AFF and our Latin American partner, ALAFA, have written, published, distributed, and evaluated an extensive character development program whose English name is Alive to the World/VL.

Centered on twelve books that can be used in or out of elementary and secondary school over as many years, this course presents an ongoing story about a group of friends who confront typical situations as they grow up. The program makes young people think about choices and consequences. At age appropriate levels, they have to consider family, friendship, peer pressure, romance, sex, love, marriage—and implications like loyalty, team work, personal responsibility, and respect for property, to name but a few.

Over time, they learn that traditional values make sense, that they form a coherent system, and, most importantly, that they open up a world of possibilities of health, happiness, and progress. The approach of using an unfolding story over the course of several years had never been attempted before the first volumes of VL were written and published in Spanish by Christine Vollmer, the Chairwoman of AFF, in 2001.