Younes Naoumi is harnessing the momentum and transformative potential of Morocco’s large youth demographic to create a culture of activism and civic participation out of one of apathy and exclusion. Younes founded his community-based organization, Association Action Jeunesse Morocco (2AJ), in 2000 to help young people in a lower-class neighborhood of Casablanca successfully transition into adulthood by overcoming their frustration, social exclusion, and low attendance rates in school.
Recognizing that there were few recreational outlets for youth in the community, 2AJ is using team sports to engage young people to foster a better sense of community and build self-esteem through physical activity. 2AJ raised funds to build a multi-sports complex to support mixed-gender sports, and offered an afterschool program to students with good school attendance. As the initiative grew, local young people began to take ownership over the future of the organization and expanded the programs to offer literacy courses, English-language training, and sponsored foreign exchanges with other youth organizations abroad to foster cross-cultural understanding.
In 2007, Younes presided over 2AJ’s expansion into the formal education space in a partnership with the Ministry of Education. Introducing civic-education programs to local high schools, the SAWT program (“voice” in Arabic) educates high-school students about the Moroccan election process in order to encourage them to use their vote to influence the political outcomes in their country.
The SAWT program’s success led to the creation of Al Mostaqbal (“the future" in Arabic), a project introduced in different high schools in Casablanca to encourage leadership among students through student-body elections. Al Mostaqbal introduces decision-making and governance skills, preparing young people to be active members of the citizen sector and leaders in the future of their country. Both programs have seen much success on a local level and are currently expanding to nationalize their civic-education curriculum in Morocco’s public high schools.
In 2008, 2AJ’s activities served over nine thousand young people through their community programs, and the civic-education curriculum reached over twelve thousand public-school students between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. 2AJ works in partnership with the US Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and is currently developing plans to expand its civic-education programs throughout the larger Maghreb region.
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Watch videos about Al Mostaqbal and SAWT on Younes's Youtube channel.
To Contact Younes:
ynaoumi@2aj.org
Tel: 0021222779506