A convention on school integration of disabled children was signed on Saturday (1 April) during the 4th National Festival of Children with Special Needs. The convention aims at establishing a co-operation framework between relevant departments, following the studies and recommendations made by NGOs in the field. The document provides for the construction each year of 200 integrated classrooms, the upgrading of educational spaces, training of relevant staff, outfitting medical structures, supporting related associations and providing teaching material and equipment. Out of the 230,000 children with special needs in the country, only 30 per cent have access to schools and specialised institutions.
The Municipal Councils of Tetouan and Cordoba agreed on Saturday (1 April) to collaborate to rehabilitate the old medina of Tetouan by setting up training workshops in Morocco. The deputy mayors of Tetouan, Mohamed Charkawi and Mohamed Al Bouazzaoui, are currently on a visit to Cordoba to get acquainted with the functioning and contribution of the rehabilitating workshops of the Andalusian heritage in the region and with Cordoba's experience in safeguarding historical heritage. The Moroccan officials held meetings with regional officials in charge of developing tourism and housing and with representatives of Cordoba University.
With hundreds of millions of dollars becoming available for Morocco through the new US foreign aid initiative, Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), millions of Moroccans can potentially be engaged in a development process that generates significant socio-economic benefits for them and their communities.
In May 2005, Morocco's King Mohammed VI launched the National Initiative for Human Development to promote decentralized development projects. Fortunately, MCA's commitment to the National Initiative provides a framework to advance the kind of flexible strategy that is needed.
The National Initiative and MCA should together pursue a two-pronged strategy that will advance their shared goals and the goals of Morocco's communities: first, train rural teachers, government officials, NGO personnel and citizens in facilitating group activities that help community members determine priority projects and develop plans of action to achieve them; and second, fund the projects catalyzed by the newly trained facilitators in the field.
The National Initiative already recognizes the importance of such training; it now needs to be broadly implemented.
Since communities across Morocco face different sets of challenges and opportunities, the projects the regionally diverse communities come to express as their priorities will span a broad range of areas.
There is, however, consistency among the projects Morocco's rural communities determine for themselves; these include irrigation, drinking water, education, women's cooperatives, tree planting and fisheries. MCA is already intending to support some of these areas.
Full story: Morocco Times
Titled “The Prophet and the Message”, the year of the Holy Koran in Morocco was inaugurated on Saturday in Rabat, with the aim of arousing the religious feeling in the rising generations, through memorisation and recitation.On the sidelines of this cultural event, which coincides with the 1440 anniversary of the beginning of the Holy Koran revelation, Mohamed Belbachir Elhassni , head of the Moroccan Commission for the Coordination of Islamic studies sections said that “this initiative, jointly organised by Islamic Studies sections and Al Qarawiyyin University, in collaboration with the Councils of Oulama in Rabat, Salé, Kenitra and Casablanca, will be crowned by an international seminar on the Holy Koran.
For his part, Mohammed Elkattani, an official in charge of mission in the royal cabinet, has pointed out that “the regular organisation of such cultural events confirms the great awareness from the part of the officials of these institutions.
El kattani has equally highlighted the importance of the Islamic studies sections in “the preservation of equilibrium between the different cultural components in Morocco,” adding that “to understand Islam, it's mandatory to grasp the historical context of its apparition”.
The inaugural session of “The Holy Koran Year in Morocco” witnessed the holding of the Constitutive Assembly of the Scientific High Instance for coordination between Islamic Studies sections in Moroccan universities, with the participation of the heads of these departments.
The Moroccan Human Rights Organisation (MHRO) has underlined the desperate need for accelerating the drive towards reforms to ensure democratic transition and strengthen the basic political and civilian rights.
MHRO president Abdullah Al Waladi called during a symposium on democratic transition and human rights, for taking measures to develop the economic sector. ''We seek to address and tackle human rights concerns through a practical approach that respects human dignity,'' he maintained.
In a paper presented at the symposium, it was noted that the democratic transition could open up unprecedented opportunities to consolidate the human rights culture in both theory and practice, but it could, at the same time, sustain a setback at any time.
The paper recalled that history of democratic transition course showed that the movement took different bumpy roads and was characterised by chronic complications. At a time when enhanced measures on human rights are being taken, some malpractices, which were viewed as things of the past, have been brought to the fore again.
''Any progress on the democratic path entails that more attention should be lent to phenomena like marginalisation, elimination and expulsion that pose real threats to the democratic transition,'' the paper remarked.
Some 18,000 Moroccan girls and boys are set to attend spring camps organized by the Youth State Secretariat in cooperation with the National Children Camps Body. The camps begin on April 7
The 4th session of the national "holidays for all" program schedules many activities during the camps for 15 to 17-year olds, who belong to youth organisations and associations.
The gatherings are meant to instruct and implant the spirit of civics, responsibility, mutual help and commitment to the youth, as well as teach them skills in arts, sports, literature, a communiqué of the Youth Secretariat said.
The teens will be carrying out these activities in 63 camps located either on the seaside or on mountains under the supervision of associations officers, writers, sportspeople, artists and others.
The spring camps are also the opportunity to hold training sessions, workshops and other activities to train children supervisors and camp counsellors. Some 55 training sessions are to take place in 33 camps for 2,900 counsellors and other staff.
The Youth Secretariat said training sessions were held last January and February attended by 2105 counsellors and overall more than 15,640 counsellors and other related personnel were trained since the beginning of the program.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment