KEEP 100 MOROCCAN CHILDREN AWAY FROM ABANDONMENT

The sacred month of Ramadan is about to begin in Morocco: this family gathering period is a great time for me to give you some news about the mothers and children of Imzouren Family Strengthening Program. Enjoy the reading!

Last quarter of school before summer holidays

Thanks to the faithful support of our donors and partners, the Family Strengthening Program continues to pay school fees for children who are in Kindergarten: this allows the mother to attend trainings, look for a job and eventually have a job that allows them to keep their children with them. The program also pays school transportation for pupils in primary school: this is a prerequisite for children to continue to go to school.

May is the time where children who are in the last year of secondary school and highschool have to choose their academic direction for next year. To help them make the best choice, pupils have participated in the third Course Choice Workshop of the year in Imzouren.

For the youths who will soon be looking for a job, a second Job Research Technique workshop was organized together with Imzouren SOS Children’s Village. This workshop was key for Saber: all his life, this very determined young boy has dreamt of becoming a police officer. Unfortunately, he recently found out that his dream would never become true because of his health problem. After this very hard blow, Saber has to accept this situation and to think about another career choice after university. On top of free visits with a psychologist, the workshop helped Saber find the inner peace and self-confidence he needs to move on. We wish Saber to find another vocation soon, and a job that will be compatible with his health condition.

When we tell you about school, we generally think about children and youths. But school is also an important matter for parents: how they can monitor homework and support their children so that they can succeed.

Having this in mind, the program manager organizes regular educational meetings between the mothers of the program and the teachers of the primary school, to help them understand the needs of their children. The mother receive advice on how they can support the children, despite the fact that most of them had to quit school very early (younger than their children).

To go one step further and improve educational support within the program, the program manager and school support teachers participated (alongside the teaching staff of Imzouren SOS Children’s Village) in a behavioral training to promote the development of positive attitudes favoring successful and effective learning. This important training was possible thanks to a partner’s donation.

On the way towards autonomy

As you know, the program supports lonely mothers so that they can become autonomous, keep their children with them and offer them a life in dignity.

In their development plan, some of the mothers have expressed their wish to set up their own small agriculture company. To help them mature their projects, we offered them the opportunity to attend a meeting with officials of the Agricultural Advisory Center. They got explanation and important information about cattle, goats and rabbit farming. I will keep you posted about these nice and ambitious projects!

Let me tell you a success story of the program. Thanks to your support, Fatema, a very zealous and persevering single mother, has achieved the goals she had set in her family development plan. She is now starting to become autonomous while doing something she really enjoys. As a beneficiary of the program, Fatema had chosen to participate in cooking trainings offered by the program in Boumanqad center. Backed by this training and thanks to her tenacity and the help of our program manager in Imzouren, she has created her own catering company. She prepares traditional Moroccan dishes, salty appetizers and sweet pastries. With her delicious recipes, she has won the stomachs of her costumers and thanks to her charisma, she has also won their hearts: her small company is a on the road to success! She now has a good customer base that makes regular orders. What a great success and a nice example for the other mothers of the program. We wish all the best to Fatema!

Impact on the community

Imzouren Family Strengthening Program aims at having an impact on the overall local community, and not only on the families directly benefiting from the Program.

Within the region, SOS Children’s Villages is a pioneer regarding children’s rights and children’s protection. In order to share our knowledge and experience with the local community, our program manager organized several awareness sessions for children, regarding self-protection against sexual abuse in two local schools (Ibn Rushd and Sidi Bouafif). She has also set up awareness sessions for women beneficiaries of INSAF Lousra association, on children care, on how to communicate with their children and on sexual education for girls.

Family day in Imzouren: happy anniversary to SOS Children’s Villages in Morocco!

Do you know that there is a special day to celebrate your family and all families around the world? It is May 15^th! This date is very important for SOS Children’s Village in Morocco, even more this year. To celebrate 30 years of action for the association in Morocco, the big SOS family, to which you belong, gathered in Imzouren SOS Children’s Village to share a nice day and participate in various activities. In an atmosphere of joy and gladness, SOS families, PRF families, local associations, donors and partners, blew the candles of the thirtieth anniversary of SOS Children’s Villages in Morocco.