SCP

In the last three decades the number of children on Morocco’s streets has grown steadily, and Taroudannt, where MCT’s projects are based, has several hundred children who spend the majority of their time on the street. These children are sometimes stigmatized and isolated within their own communities, leaving them vulnerable to a large range of health, legal, and psychosocial issues. Some of these young people work on the street, collecting rubbish, begging, and in prostitution. Some of these children are able to attend school, but many do not.

Civil society has attempted to respond to this situation, and organisations such as Bayti in Casablanca and Association Al-Karam in Marrakech have launched large projects to support children who live in poverty. Despite an increase in awareness-raising campaigns in the Moroccan media, the prospects for children in poverty remain bleak in Taroudannt.

MCT has therefore begun a new and exciting project to meet the needs of vulnerable street children in Taroudannt. The first stage of MCT’s Street Children Project was a research study to assess the situation on the ground by talking to young people about their lives, the problems they face and their hopes for the future. The results of these interviews have guided MCT’s strategy in assisting street children and their families. The findings were collated into a report which was launched September 2010 (A Different Path: Street & Working Children in Morocco), and have helped to shape the initial implementation of the project.

When speaking to children living and working on the streets of Taroudannt, it is clear that many of them would welcome and would benefit from targeted support to help them improve their situation. MCT has planned a project which aims to deliver that support. Three full-time social workers will work with the children and their families to address the issues that each family faces, build dossiers on their situations with recommended action to take, and work towards resolving these issues by supporting both the children and their families and taking such action as may be appropriate to each circumstance. There will also be homework sessions run every day, led by a teacher with a part-time contract, supported by a team of volunteers that will give the children individual support.

In the long term, MCT aims to use a holistic approach that liaises with not only children, but their families as well, to help young people in Taroudannt gain access to education and economic empowerment. By working with the community and existing organisations in the area, MCT believes it is possible to create brighter futures for street children and their families.