This November, the London team has had the pleasure of hosting some of our Moroccan colleagues for a two-week cultural exchange visit from Taroudannt. Abdellah Soussi – the head of our partner organisation, Soumya – who runs our School Support Programme at Centre Amane, and Touria – one of our key social workers at Centre Amane, arrived in London at the beginning of the month and have been very busy in meetings for our key projects in Morocco, attending school visits, and participating in training in London – as well as meeting some of the UK team who started working in the London office this year, and of course enjoying some sightseeing, shopping, and social activities.
Abdellah, Soumya and Touria doing a spot of sightseeing in London!
During the first week of their visit, there were several key internal meetings, including a key strategy meeting and weekly team meeting, as well as meetings to discuss our Volunteer Project, the ID Papers Project, and our proposed Fostering Project. Abdellah also attended the Consortium for Street Children’s annual research conference with some of the UK team, ‘Do I Count If You Count Me?’, presenting research from MCT on headcount data and participatory research with street-connected children.
Bonfire night also fell in the first week of their visit, and the team attended the fireworks display at Southwark Park, as well as attending the Lord Mayor’s Show and visiting Cambridge at the weekend to end the week with some social activities and sightseeing outside of London.
Touria and Soumya joined in on CARAS (formerly Klevis Kola Foundation) activities over the course of their visit, including their After School Club, Women’s Coffee Morning and the Cooking Project.
The team were also lucky enough to be in London for our annual fundraising concert held in St James’ Church, with Abdellah giving a fantastic welcome speech and introducing both organisations and some of the work that takes place at the centre, and Soumya and Touria helping with the refreshments stand throughout of the evening with our UK team – they baked delicious Moroccan cakes and biscuits for the concert, as well as making endless supplies of traditional Moroccan tea!
Photograph from the November concert at St James’ Church
We are extremely grateful for all of the great work that we accomplished together during their visit – including another hugely successful November concert; MCT is incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful and invested partner organisation and team at Centre Amane!
We would of course also like to thank everyone who contributed to making the trip such a resounding success, and we look forward to some of our UK team returning the visit early in the New Year.