An unfinished project, now complete!

I've written pretty extensively on this blog about my work related to gender issues and women's empowerment as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco (if you're new to the blog, you can read some of those posts here). About halfway through my service in Morocco, I started a project with an amazing group of young Moroccan girls from GlobalGirl Media, an organization that empowers young women from underserved communities by teaching them new media and leadership skills. 

These girls were passionate about creating a video on an issue that affects girls and women in Morocco and in other countries throughout the world -- sexual harassment. I wrote a grant for their project, to cover the costs of filming people throughout Morocco - women and men, old and young, in small and large communities - as well as the editing and production of a video with their findings. Unfortunately, the filming took longer than expected and I left Morocco before the project was completed. I'm happy to say though that these dedicated individuals remained committed to the project along with other Peace Corps volunteers and have completed an amazing 3-part video! It's really exciting to see what these girls have been able to accomplish and to know that I played a role in helping them to express themselves and to stand up for issues in their country.

If you are interested, the 3-part video can be viewed on the below links (they have English voices dubbed over):
Part I: Is this Normal?
Part II: Let's Talk about Normal
Part III: Time for a New Normal

In other news, Justin and I are enjoying our time with the adorable Katie and exploring DC as much as possible when it's not covered in snow. We're counting the days until springtime, cherry blossoms, picnics and bike rides! More updates to come soon.

Drew U. Visits Tiflet! [Guest Post]

GUEST POSTER: Justin
When I was in college, my school had a pretty amazing program called the Drew International Seminar (DIS). Participants enrolled in a course at Drew focused on a particular issue related to a specific country (occasionally two countries). Then for three to four weeks after the semester ended, the students visited the country/ies they had been studying for an on-site seminar to continue studying the same topic. The DIS program was like a mini study abroad, and in addition to the academic component, students had time for sightseeing, to learn about the country and its culture more generally, and to meet people from the country. 

In February of 2012 I happened to be on Drew’s website and was suddenly curious whether the DIS program still existed. Several years passed since I had been a student, and given the way the economy has been the last few years, I knew many schools have had to cut costs due to financial difficulties. It turned out that not only did the DIS program still exist, but two professors would be bringing a group of students to Morocco in May or June of 2013. Their DIS is on mobility and identity in the context of globalization (seminar description here).

I got in contact with the professors to offer to help however I could, met up with them last July while they were in Morocco making arrangements, have been in correspondence with them, and last week they and sixteen students visited Tiflet during their DIS. It is exam time in Morocco, so a lot of young people are busy studying, but we were able to bring the DIS together with a group of five strong English speakers from our site, and it was a great opportunity for Goals 2 & 3. We have of course explained to our Moroccan students about American diversity, for example, that we have people from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds. But us telling them is different from them seeing a group of Americans where the people look very different from one another. The Moroccans loved the opportunity to practice speaking English and both groups seemed to enjoy meeting the new people.

Here's a group photo (a few more are on the DIS Facebook page):

The DIS spent most of its time in Morocco in large cities – Rabat, Tangier, Fez, Meknes, and Casablanca. While in Rabat the Drew students met up with some Moroccan university students, who told them that they needed to get out of the big cities. Some Peace Corps Volunteers also will dismissively tell people that those are not “real Morocco.” It’s not true, as there is no single “real Morocco.” As with anywhere else, Morocco is multifaceted, and particularly since the majority of Moroccans live in urban areas (source: CIA World Factbook), large cities represent a large facet of Morocco. The DIS also visited Chefchaouen, which while small receives a lot of international tourists. But in Tiflet the DIS participants got to experience yet another facet, seeing a minor city that is not often a destination for foreigners and meeting with its youth. While Tiflet is by no means the smallest community in Morocco, the mere thirty-five miles which separate it from the capital city make it far removed from big city life. According to one of the professors at least, the Tiflet experience provided a good point of comparison to some of their other experiences.

Job Skills Workshops Conclusion

This past weekend, Justin and I, along with our two Moroccan counterparts Abdellah and Badr and new Peace Corps Volunteer Tim, presented certificates to 25 Moroccan youth who completed our month-long "Vocational Skills for Moroccan Youth" training workshops. 

Workshop participants with us and our counterparts

Participants attended 7 workshops in total, ranging from writing a CV, preparing a "Demande d'Emploi" or "Lettre de Motivation" (the Moroccan equivalents for our cover letters), interviewing, job search and social media skills, entrepreneurship, financial management, and career planning/goal setting. Participants completed homework assignments including making a CV, writing a cover letter, and even doing a mock interview.

Here, I'm talking about needs and wants, related to financial management.

When Justin and I first began the process of developing these workshops with Abdellah and Badr, we were blown away by how little education students receive here on goal setting or potential career/educational paths and what it takes to realize their potential. We've been told that there's one person in our community who is like a guidance counselor and visits each of the high schools once a year, gives a long-winded speech to students, and leaves without spending individual time or taking questions. Many students end up on a career path based on what a family member or friend does because they don't have a sense of what opportunities are out there, and no one has ever encouraged them to think about their interests and pursue them. Then, when it comes time to look for jobs, not only do many students not know how to create a good CV but many also lack the knowledge of where or how to look for jobs or the self-confidence to express themselves to a company.

Justin in action! He is teaching about the qualities of a successful person.

For our final session, we gave out certificates, had a small party, and asked participants to fill out evaluations about their experiences in the workshops. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Not only did participants highlight tangible new skills that they learned in the workshops, but they also noted some unexpected new qualities that they gained: self-confidence, motivation, and leadership. One participant said that in the interview she/he "learned how to be me in that moment." Another participant learned that he/she "could be a manager, not just a worker." And another participant told us about learning "how to reach my dreams, how to have a will for success, and how to be an accomplished person." Many participants said that the mock interview was one of their greatest experiences. For many it was their first interview - two participants were so nervous that they actually walked out before the interview! Their peers were able to get them to come back in; the group as a whole was really supportive and the mock interviews presented a great opportunity to learn how to express themselves in a safe and comfortable space.

The workshop team! 

Next week, we'll be going to Marrakech to share the program with other Peace Corps Volunteers. We hope that we can encourage others to replicate the workshops in their communities, and maybe this will be one of the legacies that we can leave behind here. For us, it was one of our last big projects and it was great to end things on such a high note. 

A signed banner with all participant names.

A big shout out and special thanks to Abdellah and Badr, who were the primary facilitators and worked with us in every step of the planning process, and without whom we could NEVER have pulled this off.

Some of our newest projects

I mentioned a little while ago that we've been working on some exciting projects! One of those projects is a website that I built at the request of Peace Corps Morocco staff, to help promote Peace Corps and volunteers' projects with current and potential partners. Peace Corps Washington has fairly strict guidelines in terms of content and layout, so I didn't have a lot of creative flexibility, but I'm still pretty happy with the result. I actually finished the website at the end of last year, but the process of getting all of the approvals from Washington took a long time and it finally went live last week. Here's a  screenshot of the homepage, and you can check it out by clicking here!

There's more: This past weekend, Justin and I along with two local counterparts and close friends launched a project that has been in the works for the last 9 months or so. Unemployment is a major issue in Morocco, particularly for youth; according to a report that came out last year, 49% of Moroccan youth are neither employed nor in school. Although Justin and I are not in a position to address the lack of available jobs in Morocco, one thing that we realized that we could do was to help provide youth with the tools and skills to better equip them to find a job. So we worked with our friends to develop a workshop series on employability skills. We held the first two workshops this past weekend with sessions on creating/improving their CVs and the Moroccan versions of cover letters. We'll continue over the next 3 weekends with sessions on interviewing skills, goal setting and career planning, entrepreneurialism, conducting a job search, social media, and financial management. The first two sessions went really well, with participants asking lots of questions and expressing that they have already begun to gain new information. We're excited to see how the remainder of the program will go, and I'll post an update when it's over! Check out some photos from the workshops, and if you're interested, you can learn more on the Facebook page that we created for the program, which also includes some of the course materials.

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)

I am happily back in Tiflet after a few weeks of being on the road! The first half of my travels involved an 11-hour journey to a small town in the south of Morocco called Taznakht. One of my Peace Corps friends organized a camp called Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) and I joined 8 Peace Corps Volunteers and 10 Moroccan staff to help run the 4-day program. 

GLOW camps were first started back in the 90’s by Peace Corps Volunteers and since then have spread throughout the Peace Corps network as a way to educate girls on important life skills and to empower the girls to use those skills in their lives and to share with their communities. Our camp had a variety of workshops ranging from very serious topics to more lighthearted: gender roles, self-esteem, Morocco’s family code law, goal-setting, self-defense, women's health, beauty, calligraphy, rape laws in Morocco, harassment, henna, belly dancing and cinema. In between the workshops, we led them in singing, dancing, games, scavenger hunts, field trips, and did I mention dancing?

For many girls, this is often the first opportunity to leave their town and participate in a camp-like experience and it was really amazing watching them grow over the course of the 4 days, develop a sense of comfort with the group, and make lots of new friendships. For me, it was also a welcome challenge with my language skills - the camp was run almost entirely in Moroccan Arabic, and in leading some of the workshops and participating in others, I found myself talking about topics that I had not yet discussed with Moroccans. It was nice to step outside of the boundaries of typical language that I use in English classes and in day-to-day interactions. 

I left the camp feeling mentally and physically exhausted but so grateful to have had the opportunity to share this amazing experience with 45 of my newest Moroccan friends ;) Fortunately, my recovery came in the form of an awesome vacation with Justin. More on that in the next post - In the meantime, enjoy the photos from the camp!

First day of camp, getting everyone up and moving.

Homemade face masks in a beauty workshop.

A "Hands of Peace" poster that girls created.

One of the MANY impromptu dance sessions during the camp!

Girls practice moves in a self-defense workshop.

Some of the Peace Corps Volunteer staff, on field trip day.

Playing games with the girls on field trip day.

In my harassment workshop, girls wrote on slips of paper how
harassment can make them feel. In the middle, in Arabic,
it says "Everyone deserves respect."

Girls create a poster about a world without harassment.

With 2 other Volunteers, enjoying the beautiful weather!

Winter holiday!

It’s a winter break from school in Morocco and Justin and I are using the time for work and for play! We finished up our fall/winter session of classes and had small parties with the students to celebrate the completion of our “semester” – check out some photos below from some of our classes:

Our adult conversation class

Justin and 2 students from our beginner class for young students.

Our beginner class for high school students and adults.

We’ll be starting a new semester of classes in February, but in the meantime, some new experiences and adventures: First, I am currently in Taznakht, (a small town near Ouarzazate, in the south of Morocco) helping a Peace Corps Volunteer to run a girls-only leadership and empowerment camp called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The camp is geared towards girls in underserved rural communities, and includes 4 days of programming aimed at building leadership and self-confidence, developing a safe and supportive community, and teaching girls valuable lessons related to gender roles, health, and future planning. I’ll be running one program about gender roles and another about sexual harassment. I’m extremely excited about this unique opportunity and can’t wait to share more with you in February!

After the GLOW camp, Justin and I are taking some time to explore some parts of Morocco that we have not yet seen! With less than a year left we still have a long list of places we want to visit, and we are going to try to get to as many as we can. More on these when we return, I promise with lots of photos :)

Justin's first event!

Back in March, I wrote this post about the first big event that I did in Tiflet (outside of teaching English classes and miscellaneous smaller activities). Now, it's Justin's turn! 

A couple of months ago, Justin was approached by a friend of ours, who is also the president of one of the local associations in Tiflet. He wanted to put on a festival for a rural underserved community, and explained that with Tiflet being a larger city (about 80,000 people), youth have access to resources that can help them to learn and develop in new ways - for example, a Youth Center and along with it, clubs and associations that do activities involving sports, music, theater, or art. This association wanted to provide something for rural youth that would give them access to some of those same resources, help to teach them skills, and forge a partnership with the community for potential future activities. Justin had previously mentioned that if the association ever needed money for an event, that he might be able to help them find funding sources - and this was a great opportunity.

For several weeks, Justin worked with the association to apply for a microgrant, which helped to provide the funding for supplies, transportation, food, etc. Once the grant was approved and the planning continued, Justin helped along the way, talking with the planners to help make sure all of the bases were covered. And Justin and I both attended the 2-day festival and helped out in any way that we could with limited language - setting things up, taking pictures, dancing with the kids, and helping with a workshop. I watched a lot of the kids from this community really come out of their shells over the two days and was really inspired by what our community's youth were able to do for others. Enjoy the photos and descriptions below which will tell you a bit about what went on there.


Day 1:

Arrived bright and early to help set up a stage, banners, some speakers, and lots of other fun stuff, along with other youth from Tiflet and teachers at the community's school:

The first activity was a soccer tournament, starting with 4 teams/2 games on the first day, and a final on the second day.

If you noticed, the photos above were all boys - That's because soccer here is mostly focused on boys. For the girls, the association put together a running competition. Not quite as big of an event as the boys', but still good for them to participate, and it's great that the association included physical activity for girls, something that often seems to be overlooked.

Next came a puppet show, with the theme around the importance of studying and going to school (at least that's what I think, based on not totally knowing everything they were saying!).

Then, a set of clowns to get the kids excited!

After some dancing with the clowns, we continued with a "cultural competition" - sort of like a quiz show around Moroccan and Islamic culture.

Next was an art workshop which I helped to run... just a chance for them to draw and express themselves.

And last (but very important) for day 1 was LUNCH! And since it was Friday, it of course had to be couscous. This was one of the MANY platters of couscous passed around.

Then, Justin and I went home and COLLAPSED.


Day 2:

The day started with the final soccer game to determine the tournament winners. Tensions were a bit high amongst the coaches (the kids' teachers) and lots of cheering went on!

After the game ended, we continued the excitement with a small dance party - And I learned some moves!

Next was the awards ceremony for the soccer and running. All of the kids were given certificates for participation in the festival too.

Somehow in the midst of all of this, Justin got put into a "jellaba" - a traditional Moroccan outfit. Quick photo break :)

 

Activities continue with performances that the kids have been practicing in school in preparation for the event - comedy routines, dances, theatrical performances, songs, even short speeches. All really impressive!

And last but definitely not least - the festival concluded with a "fantasia" performed by members of the community - a traditional equestrian display in Morocco that has been practiced for centuries (you can read more about it on the Wikipedia page). The fantasia involves horses and riders in traditional dress, riding along a straight path at the exact same speed so that they form a perfect horizontal line. All riders are carrying traditional guns and at the end of their short ride towards onlookers, they all fire into the sky at the exact same time. Pretty cool! As they were setting up, Justin and I got to pose with one of the horses, and I also spent time taking photos and admiring the beautiful traditional dress on the horses.

 

All in all, a really successful event, and I'm proud of Justin for the work he put into it and even more impressed by the amazing youth in our community who conceived of and organized the festival. I can only imagine how many more great experiences like this we will witness over the remaining year and a half here!