For the first time in the history of MCT’s volunteer programme, we hosted two Moroccan volunteers in Taroudannt! As part of our efforts to expand from international and local volunteering, we have developed a strand of national volunteering to promote community service and volunteerism amongst Moroccan youth.

Two Moroccan students of the business administration programme at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, joined our team in Taroudannt for a period of one month during their school holiday from mid-December to mid-January. Originating from Casablanca and Rabat, the two volunteers had never visited Taroudannt but wanted to do something meaningful during their break and to complete their programme’s community service requirement.

Their tutoring experience and linguistic skills were put to use in our school support and pre-school programmes. Their roles at Centre Amane included school support across all subjects with particular focus on French and English for the older children and a daily French activity in the pre-school. They also helped support daily sport activities and our monitoring and evaluation tools. Our entire team worked with them in hopes of being able to give them a mutually beneficial learning experience.

Upon arrival to Taroudannt, the two volunteers jumped into the mix by attending our regional conference on birth registration that we hosted on 20 December where they served as translators for MCT trustee and ‘Bastards’ documentary director, Deborah Perkin. This was a new experience for them and they were also able to meet and join the entire Taroudannt-based team immediately.

We extend a warm thank you to these two students and hope that this was only a start to welcoming national volunteers to participate in our volunteer programme in Taroudannt. The two volunteers from Al Akhawayn University have promised to take up their new roles as ambassadors of our programme and to encourage their colleagues to consider taking up a meaningful opportunity of community service. Representatives of our volunteer programme plan to travel to Ifrane to deliver a seminar to the students on ‘The Role of Civil Society’ on 17th March.