MEPI Impact Stories

Promoting Principles of Partnership and Cooperation Between Governments and Civil Society
Rabat, Morocco 5-6, October 2009

Over 150 representatives of civil society attended the Rabat Workshop on Democracy and Local Governance in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region (BMENA) organized by the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) and No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), in cooperation with the Governments of Italy and Morocco, co-chairs of the 2009 Forum for the Future.
The workshop took place October 5-6. Along with two other thematic workshops — “The Impact of the International Financial Crisis on the BMENA Region" in Beirut, September 26-27, and “Human Development and Human Security” in Doha, October 10-14 2009 — the Rabat Workshop contributed to the formulation of ideas for the Forum. Rabat offered a further opportunity to promote productive dialogue between civil society and governments of the BMENA countries and their partners, on issues of coordination and how to further political development, democracy and human rights The workshop’s findings will be presented at the Ministerial Meeting of the 2009 Forum for the Future in Marrakech 2-3 November 2009. Rabat’s contribution will add to the discussion at the Forum and provide momentum for constructive proposals, sound recommendations and meaningful cooperation between BMENA countries and civil society and the private sector.
The Rabat Workshop was an important component of the 2009 Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) partnership. It builds upon the principles of partnership and cooperation between governments and civil society enshrined in the "Partnership Document" of the Fifth Forum for the Future in Abu Dhabi in 2008.

Bedouin High School Girls Benefit from Pre-Academic Program

The Association for the Promotion of Bedouin Women Education in the Negev launched a pre-academic program aimed to help more than 100 Bedouin high school girls in Israel, from grades ten, eleven and twelve, prepare for university.
Participants have been receiving tutoring in key exam subjects, as well as counseling on how to cope with personal and social challenges they may encounter with a focus on women’s rights and empowerment.
The program has successfully completed the second year of three learning cycles of 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Ninety-five students started the year and 88 have finished it (36 in the 10th grade, 27 in the 11th and 25 the 12th grades). The dropout rate is 8% and it is below average.
Twenty-five girls graduated from the 12th grade, all of them did their matriculation exams, and they will know the results in November 2009.
Seventeen of the 12th graders have registered for higher education institutes which represents 68% of the students.
In a survey conducted by the Association for the Promotion of Bedouin Women Education in the Negev to learn about the previous years' graduates, it was noticed that graduates have applied and were accepted to university even 2-3 years after graduation.
Academic institutes that accepted graduates of the project are Ben-Gurion University (5); Ahva College (6); Sapir College (2); Kay College (7); Sami Shamoon College for engineering (3).
All in all, about 65% of all of the graduates are currently studying or have finished university. Out of university graduates, about 75% are working for a living, most of them in the area of their studies.

 

MEPI Meets Tomorrow’s Leaders

A pre-departure orientation session for five Tunisian students taking part in MEPI’s Tomorrow’s Leaders scholarship program was held in Amideast Tunis on August 3, 2009. The Tomorrow's Leaders Scholarship Program is a MEPI-funded program for capable and highly motivated high school seniors from underserved communities in the Middle East and North Africa. The program offers to students, who have the potential to become leaders, four-year university scholarships and internship opportunities. at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Lebanese American University (LAU), and the American University for Cairo (AUC). Tomorrow’s Leaders is a pioneering scholarship program that embodies a high quality academic program, leadership-building activities, civic engagement opportunities, and community service involvement.

Marwen Mechergui one of the students, states that “What's important and exciting about this program is that it offers an academic curriculum that focuses on instilling leadership skills as well as inciting students to be involved in community service activities and volunteering which help develop social skills.”

The program encourages students to be the driving force to bring about change in their respective countries. “I want to change the world”, said Mechergui. He went on to add that, “the program will be giving us the tools and showing us the ways to be leaders, each in his or her own field”. Hanen Keskes, who chose to major in political sciences at the AUB, reinforced Mechergui’s sentiment saying “this program will help me to pursue a higher quality education as well as develop leadership skills and thus I will be able to serve my community once back home. It is a great opportunity.”

Sabri Bzizi, an English major student who is planning to pursue his undergraduate studies in international affairs in LAU noted that “I consider myself very lucky to get a full scholarship to pursue my undergraduate studies.” He said “I would otherwise never be able to afford it to study abroad”.

Broadcasting on YouTube: Creating our own Video to Promote Social Change

Mona Hamed and Amel Wehda recently received an honorary award for their production of a bilingual, Arabic and English, Public Service Announcement (PSA) on “honor killing” on behalf of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC). The honor killing PSA video was submitted in a YouTube competition entitled “What Do Human Rights Mean to You” organized by the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace (WLP).
WATC is one of seven civil society organizations that received training from the Barefoot Workshops PSA production project in late 2008. The workshops were supported by MEPI and the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem.

Barefoot Workshops led a three-week program entitled "Media, Activism and Democracy," that taught participants from organizations in the West Bank, how to write, shoot, produce, and edit PSAs. The program empowered organizations in their efforts to raise awareness about important social issues.

The honor killing video addresses the need to change the Palestinian Penal Code. The current code allows courts to hand down lighter sentences to criminals convicted of honor killing crimes. On this occasion, Mona Hamed gave a presentation called "Broadcasting on YouTube: Creating our Own Videos to Promote Social Change". Her audience was the Youth Technology Festival WLP conducted in Jordan. Hamed showed two PSA's produced by the WATC during her talk, one on honor killing and the other on violence against women. Hamed also talked about her experience with WATC and the thrill of producing two PSAs using the skills she gained at the Barefoot workshops.
“Hamed stated that “the video conveys a stronger emotional power on viewers than when they read from a brochure about facts and statistics about honor crimes in the Palestinian Territories”. This video reflects the importance of changing the Palestinian Penal Code.
The message at the end of the clip says “Dear Mr. President, the Palestinian Penal Code STILL Permits HONOR CRIMES against women”. The words, “NO MORE EXCUSES”. The message urges the Palestinian President to take action to eradicate articles of law that exonerate people from honor crimes.
The two PSAs produced by the WATC will be used in advocacy campaigns against domestic violence and honor killing.
WATC recognized the power of video spots in You Tube and are determined to use it as an online advocacy tool to mobilize, support and achieve heightened visibility for its awareness campaigns.

Fostering social Awareness within Arab communities in Israel

Al Manarah Association for the Advancement of the Arab Blind in Israel launched a project entitled “Fostering Social Awareness”. As part of this project, the Association conducted a series of workshops which exposed participants to the world of persons with disabilities in particular blind. Each workshop was divided into two parts. The first part started with theoretical information regarding the rights of persons with disabilities and ended with discussion on coping with stereotypes against persons with disabilities in Arab society. The second part gave students an opportunity to feel what it is like to be blind through practical activities such as using a cane.

Al Manarah also organized seminars targeting parents and school teachers raising awareness on changing attitudes towards the blind and persons with disabilities. These lectures focused on the role of the family and school in blind children’s development. Al Manarah distributed materials such as brochures and flyers entitled ”Be Kind to the Blind”, which provide guidelines to the general public on how to relate to the blind. The flyers were distributed at Al Manarah’s school workshops, meetings and seminars. Each of the workshops had an attendance of at least 25 students and participants. A number of attendees volunteered to participate in future Al Manarah's activities and programs.

Political Training of Women Candidates for Local Elections in Morocco

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) launched a training campaign for Moroccan women candidates in advance of the upcoming municipal elections on June 12, 2009. The political training is a MEPIfunded project, which aims to support women candidates from several regions across the Kingdom, and consists of more than 40 training sessions in Arabic and Berber (Amazigh) languages. The training aims to provide women with campaign methods, funding techniques and communication skills to better target their outreach efforts and strengthen their ability to serve as strong representatives for their communities.

This initiative is especially timely as it comes in preparation for the first local elections in which Moroccan women are guaranteed a quota of 12 percent of Municipal Council seats. Currently, women hold less than 1% of the seats. A participant in the training, Mrs Latifa Abdourabbihi, stated that: "This training came at the right time with the right information I wanted to learn about candidacy."

To maximize impact and efficiency, IRI and NDI organized their efforts geographically. IRI has been conducting training in the northern part of Morocco, while NDI has been working with women in the south.

The vast majority of women participants were identified as probable candidates by their respective political parties and asked to attend in depth, two-day preparatory workshops.

The series of training sessions conducted by IRI and NDI attracted a large number of women from different Moroccan cities representing different political parties and women’s associations. The training supported women from a variety of age groups, socioeconomic and educational levels. In fact, a quarter of the participants were under the age of 35.

While all their demographics varied, they shared one common characteristic: a strong interest in women’s participation in local governance.

NDI and IRI provided intensive and interactive training sessions on candidacy to 3,763 women from various political parties and women’s associations in the southern and northern regions of Morocco.

Participant interviews showed their assessment of the program. Mrs. Malika Biti, communal counselor in Agadir and a participant in the NDI training in Taroudant stated: "This training will permit women to be confident when running their campaign. It provides all the necessary knowledge, overview of the changes to the communal charter and the technical sides of a campaign that will help the women run a good campaign and compete with men."

Ohounnou Saidia, a participant in the political training conducted by IRI stated: "I attended the IRI Khemisset training. I believe that the training encouraged all participants to take part in the 2009 municipal elections and the trainer did a wonderful job teaching women that this was their responsibility."

Ohounnou Saidia goes on to add "I am happy to say that we learned new strategies from these trainings. I started to learn more about how I could utilize technology in my campaign. These trainings really opened doors for members of our political party."

The outpouring of local interest and attendance rates showed that the training was a tremendous success. This was also recognized by extensive press coverage of the activities

Youth in Action: Advocating for a Violence-Free Environment

The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Beirut has re-launched the Youth in Action Project, a MEPI-funded project that addresses the problem of violence through a comprehensive approach that emphasizes awareness raising among youth in general and their active involvement in advocating for a violence-free environment.
The Youth in Action project targets the students in the 10th and 11th grade in public and private schools in Greater Beirut. The project consists of awareness raising sessions, the election of youth volunteers and advocates, the Youth advocates training workshop, the creation of “Youth in Action” daughter associations and networking through a virtual forums.

The program objectives are to build leadership skills among youth and increase their knowledge of human rights, impact of violence and conflict resolution strategies.
The Youth in Action Project was first launched in the academic year 2007-2008 during which it reached out to around 600 students, aged between 15 and 17 in six private and public schools, thirty of whom were elected by their fellow students and trained in conflict resolution practices and negotiation skills. The objective was to continue to advocate, in their respective schools and communities, for a life free of violence for all through the formation of Youth in Action Clubs.

In the new academic year 2008/2009, YWCA identified six new private and public schools from different areas of Lebanon. Around 500 students were reached through the awareness sessions implemented. 27 were elected by their fellow students and attended the training sessions in Mid April. YWCA and the Center for Women In Crisis (CWIC) will conduct follow up sessions to discuss the development of the projects. They look forward to the inauguration of six new Youth in Action Clubs in May.

As a follow-on step to the training workshop, meetings were held with the groups of students in their corresponding schools to further discuss and structure the different projects in preparation for their implementation following the launch of the Youth in Action school clubs. All six groups in the six different schools showed extensive enthusiasm in the initiation of their school clubs and projects. All clubs were inaugurated during the month of June 2008 and the projects were presented during the launching day. All projects were conceived, prepared and organized by the students and for the students. All Youth in Action Club members received a certificate of participation. In addition, YWCA/CWIC offered prizes for the best three projects.

 

MEPI Alumni Network: Caravan for Young Leaders

The MEPI Caravan for Young Leaders, a project initiated by the Morocco MEPI Alumni Network visited six different cities in Morocco - Salé, Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh and Agadir - March 13-21, 2009. The Caravan visited over 800 high school students, and introduced them to civil society, and trained them in leadership skills through after-school activities including role playing, games and dramatic works.

 

The MEPI Caravan for Young Leaders: Youth helping youth:

The MEPI Caravan for Young Leaders organized two workshops. The first was led by the MEPI Student Leaders and consisted of an introduction to civic engagement through experience sharing and other activities. Students were given a database of civil society organizations that they could join in their community.

The second workshop was led by a young MEPI alumnus, Mohammed Ennosse, who gave a presentation on leadership and good citizenship and shared his experience as an active civil society leader in Morocco. Ennosse conducted various exercises exploring leadership and how to be a good citizen.

Caravan participants and the MEPI Student Leaders worked together during the trip to organize a wide range of teambuilding activities. The participants presented a play that demonstrated all the concepts which were promoted, such as leadership, political participation, civic engagement and mediation.

"Our Moroccan Youth of Tomorrow: Leadership and citizenship":

On March 21 st, the Caravan concluded with a conference entitled "Our Moroccan youth of Tomorrow: Leadership and Citizenship". The conference presented the accomplishments of the Caravan Leaders and participants and addressed the obstacles that hinder the advancement of youth in Morocco. Caravan participants were awarded certificates of appreciation for their participation. The MEPI Caravan for Young Leaders was a tremendous success for its organizers and participants, and was recognized by extensive press coverage.