Morocco
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TEDx “We Are the World – Identifying Identity” Event
On the 2nd of March 2019, I will be travelling down to Marrakech from Rabat to attend the TEDx “We Are the World – Identifying Identity” event. As I am interning in Morocco and am in touch with women coming from a panoply of cultures, I thought this would be a great conference to attend. There will be amazing speakers, such as the Swedish Ambassador Niklas Kebbon, Zoreh Tabatabai who was employed at the UN Headquarters, and Dr Florian Langenscheidt, a dedicated environmental activist. I have been attending conferences since 2017 to begin networking and to meet various academics and speakers that work and are interested in the same fields as I am. For the other young people out there: look out for conferences near you to begin networking! Conferences are amazing platforms to put your name out there likewise to learn about interesting topics. Keep posted for a post that outlines how to network successfully!
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I’m back in Morocco!
The first time I came to Morocco, I was shocked to see something drastically different from anything I had ever seen before. From living with a host family for the first time to encountering women that had had very poor access to education, it was a reality check– I am very privileged. I realised, for the first time in my life, that some of the problems I saw as humongous in my life are really quite trivial in comparison to those faced by the women I taught every day. I was nervous and worried to walk through Rabat because of the incessant street harassment and didn’t know how to deal with it. Coming back to Rabat in 2019, now being 20 years old and having seen quite a bit more of the world, I see this city from a whole new perspective. I was happy to see my host family again and found ways to feel more comfortable on…
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5 Things I Learned While Volunteering Abroad
For the past 2.5 years, I have been travelling to a number of countries as a volunteer. After coming to Morocco for the first time in 2017, then travelling to Uganda in 2018, I started reminiscing the trips I had done in the past. I wondered, what is it exactly that I gained from these? What have I taken back home with me from each country? What are the things that I learned while volunteering? I realised that I cannot help everyone When you are surrounded by poverty, you can feel powerless. Imagine being in a Ugandan slum seeing children sniff gasoline out of plastic bottles to get their high. Imagine teaching women English and French, but knowing you cannot stay longer than a month because you have responsibilities back home, even though you would want to stay for years. Imagine having to keep politely saying no to those who ask for a bit of money, because if…
