Hey!
I hope all is well with you. Morocco has been a great experience. Learning a lot about the culture, the language, and the history of Morocco. Two months down, two more to go.
I had many reasons to study in Morocco. One was the possibility to come to an African country. The other was to serve migrants and refugees. Morocco is in an interesting position in terms of handling migrants and refugees. On the one hand, the European Union has given them lots of money to help keep migrants from crossing into Europe. So this gives the Moroccan government incentive to keep them in Morocco. But, on the other hand, local Moroccans see this people group as a threat and want them out of Morocco. So there has been excessive raiding of migrant camps and transfers to the southern border of Morocco, far away from the Spanish enclaves. This is a very vulnerable people group that I felt the need and drive to help them as best as I can. So I am working on a project called “Friends of Migrants and Refugees” that is aimed at changing the rhetoric around migrants and refugees in Morocco.
A little bit about my project and how it came to be. I am one of fifteen students from my university that is part of a global fellowship that is in its first year, the Millennium Fellowship. The millennium fellowship is a joint collaboration between United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and Millennium Campus Network (MCN) to encourage college students on campuses around the world to create projects designed after a sustainable development goal or UNAI academic principles. My project is designed after SDGs 4 and 16, and UNAI principles 4 and 7. So being a refugee and working with migrants and refugee in the states, I wanted to do the same here in Morocco.
Currently, on my weekends I teach English to migrant youth from Meknes in the city of my study abroad institution, Ifrane. The English program lasts eight weeks and ends before the weather (snow) makes it hard to travel. When the program started, it was only foreigners volunteering to teach English. But through my project, I have encouraged Moroccan university students to assist as well. In this manner, it brings the engagement between migrants and locals that I think can create change. So many students want to volunteer and help!!
We want to continue the program for next year and add a Arabic learning component to it. However, the obstacle is transportation funds for next year. The cost of transportation for the group is US$1,000. The cost isn’t cheap because it covers roughly fourteen migrant youth. However, bringing them to the University enables more university students to volunteer and engage with migrants, giving migrants an expanded social network to help integrate into the society.
Here is a video I did that showed the impact AUI students,faculty, and staff had on the migrants I work with.
I am also trying to help an organization that provides vital services to migrant women and children. This organization is running out of funds and because of that the vital services they provide are in jeopardy. They will need about US$20,000 to maintain its services. As part of my project, I am encouraging students to help by providing what we can. So I focus on fundraising and collecting essentials such as canned food, toilet paper, soap, menstrual hygiene products, and other needs we can get from our campus store. I know it is something small among the other needs on their list but it is a way to help.
I know that I might be far reaching in terms of meeting these needs, but I am willing to do anything to try to meet as much as I can. I’m thinking about doing a crowdfunding to help meet the financial needs of this organization.
One way that you can help, is to continue praying for the provisions of this organization and sharing the information with anyone who is willing and able to help. If you want to start your own fundraiser or advocacy of any kind for this project, please feel free too.
If you have any contact information, or know someone that does, on organizations that are looking to partner with startup projects, please let me know.
If you need more clarification on my project, please let me know.