Making dreams a reality

Young Moroccans have dreams, but often they have no idea how to reach them. During a recent focus group, MEDA Morocco country manager Adil Sadoq spoke to youths about their dreams for the future.

One teaches sewing; her dream is to open a tailoring shop. Another has dreams of owning a beauty shop. Two young men aged about 17 or18 had vocational training in plumbing and electricity.

One wanted to find a mentor to gain skills and confidence to get a job, while the other wanted to start his own plumbing business. They are looking for training in how to go about doing so.

Fatima, 20, lives with her family. She is a seamstress, with dreams of purchasing a better sewing machine. "The banks will not give people as young as me loans, so I have no way to purchase any sewing equipment. Through YouthInvest, now I can get a loan to get a new machine – and I can also get training in how to run and expand my business to be successful."

Meet Merye

Merye, 24 and married, has a small trading company for cosmetics and clothing imports that she is looking to expand. She would like to improve her business acumen and learn how to access financing to grow her small enterprise.

"YouthInvest will help support us and our families by giving us business knowledge," she says. "We will learn how to do market studies, how to choose a store location and how to assess whether our business idea will be successful or not.

"I could not afford to go to a formal school, and there is little opportunity for me to learn this in other ways, so this will be very valuable, for me and my family."

Through YouthInvest, MEDA hopes to reach out to 50,000 youth in Morocco and Egypt, where unemployment among the young is a major social problem. This project is bringing new hope to young people, who can now see a better future for themselves and their families.

To learn more about MEDA's work in Morocco and Egypt through YouthInvest, watch a short MEDA Moment video.

Welcome!

You’ve come to our new blog for YouthInvest – MEDA’s program to help jobless youth in Morocco and Egypt create sustainable livelihoods.

I hope you’ll visit us regularly here. We’ll post new entries each week, and you’ll meet the dedicated people involved in YouthInvest. Our field project manager, Adil Sadoq, will share regular updates from Morocco. You’ll hear from staff members in Morocco, Egypt, and here in North America. And we hope to encourage a few of the youth who are enrolled in 100 Hours to Success to introduce themselves and tell you about their plans for starting small businesses.

I think you’ll be inspired by what everyone has to say. The level of commitment by youth, MEDA partners and MEDA staff is remarkable. Last August, when I traveled to Morocco, I visited a microfinance institution that is partnering with us to develop youth-friendly products. I saw loan officers going out on foot, in incredible heat, to visit clients. They were working without the sophisticated financial tools – the laptops, the spreadsheets and so on – that you and I take for granted. That’s what people are doing on the ground to make YouthInvest happen.

Visit often to find out more.

Allan Sauder