Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Robert P. Jackson
closes the “Citizen Journalism for Youth Empowerment”  Workshops 

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 witnessed the closing ceremony of the “Citizen Journalism for Youth Empowerment” project, funded by PAS Rabat in collaboration with Bras Unis Association. The ceremony, which took place at Sala Al Jadida Cultural Center at 5:00pm, was marked by the attendance of two guests of honor: Mr.Youssef Chafoui, the Regional Director of the Ministry of Culture and Mr. Robert Jackson, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i, as well as the Public Affairs Officer Mary Jeffers, Information Officer David Ranz, the PAS staff, workshop participants, teachers and parents.  

The project, entitled “Citizen Journalism for Youth Empowerment,” has been directed by Bras Unis Association along with the collaboration of Sala El Jadida Cultural Center; Orient-Occident Cultural Center; Youssoufia Public Library; and Information and Documention Center for Youth. This project took place in five different cultural centers throughout Rabat and the region, for the benefit of almost 100 young Moroccans, between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. 
  
The ceremony began with a speech by a representative and organizer from the Bras-Unis NGO, who in addition to welcoming all the guests for their presence, also thanked the U.S. Government and the American Embassy by directly recognizing the Chargé d’Affaires a.i., and the PAS Staff for granting, sponsoring, supporting and guiding the project in all stages from beginning to end.    
 
The floor was given to Chargé d'Affaires a.i., Mr. Robert Jackson who primarily thanked participants of the workshop, as well as thanking teachers, trainers, parents and partners for their attendance to the ceremony. He then congratulated the Bras-Unis NGO members for conducting the series of trainings and commended their support to the youth in the development and completion of their projects, while noting the U.S. Embassy’s collaboration in the realization of this program. Lastly, he congratulated the students for the impressive results of the workshops and encouraged them to keep up the great work.

Next, there was a presentation of selected podcasts completed by the participants to the workshop. The audience agreed that the participants prepared a quality body of work and expressed through their work, an interest to analyze critical issues, such as School Dropout, Smoking (Tabagism), Adolescent issues, Environmental Dangers, and Illegal Immigration. The ceremony ended with prize distributions to the best podcast creators presented by the guests of honor along with a photo.

The Ceremony proved successful as the children demonstrated through their podcast projects how the training was a beneficial and worthy experience for them. Majority of the participants during the event were children of a critical age, who are eager to learn and make a positive impact in their communities.  

Overall, the PAS funded trainings on Citizen Journalism proved to be beneficial for the youth as it has given them an opportunity to learn several new things, and to express their views by using new technological tools and means. All the trainees have shown how passionate they are about journalism in general. The Bras Unis NGO and Public Libraries, along with others involved in the workshop including: heads of Cultural Centers, teachers, parents and trainers, were all pleased with the workshop and expressed their willingness to having similar projects with the U.S. Embassy in the future.     
  

REMARKS: This workshop extended Public Diplomacy to an area of the country not often reached by programming, as well as to one of our target audiences, underprivileged youth.  The community members expressed interest in more U.S. Embassy events like this one, and PAS is considering further activities in the same areas.   
  
  
BACKGROUND OF EVENT:  In September 2008, PAS awarded a grant to Bras Unis Association for the realization of a series of workshops on “Citizen Journalism for youth empowerment in Morocco.” The purpose of this workshop was to give young Moroccans the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge in writing and creating newsletters, blogs, and podcasts about their community concerns that they share with members of their cultural centers, libraries, youth centers, and NGOs.  By organizing these workshops Post brought together about 100 youth (10-14 years old) from different quarters in Rabat and region, aiming to creating a network and help them generate local news from young Moroccan citizen’s perspective with the use of new technology. At the end of these workshops, participants realized online publication in the form of blogs and podcasts around topics of interest to their community, all written by teens for teens. The workshop included internet research techniques, emails, communication skills, techniques for conducting surveys and interview, and creating a blog.