From the 12th to the 14th of November 2013, there were three days of training for the benefit of the civil society of Boujdour organized by the Social Action Division of Boujdour Province, in the Moroccan Sahara. The workshops were held from 9:00am to 2:00pm at the association space of the City of Boujdour. The topic was the Participatory Territorial Diagnosis.  I feel fortunate to have been one of the participants, and an ultimate beneficiary.

The topic of the training, being the participatory approach, was not something new for me, since I have been working with the High Atlas Foundation for most of this year. However, one of the advantages of this training was that it was an opportunity to build trust between HAF and the attendees, the majority of whom were social agents with whom I already organized many community meetings on behalf of the HAF. Those meetings were aimed at facilitating participatory planning in the Province. I also benefitted from this training by honing skills and deepening and improving ways of communication with the local population, whether in the city or the desert “Albadia”, and integrating all groups concerned with sustainabledevelopment.

There was a positive impact on me from the three days of training, in the sense that it brought me closer to the HAF and its objectives, and it made me proud of being part of the organization. I take now this opportunity to thank greatly the Social Action Division of the Province of Boujdour for their efforts of organizing such valuable workshops. I would also like to thank Dr. Yossef Ben Meir and the team of HAF who conduct the participatory approach to achieve human development.

Hana Ezzaoui, HAF Site Manager, Boujdour