Change among youth motivates Mustapha to do more

This week's guest blogger, project manager Jennifer Denomy, reports from Morocco where she continues to introduce us to some of MEDA Morocco's staff members.

After YouthInvest started field activities last year, local project manager Mustapha Ouchrahou had many questions: How would the partners work? How would they deliver the training? What would the impact be and how would youth react?

The first training sessions happened with secondary school students in Boudnib, a small town near Errachidia in the south east of Morocco. "I met with some of the youth and heard their stories," says Mustapha.

"They said that the training had given them an entirely new attitude, new skills and a greater sense of self-confidence. There was a real change in their way of thinking. They discussed calmly how things were going at school and how they had begun to negotiate their needs with the administration.

"I could really see that there was a difference. It was very touching. Now we are so motivated to do more because of the change we see.”

Giving youth "something that changes their lives"

This week's guest blogger, project manager Jennifer Denomy, reports from Morocco where she continues to introduce us to some of MEDA Morocco's staff members.

Monitoring and evaluation manager Khadija Saoudi often travels to the field, meeting with partners and beneficiaries. In rural areas where MEDA Maroc works, youth have no other programs or training they can access. These are neglected areas in terms of social services.

"Our program is interactive and allows youth to meet in groups to learn things – a new concept for many of them," reports Khadija. "When they begin the training, they love participating and learning with peers and do not want the classes to end. They ask if there is more training they can do and say “don’t forget us!”

"One of my favorite things is to talk to youth after they start the 100 Hours to Success training. They greet the trainer in the street and talk about how much they have learned in the classes. They are excited to report that they taught their family members to do the things they learned.

“I feel like we give them something that changes their lives. It’s a huge change, especially for the girls.” Khadija says that before receiving the training, youth describe living their lives “as it goes,” but now they have objectives and know how to motivate themselves to achieve what they want to do. They don’t stay at home until they get married, but have direction and purpose.

Unfortunately, many girls encounter opposition to plans they develop, because starting a business might require them to do things that go against local traditions. It's difficult for them to travel for work or to buy supplies for their business. But they know how to save and to create small enterprises. Some girls have overcome barriers and we will continue to encourage them.

Meet the YouthInvest staff! Here's Fatima Zohra …

This week's guest blogger, project manager Jennifer Denomy, reports from Morocco where she will be introducing us to some of the MEDA Morocco staff members over the coming weeks.

Being part of an inspiring program such as YouthInvest is bringing proud moments for project staff.

YouthInvest finance manager Fatima Zohra Boukhnifi felt one of those bursts of pride in April, when a group of youth “graduates” of the 100 Hour to Success program were interviewed by reporters and the project was featured on a national Moroccan news program.

"When I saw the interview on television, I felt so proud and told everyone I knew that I work on this project. I feel very connected to the work and to the beneficiaries."

Fatima Zohra also finds it rewarding to be part of the interaction between MEDA Maroc and MEDA headquarters in Waterloo, Canada. When there are accounting difficulties, she reaches out to HQ staff and feels she is not working alone. “We are supported and it’s very motivating,” she says.

MEDA’s deadlines are tighter than those in other places she has worked, and with HQ support, she is learning to prepare financial statements and reports more quickly.

Although everyone in the MEDA Maroc office works on different tasks and in different areas, decisions are made together. Everyone contributes and this makes the team very strong.

Fatima Zohra is now taking her first YouthInvest field visit and we look forward to hearing about her trip as she sees first hand what youth are learning in our project.

YouthInvest by the numbers

MEDA's YouthInvest project is making great progress in reaching out to unemployed youth in Morocco, reports project manager Jennifer Denomy, who is currently on a two-week field visit to Morocco.

For instance, youth are being encouraged to begin saving for their future. To date, 587 youth savings accounts have been opened with MEDA's partner financial institutions.

And MEDA is reaching out to many more youth with its 100 Hours to Success training program as it continues to scale up. Currently, 1,309 youth are enrolled in training and 554 have completed courses.

Partner financial institutions are piloting youth loan projects. Interested clients participate in eight hours of training, then apply for a loan to start or build a small business for themselves. The average loan size is 8,000 Moroccan Dirhams, or about $900.

MEDA is getting the word out about YouthInvest through awareness-raising sessions in high schools, youth centers and community centers to attract young people to the training.

A current priority is to expand YouthInvest to Egypt, and MEDA is finalizing partnership agreements with local banking institutions and NGOs. Recent research, including focus groups with youth, parents and community leaders and partners, will ensure that the program is tailored to the particular needs of the Egyptian community.

Watch this space for reports from the field!

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.