“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lays an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus wrote this sentence in the early 1950s in the city of Tipasa located 70 km from Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The coastal city of Tipasa was first a Carthaginian trading centre, whose necropolis is one of the oldest and most extensive of the Punic world (6th to 2nd century B.C.).

In this city, the Algerian Project Management Association (APMA), a member of IPMA, supported the Algerian caritative association ‘Sanabil el kheir’ to put into practice Albert Camus’ quote, especially for children from various horizons. APMA children challenge a dedicated education activity for children between 7 and 10 years old, helping them to enter the world of projects and discover the ‘invincible summer that lays with them’.

The challenge is an equivalent activity/product of the IPMA-Kids, less formal and structured differently. It substantially impacts children and parents wishing to improve their knowledge and experience in the world of projects. The evidence of the success of APMA’s children challenge, the second of its kind, is that the demand for the challenge is increasing. Parents and children from different schools are approaching APMA to repeat the challenge in various locations in the country.
30 children divided into six teams were acquainted with team building, communication, listening to challenges of others, result-orientation and, most important, enjoying being together and having fun.

The children of Tipasa were chosen from different backgrounds, villages, and parts of the city. The challenge started on the morning of 28 January 2023 after the introductory speech of Samir Benmohamed, President of APMA and the welcome speech of IPMA Executive Director Amin Saidoun. The main facilitator of the children’s challenge was Farouk Amrane, Vice-President of Young Crew of APMA and working full-time for the Algerian Oil Company Sonatrach in the field of training and project management and dedicating his free time to APMA. All APMA board members attended the meeting, including officials from the local authorities of the city of Tipasa whose children took part in the challenge.

The event in Tipasa has given evidence that APMA, a transitional member association of IPMA since 2016, is an active member that certifies project managers in Algeria and that has increased its national presence in other cities of Algeria like Oran (where Albert Camus wrote his novel “La Peste” for which he got the Nobel Price for Literature in 1957 at the age of 44). In the country’s south, APMA  opened an office in Ghardaia at the border of the biggest desert in Africa (the Sahara). In Constantine, the city of the canyons, APMA also recently opened a branch to promote its activities and address the IPMA ecosystem. The membership development is moving forward thanks to Khaled Meriem, Vice-President membership of APMA.

This winter, indeed, through the engaged facilitator, children discovered that in them lays an invincible summer, developing their self-confidence by speaking up in front of a public of sixty adults and presenting their results.

At the end of the APMA challenge, each child received a diploma of attendance established by APMA executive director Mohammed Benbraika and handed over by the various officials.

The objective of APMA is to move the association forward and develop agreements with training organizations and universities in the country, for which Hakim Kabèche, Vice-President of Education and Training of APMA, is responsible.
Finally,  the event in Tipasa has shown again that the associations’ strength is to offer a platform of exchange between persons from different generations and horizons, with the will and passion for projects and to contribute to the good of society. A big thank you to all APMA and the Algerian caritative association ‘Sanabil el kheir’ volunteers, keeping IPMA moving forward in Algeria, the largest country in Africa, with a population of 45 million inhabitants, seventy percent is below the age of 35.