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Building Skills That Build Societies in Morocco | Huffington Post
Layla Madihi is the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator at the Moroccan affiliate of Education For Employment — a “network of locally-run non-profit organizations” in the Middle East and North Africa whose mission is “to create economic opportunity for unemployed youth” in the region through job training. In a recent Huffington Post article, Ms. Madihi recounts what pushed her to join the organization:
Years ago, with my university diploma in my hand, I was thinking that the hardest part was left behind. Nevertheless, the reality of adult life caught up with me: the future that I aspired to, was taking a while to come. Indeed, like any young university student, I wanted a better future and the starting point for me was to find a job… \
Despite her advanced degree, she struggled in her job search:
Even with my degree, I started collecting “No’s” and sometimes no responses at all. This situation had negative effects on my personality and especially my self-confidence. I started doubting myself, my university choices and my ability to work and achieve my aims. What surprised me was that it wasn’t just my case; my friends and classmates were facing the same challenges.
To get out of this situation, I took a job-training course at a social-sector nonprofit. To keep learning, I started an internship there, even though the social field was not what I had in mind when I had started my job search in the private sector. Back then, no one told me that interning at the nonprofit organization, Education For Employment in Morocco (EFE-Maroc), would be a life-changing experience that would make me discover a real and deep passion for the social sector. [full story]