Every country is different, like every person is too. Our cultural background is the trait d’union linking these two universes apparently unrelated altogether. That said, the main responsible for our instruction is the school system of our respective countries.
But what if the system cannot provide support for all of us? What if there are special circumstances that keep us afar from the others?
We are collaborating with Ahli, a local NGO involved in education. The main aim of the association is to get out youngsters from the street, give them a place to live, to provide professional support enabling them to work in different fields, such as hairdressing, chalk carving, shoemaking an wood manufacturing. The final objective is to reinsert these kids in school and/or in the society giving them, at the same time a cultural background from traditional arts and crafts, sport, formal and informal education.
More than 800 youngsters, males and females, are enrolled in the work of Ahli. There is also a anti-violence center and an emergency service which is in charge of taking care of the most delicate situations in and out of the center.
We, as international volunteers, are providing a football academy, an introduction to theatre, food support and other activities are scheduled for the months to come until our departure.
All our activities within the center are conducted by non formal methodology, but, as stated before, there is also a formal education program on parallel, carried out by local volunteers.
I have asked to some kids a few questions about education. They were happy to answer, and looked very passionate in their speech. At the end I interviewed a teacher from the center, to have the counterpart speaking up their mind as well.
When asked about what they like about formal and non formal education- school compared to Ahli- the kids answered that they think that formal education enables them to get into the world as a productive member of society, while, for non formal; they love the different experiences they get to live and learn from, the active participation and the out of the box way of thinking, as well as keeping always an eye on the real life, with its traditions and important teachings.
About their teachers/facilitators at Ahli they all agree on the fact that they love the way they commit to their volunteering and they always try to be up to date regardless of all the limitation a center like this has in a country like Morocco.
The last question was about what they learnt that specific day. The answers were very different but in the eyes of all of the kids you could see that they enjoyed their time learning and hopefully, because of this, they are going to be more motivated into pursuing a better instruction, with new info and possibilities, at Ahli or outside from the center.
Icham is a facilitator at Ahli. He is a young Roudanis and he is deeply in love with his city. He is an amateur actor- just because he says it is Impossible to live out of it here, and a professional illustrator. He works for Ahli since long time and loves his volunteering.
My questions for him were the same I asked the kids.
He remarked the passion and the seriousness of the teachers in formal education. They are motivated and have a deep knowledge of their respective subjects.
For non formal, he is convinced that the kids are the first indicator if what they do at Ahli is right or not. They come back for classes, when that was exactly the problem before, the drop out from conventional education system. There is something there luring them in, which is motivating them and making them happy and eager to know more.
About the kids, Icham says that they are motivated if there are activities ready for them to participate in. The problem about it is finding the necessary material and human resources to carry out the different ideas. The shortage of time and the lack of materials sometimes are a huge obstacle to his work.
As for the last question Isham said he learnt that is always possible to contribute to a better world.
Everyone of us is giving something to others, every day of our lives. He loves to give his time and experience especially to these kids as a way to better distribute love and care between all human beings, no matter where they come from or what issues they have been through.
There it is a collection of pics of the different workshop they run at Ahli and the contacts of the NGO, in case you wanted to know more or support their activities.
Till the next month.
Till the next month.
Bslama
Tommaso