Partner power

This week's guest blogger is Wally Kroeker, MEDA's director of publications and editor of The Marketplace magazine.

Why is MEDA so intent on working with local partners?

Because it makes a lot of practical and economic sense, says Adil Sadoq, field project manager of YouthInvest, which teaches financial literacy and life skills to young people in Morocco and Egypt. The heart of it is a customized curriculum called 100 Hours to Success, sort of MEDA’s version of Business 101.

Adil is a great believer in the synergy of partnerships. Rather than re-invent the wheel, he likes to collaborate with existing agencies that already have a proven track record of working with youth and can take MEDA’s unique training and run with it. “Working with local partners is so much more efficient because it is a long and arduous process for a new organization to get the necessary registrations to operate,” he says.

One of those partners is AMOS, a Moroccan microfinance pioneer, which has 26 loan officers and 6,000 micro-credit clients. AMOS has plenty of experience offering the kind of loans needed by small businesspeople everywhere, but it wasn’t equipped to offer the specialized training that these clients will need to grow their businesses. Teaming up with MEDA was a clear win-win.

On our visit, we were fortunate to be shown around by Halima Meskine, pictured, a dynamic young woman who is a loan officer with AMOS. She introduced us to a variety of clients, including a carpet weaver, a woman who raises goats, and a young woman who trains hairdressers. Each of these clients was ambitious and hard-working, but needed the extra nudge of YouthInvest training.

Another partner is the Near East Foundation, whose regional school trains 500-600 young people in skills that range from electrical and sewing to computers and physiotherapy. This school was looking forward to the “value added” that young people need to augment their career tracks.

These were just two of many organizations that are using YouthInvest training. It didn’t take a mathematical wizard to see how working with well-grounded partners with thousands of their own established contacts can exponentially magnify MEDA’s impact among Morocco’s productive citizens of tomorrow.

Soufiane: "Now I can start my own business"

"I dropped out of school at the secondary level," says 100 Hours to Success trainee Soufiane. "The only choice I had was to help my father in the small shop he bought after his retirement; and from time to time, I helped some people in building construction and agriculture for a pittance.

"My father charged me with the responsibility for his small food store, but I didn’t like this task because I was too shy; I couldn’t say "NO", to customers who asked me to sell them foodstuff on credit.

"After a while, the shop was so empty that we were obliged to close it. I was very demoralized by this situation.

"Later, I heard of training organized by (MEDA partner) ASSAMID, so I registered myself and began the training.

"After some time, I took back my self-confidence and I have become a more positive person. Now I can look someone in the eye and say "NO" when he asks me for something that I cannot do.

"Before the end of the training period, I learned a range of skills, including small project management and how to manage savings. Now I know the importance of balancing finance. I have become another person, and many people have noticed this change.

"Now I can start my own business and I’m sure that I can make it successful."

Leah Katerberg is this week's guest blogger. As MEDA’s program manager for monitoring and evaluation, she is one of the first to review the impact data that is collected each month by our field staff.

As I write, over 2,000 Moroccan youth have already grasped the opportunity to learn how to improve their economic prospects and do their part in promoting healthy relationships, healthy families and healthy communities. And that number is growing rapidly now as the program gains credibility and popularity in villages scattered throughout rural Morocco, where most of the country’s unemployed youth reside.

I’d like to tell you about the program’s success in one such village. Located in the southeastern corner of the country, fairly close to the Algerian border, the village of Boudnib is home to about 10,000 people. There, we offer ‘100 Hours to Success’ through Assamid, a local NGO staffed by men - and progressively, two women - who work to improve the quality of life for their most vulnerable neighbors.

Given their connections to local middle schools, politicians, media and the like, ‘100 Hours to Success’ has been a natural addition to their programming, reaching nearly 600 Boudnib youth so far. This alone is reason for commendation, however let me share with you a couple more.

Mid-way through the 100 Hours, Assamid planned a field trip for their students to nearby Errachidea where they toured the city’s university, visited the federal Employment and Skills Agency, and then traveled to the town of Zagora to end the day lounging on sand dunes. For many youth, it was their first time outside Boudnib.

Later, one of Assamid’s trainers opened his house to celebrate the achievement of a group of youth that had completed the training. They spent the evening laughing as they looked at pictures taken throughout the training sessions, on the field trip, and during the graduation ceremony.

They talked about the lessons ‘100 Hours to Success’ had taught them about money, about livelihoods, about life, and shared their dreams for the future. And they each left clutching a CD, put together by this trainer, that provided information on trade schools, colleges and universities in Morocco.

Fahim learns to plan for success

Fahim, 25, is one of a family of six. He left high school to work with his father in poultry farming, but the business failed. Fahim enrolled in ITA, the Institute of Applied Technology, where he studies motor vehicle repair.

“The poultry project failed because I did not know how to manage it. I didn't even know the first thing about planning. I behaved badly with the suppliers and did not know how to treat customers. Besides, I had no experience or training in this domain, so I made many errors."

“MEDA's 100 Hours to Success training helped me a lot. Even if I had many ideas and means to initiate them, I did not trust my skills to realize my project and make it a success, and I was not well organized. Now, I record my income and expenses in a book to follow them, and I set up a plan to help me realize my ideas."

"My goal is to earn my diploma from ITA and work one year at a garage to acquire some experience. Then I would like to open my own garage for car repair. With what I have learned, I am sure that this time my business will be a success."

Morocco's Berbers balance children's needs

This week's guest blogger, Fouzia Mharzi of MEDA MAROC, talks about how the nomadic Berber (Amazigh) population of the mountainous Middle Atlas region of Morocco view schooling.

"During the French colonization of Morocco, our grandparents tell us, a new law required countrymen of the Middle Atlas area to send their children to school. This meant rural populations would be deprived of a traditional labor force – their large families. At a young age – 6 or 7 – children began to help their parents as shepherds or in other farming works. Families saw their children's future in the fields.

"But slowly, poor families began to invest in their children's education, hoping that one day, they’d become a state employee – primary school teacher, forest warden – who could provide for themselves, their parents and their extended family.

"Now, with a much higher cost of living, primary school teachers and forest wardens can no longer provide a decent life for their children, even in today's much smaller families.

"Middle class families who can more easily afford to invest in their children's education are only able to provide enough schooling to ensure their children attain basic financial independence from their parents when they become adults.

"In poor families, children are often kept at home to help with farming. Girls either stay at home to do the house work or are sent into town to contribute to the daily basic expenses by working in service. Such is the case for of thousands of young maids under age 15 who work for rich families in pitiful conditions."

MEDA's 100 Hours to Change program provides new options for unemployed youth in Morocco by giving them practical tools to begin building a better future.

Aziz grows his business

His name is Aziz. Single and 22 years old, he is from Boumia, a small village in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco. Aziz lives with his family of nine: his father, who is a bricklayer, his mother, an older sister who is divorced, his nephew, twin brother, sister-in-law and two younger brothers who are still in school.

Aziz was still in primary school when he abandoned his studies to join the working world. Last year he became a shopkeeper, renting a small store for 250 dirham (Dh) – about $30 a month. He sells candies and roasted peas – a business known in Morocco as a taguellaite. With a monthly net income of 1000 Dh, Aziz contributes up to 700 Dh to help support his family and keeps 300 Dh as an allowance for himself.

But Aziz wanted to expand his business, so he went to AMOS (Association Microfinance Oued Srou), which in partnership with MEDA has developed a loan product for youth. Despite his youth, his single status and lack of credit history, Aziz was able to contract a loan of 3000 Dhs with a 12-month term – without having to provide a promissory note as a guarantee.

Thanks to this new financial product, Aziz and other young Moroccans will be able to see hope for prosperity in their future.

Adil: MEDA's voice from the field

Watch this video of Adil Sadoq, MEDA's field project manager for YouthInvest, as he describes the project's aim, who we will serve and how we will measure success. Adil was interviewed on September 30, 2009 at the Global Youth Enterprise Conference hosted by Making Cents International in Washington, DC.