AFCD Foundation – Morocco

We serve Our Community with Love.

Sustainable development is useful only if it leads to the improved welfare of everyone. However, the high levels of unemployment, in the region of El Haouz, especially among youth, is so critical. Youth unemployment and lack of opportunities have significant social impacts that prevent young people from fully enjoying their rights. Beyond the individual level, it affects the prosperity, stability, and equality within a society and a country’s sustainable development. In addition, gender norms also affect young women entering and participating in the labor market.

AFCD is an independent association of highly ambitious youth volunteers who vowed to improve their areas, light people’s paths and raise their awareness about the importance of their contributions to enhance their living conditions.

AFCD  started as a small Civil Society Organization, but realistic; it focused on the real solutions that could be implemented to fill the gap between what students need to study and what the market needs, thus bridging the gap between education and employment. The environment was another priority; AFCD has worked on trash management and environmental laws with local farmers who do not have access to information related to environmental laws. They have simplified those laws for them and guided them to follow those laws.

AFCD believed in the need for the development of soft skills, such as management and communication skills, and supported interactive learning solutions,  adopted at tailoring training programs to the job market, which helps youth acquire the skills required in the job market and believed in the asset small farmers can contribute to society. 

AFCD started to adopt a sort of thorough approach to the improvement of the regions within their reach and focused on the areas that affect people’s daily lives in the short, mid, and long term; society, economy, and environment. 

AFCD  adopts an inclusive, participatory, and comprehensive approach to ensure the rights of the volunteers to participate in the decision-making process.

“Youth First” program

AFCD believes in Youth empowerment as a  priority; they need to invest in their potential, vigor, enthusiasm, creativity,  and ambition. It worked earnestly to create opportunities and provide tangible solutions to youths.

AFCD launched the “Youth First” program that aimed to develop and build youth capacity in AitOurir by engaging youth ages 15-25 in a series of workshops to help them obtain the skills needed to be active in civil society.  Within the project, they also involved Youth who are civil society activists to be mentors. As a result of the ‘Youth First’ program,  young people in AitOurir became committed to civic engagement and used their skills to solve community problems. The project resulted In Implementing some local Initiatives inspired by workshops’ learning outcomes, with a leading position.

Youth First has made a difference in AitOurir and on the youth participating in the community and an impact on the local community, with several initiatives that inspired and motivated inactive youth to be engaged in community projects and maintain active youth,  to be sustainable in the future projects.

Post training, the youth has developed, designed, and planned a specific community project. AFCD managed to observe the positive outcomes of creating inclusive opportunities on a larger scale, where youth use design thinking to understand problems from the perspective of the individual or community with a better chance of identifying unique solutions that will meet those needs, including their own. 

“Oxygen” Project

From Grassroots to Policymaking in El Haouz

AFCD launched an environmental project, “Oxygen”, to unify and coordinate efforts among civil society organizations in Al-Haouz to foster a better environment in the region and bring up the most important national laws and strategies for the protection of the environment. 

AFCD worked through different tactics; from Advocacy campaigns, conducting a series of training, and raising awareness to implement action plans, the project succeeded in inspiring many local authorities, farmers, and other CSOs, and creating a national interest in AFCD’s theme and strategy. 

PACA workshops

A chain of PACA workshops moved the initiative into another crucial stage of the project. Dozens of workshops, presentations, and round table discussions with farmers were delivered by experts in the field of the environment The objective is to raise awareness and active participation in identifying needs and objectives of each area through community workshops, mainly Sewage wills’ digging and water management laws. The workshops were conducted in many places in the region of Elhaouz and extended to Kelaa Sraghna. The workshops were conducted in AitSidiDaoud, Ait Faska, Touama, Tidili and Angal.

Environmental laws Trainings 

Citizens, especially farmers, in Morocco were not aware of the laws in general and the environmental laws in particular. AFCD wanted to bring the environmental laws closer to the citizens, especially farmers, by adopting a top-down approach. With the cooperation of experts in the field, AFCD  simplified the formal language of the laws into easy language that is understood by the average citizen.  

• 10 meetings in 10 different sites in the region of Elhaouz Ait ourir, Ait Faska, Tidili, Tighdwen,  Ait sidi Daooud 
• 258 attendees attended the sessions (179 men, 79 women)

Meeting with the Head of the Environment department at the Wiliya 

Continuous meetings between AFCD president and the representative of the Environment department at the wilaya were organized to discuss the project outcomes and means to support and work on the recommendations decided by the local communities. AFCD Succeeded in activating Local Government committees through involving government officials to gain valuable feedback on identified goals and objectives from the PACA workshops and how they relate to existing master plans. 

”The “Oxygen” project has opened up our eyes to many other environmental and social issues the region is confronting. The project succeeded in bringing the civil society activists into the light again and motivating them, whether directly through meetings and workshops or indirectly through our work and the recognition we have gotten from the local media outlets. 

The AFCD team was featured on “ Khbar Nass’’ TV program that is broadcasted on “MEDI1 TV”. This appearance on Medi1 TV has brought us into contact with civil society activists from all over Morocco. AFCD received hundreds of invitations to conduct workshops and deliver presentations about the environmental laws particularly.”