Closing Ceremony of Youth First Academy

Mohcine — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 10:23:59 +0000

June 11, 2022 — The Youth First Academy is officially over after an emotional and outstanding closing ceremony at Ait Ourir city.

The Closing ceremony of Youth First Academy was remarkable. It was attended by Mr. Kammersgaardthe Jesper the ambassador of Denmark, Ait Ourir state oficials, AFCD Foundation team members, YFA Initiatives’ team leaders and members, and public invitees. And it was animated by the YFA project team leaders; Fadoua Badih, Sara Maria Hansen, Emilie Lumbye, and Mohamed Ali Ifols.

The event started with very warm welcoming words by the Youth First Academy team leaders, a word by the AFCD Foundation president AKAYA Kamal, a word by Mr. Kammersgaardthe Jesper, the Denmark ambassador, a word by the Ait Ourir state leader. Later, the YFA project team leaders gave a well-articulated presentation about Youth First academy and its results and impact. Then, it was closed with having the Youth First Initiatives’ team leaders giving presentations about their projects and goals.

Youth First Academy which is a twelve months project implemented by AFCD Foundation and was funded by the Rebuild Youth School from Denmark to give the youths in Alhaouz province the needed and the most vibrant skills to be active in their societies and bring about positive change to their communities has successfully reached for its main goals and great results.

Youth First Academy has given the youths based in Alhaouz province as a primary target community the opportunity to make an impact in their local communities, which has been an adjuvant to impact more than 2000 of youths at Alhaouz province, who were both the direct target community of Youth First Academy of more than 300 participants, and also Youth First Academy initiatives’ target communities of more than 1700 participants.

Pictures from the closing ceremony of Yourth First Academy

1- Innovation Training Boot-camp

The Innovation Training Boot camp initiative was developed by Ait Ourir youths. It is a 4 days training boot camp that comes to solve the problem of the lack of engagement of youths in social work, and also a learning journey to become more creative to lead more impactful activities starting from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 March.

For this reason, the innovation training boot camp hosted more than 30 young men and women who are active in their societies from all over the kingdom, with the aim of solving the incoming problem and developing their personal skills, throughout series of workshops, such as; workshops on the creative mindset, leadership, collective intelligence, fundraising, design thinking, contractual volunteering work, and other workshops.

2- Rouaaya Initiative

The launch of Rouaaya Initiative was dated February 21, 2022. This initiative was developed by Ait Ourir youths to solve the problem of the lack of orientation and guidance for high school students always had to deal with, through several workshops and social media campaigns and orientation forums. The initiative focused is mainly on the following activities;

Series of orientation workshops to introduce scholarships and universities to students, which is an opportunity to answer their questions related to their future studies plans as well as to develop their skills on both personal and professional levels.

An online platform called “Look Forward’’ in which the team publish via episodes all information and updates about guidance; each episode is filmed with activists and pioneers in different fields to share their academic and professional experiences.

As parents are concerned with their students’ orientation and future studies plans, Rouya Initiative set a meeting with the parents to give them an opportunity discuss this their students’ orientation, and also answer their questions related to their students’ studies.

Last but not least, the orientation forum that hosts a group of students from different fields to help high students learn more about their public and private schools and universities, and also hear their successful stories.

3- Flouka / Boats Initiative

The Flouka or Boats initiative under the slogan “Sail with us” was developed by the youths of the Boutweel Development Association. Flouka is basically about of equipping a coworking space in Boutawil.

The lack coworking spaces is what pushes the people, especially young men and women, to move to Ait Aourir or Marrakesh in order to search for a space capable which provides them with such atmosphere for studies and social work.

This has inspired the members of Boutweil Association for Development to think of developing a coworking space that would provide associations and students with a common space that would be a n effective environment for practicing social work and also preparing for their academic achievements in Boutweil.

4- Green Initiative

The Green Initiative is a community project that aims at creating an ideal neighborhood that encourages creativity and innovation and inspires the environment culture among Ait Ourir citizens.

The initiative started with a campaign to cleaning the neighborhood. Then paint the sidewalks and the electricity poles located at the entrances of the neighborhood as well as beautifully decorating it.

In addition to recycling tires and using them for decoration, drawing murals, and expanding one of the important roads in the neighborhood, a green space inside the neighborhood was restructured and planted it to be a garden and an outlet for the residents, as it was equipped with chairs and games.

Last but not least, the team leading of this initiative placed wastebaskets on the walk sides of the neighborhood to promote the culture of waste management.

5- Mersat / Anchor Initiative

Mersat initiative was developed and lead by the students of Al-Mukhtar Al-Soussi High School in Eureka. The project idea is basically preparing a multiuse class at Al-Mukhtar Al-Soussi High School in Eureka to conduct activities and workshops to develop their soft skills and share ideas and knowledge in this space in their high school.