 provinces all over Afghanistan. The combination of entertaining and essential educational messages such as health, landmine awareness, peace and back to school/importance of education, delivered by professional Afghan artists in a pure local context, has proved to pave the road for cultural activities even in parts of the country where music, singing and other forms of artistic expression have been suppressed or forgotten for decades.

Each year MMCC and AECC bring together children from across the country for numerous big events such as festivals and children assemblies. When children play, practice and perform together, they become much more than just representatives of their background, region or ethnicity. They become friends, active members of a joyful family and advocates for national unity.

Circus and especially social circus as developed in the frame of MMCC/AECC in the past 10 years, is much more than physical art. It is about using the amazing capacities of circus as a tool to make positive social change for children.

Afghanistan has reached a critical juncture. As the international community moves away from direct control of Afghanistan’s institutions, the need has never been greater for Afghans to take control of their own destinies. Over the past decade, the children and youngsters at MMCC/AECC have developed the capacity to lead young people across Afghanistan. Their voices are the voices of Afghanistan’s future.