Written by CorpsAfrica/Maroc Volunteer Ms. Aicha Mimouni

The leadership camp we organized in Tadart was a far-fetched gathering of all high school students of the Azzaden Valley. Throughout the four days of the camp, participants built leadership skills through the direct skill transfer of the workshops and activities that comprised the camp. These included volunteerism, public speaking, self-confidence, leadership, goal setting, and project planning. Moreover, they had the opportunity to practice these skills by applying them to current projects (environmental campaign, helping people needed and taking leadership roles in the camp activities, etc.) as well as future projects.

The project planning component of the camp, in which students spent two hours each day planning and critiquing their future projects, allowed them to practice all the skills learned in the morning workshops (goal setting for outlining their projects, leadership within their groups, self-confidence and public speaking when presenting, in addition to communication between them within their groups, etc.). The project planning sessions were an important step that made the participants think critically about how to do an activity, how to look for partners, how to manage time, and how to work as a group and demonstrate leadership.

The best thing in camp was their attendance all together for three days; they worked as a group, they discussed the problems of their villages and they set their goals. They worked and reworked their ideas and they shared them with others.

The camp was not only an activity that had an end but it was sustainable and youth applied the skills they learnt right after the camp finished. They took the initiative to work on other activities but this time only with our guiding which is something I am proud of. They became leaders of their communities and started thinking about how they can improve their area by their simple available materials at least for the current situations. They thought of how to work in a more organized way, so they reworked their ideas and decided to set up a group that united them and make them always work together; they named the group “Youth Azzaden for Change”. It is miraculous to see how these youths become truthfully aware of their responsibilities towards their communities, and thus, become future change makers.