Join This Aspiring Social Entrepreneur In Her First 2
Weeks Of Her SEED EURO-MED Exchange
Hello, my name is Laila, I am an aspiring social
entrepreneur from Morocco.
I’ve been a management consultant for five years, active
social volunteer for three years, entrepreneur for two years, mentor, trainer
and speaker on social entrepreneurship for one year and a member of economic
consultancy committee for the council of the region of Fez-Meknes in Morocco
for one month.
For two weeks I’ve been participating in the SEED EURO-MED exchange
programme, funded by the European Commission and managed by Euclid Network. I
collaborate with my Host Enterprise called Local Development Centre “Dione” in
Ancient Olympia, Greece, which offers Business Coaching services to SMEs, HR
consulting, promotion of Social Economy and Sustainable Development, and
implementation of Lifelong Learning Programs.
I decided to participate in this program following my
experience in the Social Entrepreneurship SEED EURO-MED Bootcamp in Tunisia,
where I discovered the opportunity and the positive impact of the exchange on
other participants’ enterprises.
Empowerment of
Millennials
By living the experience of participating in the ongoing
project “the local development of DIVRI” in a remote village of mountainous
Ancient Olympia in Elis and in collaboration with the local social enterprise
“Eco Divri”, I will get the needed support, learning and network for my future
social enterprise, the first centre for millennials’ empowerment in Fez city.
My project is to create an agora (co-working space and
campus) for millennials that can be a part of the development processes by
starting a business, practicing their passion professionally or by being an
active citizen. The concept will be focused on the uniqueness of the city and
its community, while creating opportunities to develop the rural areas around
it to decrease migration to the city.
The first Moroccan in the village
The exchange with “Dione” provides me with the tools
needed to work on the second part of my project. During my stay in Greece, I
appreciated the hospitality of the locals. Of course, they had many questions
since I am the first Moroccan coming to the village, but I am amazed by how
open minded they are about other cultures and I love the custom of greeting
everyone “Yasas” (hello in Greek) on the street.
The first nights were a little colder than I am used to in
my city, but the amazing views and the purity of the air and water made me
forget about it and I am getting more accustomed to cold weather and the
mountainous area. But still, the lack of public transportation to bigger cities
reduces the opportunity to visit more cities in this beautiful country.
During the first week of working in Divri, I got
accustomed with the new environment and the social challenges that I need to
work on during my exchange. I focused my actions on living the daily life of
the locals and the tourists by walking around the 7 different neighbourhoods
(“Machalades” in the local language), buying from the four small markets and
having a local mountainous tea with honey in the 5 coffee shops of the village.
I also got friendly with some locals who speak English, Arabic or tried to
communicate using body language and I participated in cultural events (“Fiesta”
before fasting and dance classes).
International team work
The integration process was quicker thanks to the support
of my Host Entrepreneur Ms Vaso Charitopoulou, the founder and general manager
of “Dione”, mr Kostas Panagoulis, the president of “Eco Divri”, and the three
other team members: Alexia Karageorgis from Cyprus, cultural and natural
heritage researcher; Vugar Mamedov from Azerbaijan, marketing manager and
eco-consultant and Norbert Tóth from Hungary, rural developer and agricultural
engineer.
The objective of my second week was the planning of the
projects. We had meetings with local authorities, primary and high school staff
and directors, our partners (the experts) and the active locals who are open
about supporting our actions and being the main communicator with the other locals.
During my visit to the port city of Patras to meet one of
our partners, I had the opportunity to visit a coworking space in the city, the
POS (Patras Office Space). There, I discussed with the founder the challenges
and the lessons learnt from his experiences, and we talked about potential
future collaborations between our two spaces in Morocco and Greece.
From social entrepreneurship for youth to women
empowerment
In Lampeia (Divri), I am planning three workshops and
three projects. The first workshop is an introduction to social
entrepreneurship for high school students; the second one is for recycling
garbage to create a gathering space by and for the youth of the village; and
the third is a safety and health in workplace workshop for farmers in collaboration
with the local medical doctor.
For the projects, I am working on the women’s empowerment
project meetings; Women’s health project in collaboration with Dr.
Christopoulou, the Representative of the NGO W4life; and a project to increase
youth engagement in village development activities.
Sustainable social impact and a piece of advice to SEED
EURO-MED participants
My plan is to use developed skills and network to set up
and conduct the workshops and projects in the best conditions, but the most important
objective is to empower all parties to make this project a long-term action,
which can still be ongoing after completing my 2-months exchange.
I want to end my testimonial with a piece of advice for
the New Entrepreneurs that are planning to go on exchange: to succeed in your
exchange, you need to choose the host enterprise that can add a value to your
ideas and project and define together your expectations and needs.
Best regards from Greece!
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