Visiting Feminist NGOs that Achieve Change in Morocco

This summer, Morningsiders made their second service-learning visit to Morocco since the resumption of such trips in 2023. Twelve students travelled to Morocco’s capital Rabat on May 28. They were initially introduced to Morocco’s political and social history, Daridja (dialect of Arabic), and cuisine and architecture in a series of class sessions and walking tours anchored by Morningside’s Rabat-based partner organization, the Centre for Cross-Cultural Learning (CCCL).

The crux of the trip consisted of visits to NGOs and social enterprises in Rabat and Marrakech, to learn about the needs they serve, how they serve effectively and conscientiously, and how they structure their leadership and funding. In Rabat, students visited the AMPF (Moroccan Association of Family Planning) and the ADFM (Democratic Association of Moroccan Women), that respectively focus on sexual health education and provision, and enhancing women’s legal rights and political equality. In Marrakech, students visited Al Nour, a non-profit that trains women with disabilities to take up gainful employment, and Project SOAR, an NGO that teaches girls to value themselves as equal members of society, to pursue higher education and careers, and to protect their menstrual health. At Amal, students learned about the precarity and financial struggles that female domestic helpers face, and how this social enterprise trains them to become sought-after chefs and kitchen staff within Marrakech’s growing tourism sector. During this visit, the students also learnt how to cook various kinds of tagines and couscous dishes. Another new addition following last year was a visit to the Moroccan Centre for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE), a non-profit that supports Moroccans in establishing, funding, and growing new social enterprises all over the country.