Global Collaboration Project

In collaboration with the “farm to school” organic school lunch provider Bento Moo, the Dounia Project team conducted a parent workshop on developing healthy habits for toddlers and young children.

For a period of 9 months, children were provided with 95% organic, healthy and balanced lunches and simultaneously developed a community garden within their school. Children demonstrated a desire for healthy nutritional habits and developed an understanding on the origin of food and the importance of tasting products coming directly from their own community garden. We were very excited to see 4 year olds crunching on raw green peppers and fava beans and baking bread and cakes using organic whole-wheat flour.

However, we realized that despite raising awareness on healthy eating habits with children, we were still behind on involving families in this process. We decided to organize a parent and family interactive workshop discussing nutritional choices in terms of aliments at home and outside; nutritional habits (how do we eat as a family); steps according to ages (babies, preschoolers, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly) ; and ideas, tips and recipes to apply at home. We received a fantastic feedback from the participants which motivated us to run other workshops in other schools, summer camps and community centers around Morocco throughout the summer.

In the past few weeks, the Dounia Project team has been developing programs, activities and curricula for three different age groups:

1. Kids IT Project: a food access and permaculture program and activities for preschool and elementary school age children in Rabat
2. Global STEAM Changemakers: a makerspace virtual exchange program for middle school age participants in New York and Rabat, and
3. Youth 4 Equity: a curriculum on toxic masculinity and women’s rights for high school and college age participants in different cities in Morocco

First, in collaboration with our partners Bento Moo (healthy lunch providers), Rabat’M Montessori (early childhood Montessori school) and Jardiniers en Herbe (local gardening and permaculture organization) we developed a year-long sustainable gardening program within the school for children and activities in farms and gardens for their families.

Second, the Dounia Project virtual exchange team is currently discussing with the New York-based organization Global Kids and the Morocco-based organization Makerspace Kids to develop a virtual exchange program around specific social and global themes for middle school students in New York and Rabat using collaboratively relevant STEAM tools to address the identified global issues. We are still exchanging potential ideas and talking to the youth participants to identify issues that interest them the most and would most likely focus on throughout the project.

Finally, in the context of the “me too” global movement and after the tragic events regarding a young teenage girl sequestered, tortured and sexually violated in a small town in Morocco, a collective of young women and men created the movement “Masaktach” ( I won't be silent) to raise awareness and voices on sexual harassment and violence against women. In collaboration with the Masaktach collective, the Dounia Project education team is developing a curriculum exploring themes of toxic masculinity and gender roles within the Moroccan society. This curriculum will serve as a training for trainers for local and grassroots organizations and other collectives to engage young people in different neighborhoods around the country to start the conversation on women’s rights, interactions between genders, and socially constructed attitudes and believes. 

Links:

• school lunch provider for the Kids IT project
• Makerspace Kids in Morocco
• Masaktach: the Moroccan "Me Too" Movement