Monday, March 18, 2019

The Giving Lens Fall 2018 workshops with the youth of Ait Ourir.



















Fall 2018 Workshops with The Giving Lens













Fall 2018 workshops with The Giving Lens











The 2017 annual photography workshop events were held during the first week of November this year. We were so fortunate to team up with Confluence, a new cross-cultural project involving some wonderful people from Morocco and Scotland. Our partners The Giving Lens Open Doors Morocco and Creative Interactions were not able to participate in our photography program this year, sad to say-they were missed!  















For two days at the beginning of November, Confluence members from Scotland Laura Hudson Mackay and Anne Errington joined Moroccan members Houssain Belabbes and Mehdi El Ghaly in a project benefiting youth from Ait Ourir. Marrakech photographers Hamza Saidi and Ali Dark, along with Scott Mackay, El Fenn President Lori Gordon, Smile of Ait Ourir Founder and President Rachid Oufathe, and Ait Ourir volunteers Youssef Ait Talb, Kamal Agram and Lamyaa Oumisse gave the youth two days of time, energy and love.    


The event was kicked off with a taxi ride to the village of Ait Ourir, where the photographers conducted two workshops in smart phone photography. Gordon hosted two collage workshops and the day ended with storytelling by Anne Errington, Medhi Ghaly and Hamza Saidi.

The second day began with a bus ride for the youth to Marrakech, where the activities began at Marrakech Henna Art Cafe, home of El Fenn Maroc. The kids were split into three groups and led by one of the adults, ventured forth to compete in an enigma (treasure hunt) that took place in the winding streets of the medina. A medina lunch was followed by open games in Cyber Park Moulay Abdesalam. At the end of the busy day, the winning enigma team was presented with hand crafted henna journals donated by El Fenn Maroc, and all of the kids were presented with certificates of participation.

Thanks to Ali Dark for the photos above, and to Houssain Belabbes for the following photos.