Project Launch:

Ouarzazate, known as the door to the Sahara Desert, is a medium-sized city with a population of about 70,000. The city’s name comes from the Berber phrase meaning without noise. Primarily inhabited by Berbers, Ouarzazate is known for being the setting for movies like Babel, Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, Gladiators, and Kingdom of Heaven.

World Connect launched a project in 2011 that conducted a journalism workshop for Moroccan youth where participants learned basic journalistic skills such as reporting, writing and interviewing. Participants were also be trained in photography, and learn about the role of online newspapers and how to tell multimedia stories. What began as a small, youth journalism workshop grew into a sustainable, Moroccan youth-run media company. Visit their website at www.ouarzazate-enews.com. Their success led World Connect to support ongoing activities of these impressive young people who are bringing their creativity and energy to the field of journalism, media, communications, and reporting. Read about Year 2 of this project here and Year 3 here.

 

Testimonials

"The workshop and journalism club really opened doors for me. I got to participate in Global Girl Media where I learned to shoot and edit videos, blog, do interviews and produce stories about women in politics and other issues. Now, I will be covering the Moroccan elections. This experience really helped to make my dream come true." – Soukaina, 20
"The workshop made me feel like I'm a real journalist...when I see something happening in my community, I want to run and cover it." – Mouad, 21