My last project with ITRAN before moving to Italy was at the same time the most challenging one. I organized a a two weeks-long summer camp for around 120 kids from Erfoud province. The camp participants are not only the Moroccan kids but also around 20 international volunteers who work as the camp animators. And me on top of this all…. 🙂
I came to Erfoud one week before the camp started. I drove the whole route by car, from Tanger via Tetouan, Meknes, Atlas mountains, down to the desert, with a furgo full of material for the camp as well as clothes to be given to the poorest families in the South. A nice few thousand kilometers back and forth, stopped by the police only once 🙂
I brought a small group of Spanish volunteers with me. We came earlier to prepare the school premises, uniforms for the kids, determine the camp’s schedules, sort out the new and last year materials for the camp activities, meet with the local volunteers , and to do the paperwork so the kids could start their activities smoothly and without unnecessary delays. We also had to form 4 groups of kids, 30 heads in each, which in the Moroccan reality is not the easiest task (as many kids who weren’t selected for the camp this year would appear , often with their parents, demanding admission).
Kids waiting for the camp to start
Cleaning the school yard
Great help from the authorities in cleaning the school
Final arrangements before the camp starts
Uniforms ready to be given to the kids
The two weeks of the camp passed like one day for me. It was a super intense but also a very rewarding experience. Practically every day we had some issues and challenges to overcome, had to make last-minute schedule changes, mend holes with bubblegum and extinguish “fires”, but an overall outcome was very positive. Kids were happy, volunteers as well, no major disaster experienced 🙂
We couldn’t do much without the local volunteers who were translators and helped us to animate the daily activities for kids. Together with our international volunteers we made an efficient team that year 🙂
Volunteering in Morocco 