MEDA Morocco tour sees youthful enthusiasm, hope
“What we saw was powerful.” -- Bev and June DeKay of London, ON, and Yvonne Miller of Chicago, IL, centre, were part of a recent TourMagination tour to visit MEDA's YouthInvest project in Morocco.MEDA supporters from Texas to Ontario recently witnessed Morocco’s past, present and future as part of a tour organized with TourMagination. On the 12-day tour, they met some of the 9,000 youth who are cultivating hope for their own future through MEDA Youth Invest’s 100 Hours to Success training project.
100 Hours provides basic life skills plus an understanding of finance and business – how to start and run a business, budgeting, marketing and access to financial services to encourage savings and the wise use of credit.
In a country with a population of 34 million and a median age of only 25, 60% of the country’s unemployed are young people. YouthInvest is helping to address this huge social problem.
The group had the opportunity to see how 100 Hours really can change a life – meeting young people in business – all with youthful enthusiasm fuelled by a new self-confidence and new skills learned in the program.
“The hope came through loud and clear,” note Agnes and Frank DeFehr of Winnipeg, MB.
“What we saw was powerful”
“What we saw was powerful,” said Yvonne Miller of Chicago, IL. “My favourite part of the trip was getting outside the city to see what real life is like and how real people are benefiting from the project. I am very grateful for the opportunity to see this work.”
Bev and June DeKay of London, ON, met “one young woman who had set up a real estate office – created herself a job – and had several family members involved – so the project is not just helping her, but her whole family.”
Visiting a training session in a small town east of the Atlas Mountains, Agnes and Frank said, “The students were very excited about what they were learning – money management and access to loans.” Bev and June were impressed by the instructor and the youth. “We couldn’t understand the language, but we thoroughly enjoyed the class.”
"The hope came through loud and clear,” note Agnes and Frank DeFehr of Winnipeg, MB. They liked “the combination of seeing the MEDA project and sightseeing, too, to get the history, culture and how people actually live."Agnes and Frank liked “the combination of seeing the MEDA project and sightseeing, too, to get the history, culture and how people actually live.”
An estimated 50,000 youth will build economic prosperity through the five-year project, which is funded by The MasterCard Foundation and MEDA supporters. “You see lots of young people everywhere,” says MEDA’s Bob Kroeker, who co-led the tour with Audrey Voth Petkau of TourMagination. “It really underscores the need for our work there.”