Gender Equality Morocco Project #47743

Help Empowerment Facilitators Reach 700 Teen Girls

by Project Soar

Project Report | Jun 3, 2021
Empowerment Facilitators: Champions of Change

By Tess Dunn | Program Manager

Kawtar with PS Girls at Project Soar Headquaters

Hello friends! We are sending gratitude to You, our supporters, and positive wishes for good health as we continue to navigate the pandemic together.

This month, we are wrapping up the 2020-2021 cohort of Project Soar Girls across the country with COVID-19 safe graduation ceremonies. Keeping this momentous milestone in mind, we could not help but continue the festive spirit by highlighting our amazing Empowerment Facilitators, who make it their priority to ensure that each girl completes the PSB program feeling as though she is celebrated. Your donation to this campaign helps provide support to the Facilitators who play the most crucial role at Project Soar as they dedicate their time to ensuring the PS Girls have a safe space to reflect, learn, and flourish.

One such woman to be celebrated is Project Soar's very own Program Coordinator and Program Facilitator, Kawtar Ait Malek. Through her dedication over the past 2+ years, Kawtar has now directly led over 40 girls succesfully through completion of the Project Soar in a Box program and has indirectly impacted hundreds more through her support of Facilitators across the country. In total, Kawtar has supported 30 Facilitators across 17 sites in Morocco and continues to add to her already amazing achievements with Project Soar by assisting in the support of Empowerment Facilitators working in communties of internally displaced people (IDP) in Northwest Syria.

When asked what Kawtar loves most about supporting the Project Soar Empowerment Facilitators, she says "I love seeing the Facilitators through all their ups and downs. I'm able to motivate them and pass positive energy to them when they feel challenged and share appreciation with them when they succeed. Since I am a facilitator too, I am able to empathize with them and understand them emotionally." In terms of being a 2 year facilitator, she states that "while it is not always initially easy to create the safe space we need to thrive, the fact that the girls eventually trust me enough to approach me, tell me their feelings, and ask me for advice - this is the most precious reward."

Kawtar recently shared an experience she had with one of her fellow facilitators, saying "I am so inspired by so many of the other Facilitators I work with. Ghita, one of my co-Facilitators, inspires me in particular. Her attitude has really touched me personally because although she has a speech impediment I watch her stand there every Sunday, speaking in front of the PS girls, emanating so much confidence and positive energy. She never dwells on the way she sounds, but rather focuses on passing her positive emotions on to the girls no matter what. She is never embarrassed or shy -- she just wants to give the girls her all."

Ghita, like all of the Empowerment Facilitators, embodies the Project Soar spirit by showing the girls that while her skills may not be perfect, she is strong, she is smart, she is capable, she is a leader, and she is a feminist. What's clear is that Empowerment Facilitators are not just teachers, but rather mentors, confidantes, and champions of change.

It is safe to say that without Faciliators like Kawtar and Ghita, the lasting impact Project Soar makes would not be possible, and we are forever grateful for their enduring spirit. Stay tuned for more stories of these incredible women, and never doubt you are making a difference!

Warmest Wishes,

The Project Soar team

Kawtar assists the GLCs with a Community Dialogue

Ghita (right) with co-Facilitator Aziza (left)

Ghita proudly sports her Project Soar t-shirt.

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Feb 8, 2021
Warda Bouye: Facilitator to Coordinator

By Anne Gorayeb | Special Projects Assistant

Hi Friends! We are sending gratitude to You, our supporters, and positive wishes for good health as we look forward in the new year.

Transitioning back to safe, in-person workshops has been challenging, but the Project Soar team has been giving it our all to ensure Project Soar Girls have access to their empowerment curriculum and feminist support from their Empowerment Facilitators. These courageous women are leaders of change in their communities. They continue to show up and advocate for Girls across Morocco and Uganda during these uncertain times. Your support of this campaign helps provide positive role models in the lives of girls to continue developing their confidence and leadership.

This week, we sat down with one of our Empowerment Facilitators and newest Project Soar in a Box Coordinator, Warda Bouye. She joined us in January and has quickly become a vital part of our team. Warda is eager, warm, and a wonderful role model for Project Soar Girls.

Warda not only helps Project Soar girls grow and find their voices, but embodies gaining more confidence through sharing her own experiences with girls.

After working at Project Soar for a month, Warda is more confident speaking in public and feels she can make friends even more easily. “I used to hide all of my ideas. Now, I just share them.” She also noticed significant changes in the Project Soar girls she works with. The girls “used to be silent and talk in a quiet voice.” Now, she realized, “they just started to defend themselves. They can now say, ‘No’ to people. ‘It’s me, it’s my body. Don’t cross the line.’ When I was their age, I didn’t know this.”

Warda’s favorite thing about working with Project Soar girls is “making them realize how valuable they are.” It’s an amazing thing to tell a girl “that she is someone in this world and she can do whatever she wants. . . that whatever she is dreaming about can be true.”

Warda leaves her younger self and other Project Soar girls with this advice: “Just be you. Sometimes we pretend that we are somebody else and we act how other people would want us to be. Let’s just be ourselves--that’s more true to us and to others.”

Thank you for supporting Warda and all of our Empowerment Facilitators. Our work would not be possible without their commitment to and deep care for these girls.

Stay tuned for more stories from these incredible women, and never doubt you are making a difference!

Warmest Wishes,

The Project Soar team

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Oct 12, 2020
3 Ways Project Soar Empowerment Facilitators are Inspiring Teen Girls

By Jenna Lacey | Development Coordinator

Hi Friends! We are sending gratitude to You, our supporters, and positive wishes for good health as we continue to navigate this challenging year together.

We have been hard at work preparing to launch the 2020-2021 cohort of Project Soar Girls with in-person and online sites, and wanted to highlight the brave women who are behind it all: our Empowerment Facilitators. Your support of this campaign helps provide positive role models in the lives of girls to continue developing their confidence and leadership through this global pandemic.

Here are just a few ways in which these social activists help transform girls into leaders of today and tomorrow:

Empowerment Facilitators have a passion for girls' rights: Project Soar facilitator Latifa in Morocco is a woman on a mission! She is a university student, a member of many organizations in her community, and an advocate for girls and women. Over the last year, Latifa has worked to empower girls in her community through the Project Soar in a Box curriculum and by sharing her own experiences of overcoming challenges, pursuing her education, and following her dreams.

Empowerment Facilitators are inspiring girls to embrace leadership: Project Soar facilitators at Mbogo Progressive School in Uganda helped 6 girls in the program gain the confidence to be elected for leadership positions. Ahead of the elections, the facilitators used the empowerment curriculum to help build the confidence and public speaking skills of these girls in a safe space.

Empowerment Facilitators are leading by example: Project Soar facilitator Habiba in Morocco persevered to receive an education after dropping out in the 5th grade because of family expectations and community perspectives about girls attending school. Habiba's consistent positivity and determination in pursuit of her goals has helped make her a role model within her community. She passes her positivity on to the girls of her community as a facilitator for Project Soar, where she leads by example to help girls forge their own path.

Project Soar Empowerment Facilitators are leaders of change in their communities, and instrumental in empowering girls across Morocco and Uganda.

Stay tuned for more stories of these incredible women, and never doubt you are making a difference!

Warmest Wishes,

The Project Soar team

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