By Fatima Zahra Laarbi

On Tuesday, the 25th of July at Hotel Mogador Opera Marrakech, two of HAF’s team members, Fatima Zahra Laaribi and Errachid Montassir, attended the first participatory regional seminar in Marrakech organized by the Moroccan Volunteer Collective, a non-profit national network.

The Marrakech seminar is one of six participatory regional seminars in the capital cities of the six targeted regions (Rabat, Tangier, Fes, Marrakech, Agadir and Oujda). These six regional seminars are part of the project called “Together for the Recognition and Institutionalization of volunteering in Morocco “. It is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Around 80 people attended the seminar, from associations that work with youth as well as volunteers, local and regional authorities, university members and experts in the field of law.

The purpose of organizing these six seminars is to sensitize, inform and provide participants with arguments and evidence that requires recognition and institutionalization of volunteering in Morocco.

Another purpose is to create a multi-stakeholder consultation and debate framework on the institutionalization of voluntary service in Morocco in order to facilitate regional consultation in enriching the pre-draft framework law of volunteering.

The work of the seminars is carried out in a participatory way in order to give the participants a space for dialogue, debate and expression. The objective is to provide the multi-actor to understand the issues in order to react by raising recommendations and proposals relating to the Voluntary Law.

There were two sessions in this seminar.

In the plenary session; there were four interventions where they focused on advocacy strategies as well as youth policies in Morocco, in addition to the Legislation in Morocco.

During the afternoon workshops there was a discussion to enrich the form and content of the framework law of volunteering. The objective is to make recommendations to the expert lawyer and the national advocacy support committee in order to discuss and enrich the form and content of the framework law of volunteering.

HAF practices experiential learning with youth of all ages and with diverse partners including

universities, Children Protection Centers, public schools, youth centers and associations and with more

than 300 primary, middle and high schools in Morocco through our Sami’s Project.  We are dedicated to

building the skills and opportunities for youth to become active change agents in their communities and

nation.  With directly engaging youth in furthering community projects with local people, youth’s

capacities advances with the projects they help implement.  Also, this article in University World News

written by HAF team members describes our programs’ benefit of reducing vulnerability among at-risk

youth.