By Sanae Elgourari
By Sanae Elgourari
Fez – JCI Fez – Junior Chamber International Fez – organized on January 8th, 2012 the second edition of the project “Caravan of Solidarity” for the children of Sidi Youssef, a small village located between Fez and Sefrou, Morocco.
Sidi Youssef is a small village, isolated from urban areas, and deprived of the ordinary and simple desires of life such as electricity and most importantly resources for school. Children here do not enjoy the least of their rights for a good education due to the combination of poverty, illiteracy of their parents and underdevelopment of their village. But, they still keep their smiles and their unpretentious dreams.
According to a young man from the village of Sidi Youssef “studying here is so difficult and most students drop out of school due to their parents’ inability of paying their educational fees, and this is just for primary school”. “There are three classrooms in this school, each one has more than 45 students. Sometimes teachers combine three levels in one classroom and teach all of them at the same time. So how can children learn in such dispirited state?” he added.
The help that JCI Fez provides includes basic necessities such as clothes, food, candies and board games for children.
Meryem Khalifa, the President of JCI Fez, said that “we might have covered families’ basic needs for barely one day; yet, it is the spirit of solidarity that we are trying to build. It is difficult to satisfy all families’ needs at this moment, because until now we rely on personal funding and donations from middle class people”.
“Board members are looking for other sources of funding to cover the high expenses of the organization’s activities and to reach out to other remote areas that are in similar situations. Our goal is to make sustainable, positive change in the lives of children,” she added.
But despite all these problems mentioned above, children were enjoying a clown’s tricks and jokes. They don’t have any idea about their circumstances, while they mainly were consumed with enjoying their day with JCI Fez – the board members, members and sympathizers.
Albert Schweitzer once said: “The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings”. And this sense is presided over by JCI Fez and by all JCI – Junior Chamber International— affiliations. They are all participating in charitable activities for a better tomorrow under the rallying calls “Be Better” and the United Nations Millennium Development Goal: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger.
Edited by Adnane Bennis
