MCT is hot off the heels of another massively successful (and mega fun!) visit from our GMH colleagues. Fouad and Karima, integral members of our team at Centre Afaq in Taroudannt, Morocco, joined us in London for a week and a half to exchange ideas, strengthen our mission, and develop future strategies.
The arrival of our visitors energized our team, as we vigorously tackled five main objectives:
- Exchange ideas and methodology with local organisations.
- Engage in projects run by our sister charity, KKF.
- Collaborate on ideas for future strategies and project development areas.
- Participate in Child Protection training.
- Provide an enriching cross-cultural experience for the entire team.
We are extremely lucky to be part of a larger network of non-profits with the shared vision of helping those in need, and which are eager and willing to exchange expertise and engage in constructive dialogue. The team first met with FACE, an organisation with very similar goals to our own in Egypt, where they learned about FACE’s street work outreach team, drop-in centre and future residence centre. The group then visited Baytree in Brixton, a well-established social centre with strong women’s and girls’ projects. These wonderful non-profits have had much success and we are keen to incorporate what we learned into our own work.
Our sister charity KKF runs many programmes for local refugees and asylum-seekers that are quite similar to our own in Taroudannt. Fouad and Karima provided wonderful support to these initiatives during their visit, lending their expertise from running Centre Afaq’s Soutien Scolaire programme and Women’s Project.
Throughout the trip, and especially during our Strategic Away Weekend, we were constantly brainstorming ideas on how to strengthen our mission. We came away with invigorating plans on how to expand our Volunteer Programme, increase our network and enhance our monitoring strategies. This included a day set aside with Andy Williams, co-founder of street-child NGO Retrak, who has previously led a 2-day team development training during GMH’s visit to London last summer and visited with the team in Taroudannt last autumn. It was a day to discuss together the concept of change and the stage of our work together at Centre Afaq. We also explored ideas of transition into focusing our work in different ways, such as working with the Moroccan Kafala system and opening a separate transitional centre. The team is already hard at work and the wheels are in motion!
Providing excellent care and support for the vulnerable children of Taroudannt is our top priority. As such, we took this opportunity to refresh our team members on Child Protection strategies and provide additional training on the latest best practices.
We had such a fun time working with each other; it truly is inspirational to work directly with our colleagues in Morocco. But, there’s no way we were going to let Fouad and Karima leave without taking them to a few of our favourite sites in London and enjoying some quality time together! We had a fabulous time at an MCT and KKF team dinner at a Sri Lankan restaurant in Tooting, checked out the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, revelled in the skyline at the London Eye, and had quite the photo shoot at Big Ben. Some of the KKF families were even so kind as to host us for dinner in their homes.
We couldn’t be more grateful for the exciting work we accomplished with Fouad and Karima and the amazing time we had hosting them during their trip. We’re incredibly lucky to have such wonderful and invested partners at GMH.
Come back and visit often to check out all the wonderful developments that will happen over the year!!
Want to get involved in the action? We’re always looking for fantastic new volunteers!