Rabat – The Morocco Future Leaders (MFL) program has just announced the latest winners of its competition hosted in partnership with the US embassy in Morocco and the Anual Association.
The goal of the MFL program is to train the next generation of young leaders in northern Morocco and strengthen their leadership, communication, and innovation skills. The program is designed to help youth build project ideas that would lead to social impact.
“It is really important to keep working and developing projects like Morocco Future Leaders because these projects have a huge impact on our communities,” Safaa Ouchen, vice president of the Anual Association, told Morocco World News. “MFL is a starting point, a kickstart, projects like this will have a ripple effect across the country.”
The competition selected 30 youth from seven different cities and areas in northern Morocco, Tangier, Tetouan, Al Hoceima, Larache, Chefchaouen, Ksar El Kebir, and M’Diq and Martil, based on their leadership potential and commitment to their communities.
The candidates participated in four weekend trainings spread over four months. The weekend workshops focus on specific themes including identifying community needs, innovation, fundraising, and marketing projects through social networks.
During the final weekend, participants had the opportunity to pitch projects to a jury who evaluated their presentations based on the innovation, impact, and feasibility of their project.
“There were so many different pitches during the final week, but our main criteria was impact. We wanted to select a project that would change the most amount of lives,” Ouchen said.
A project titled “Rouad f Douar,” which roughly translates from Darija (Moroccan Arabic) as “Village Pioneer,” won the competition. The winners, from Al Hoceima, Tetouan and Tangier, received $600 in funding, as well as mentoring to implement their project that focused on nurturing the leadership skills of youth.
“The Embassy of the United States of America is convinced of the potential of the Moroccan youth by working with you, through our local partners as Anual, we can help you unlock that potential,” said Stephanie Miley, the embassy’s charge d’affaires, in a press release.
The Anual Association is a non-profit headquartered in Kenitra, just north of Rabat, that is dedicated to education and culture.
“We are proud of the success of the MFL program. We have seen the evolution of each participant through training that contributed significantly to the birth of several projects from young leaders,” said Ilyass Benarouia, president of the association, in a press release. “We are delighted to see this initiative grow and evolve to be able to support and give a chance to a larger portion of our Moroccan society.”
The MFL program is beginning the submission process of another funding proposal to the US Embassy in the hopes of hosting the program again next year. The necessary amount needed to run the program is $35,000.
Anual hopes to increase the number of participants to approximately 100 next year.
