Social entrepreneurs from Guelmim Oued Noun develop impactful projects
As part of the partnership agreement concluded on December 26, 2020 between the Regional Council of Guelmim Oued Noun and the Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE) to encourage local communities in the region Guelmim Oued Noun (GON) to invest in social entrepreneurship, several programs have emerged at the level of Guelmim, Tan Tan, Sidi Ifni and Assa Zag, with the desire to foster development in the region while creating value and boosting the Oued Nouni social life.
Among the project holders incubated in the region are two young women, Laila, 24 years old, and Nassira, 30 years old, whose aspirations have come together in a project they have named SIG SORO. While exploiting the popularity of a Sahrawi game, they decided to create an educational game that combines mental calculation techniques with game techniques known as SIG in the region. The project is also being developed as an electronic application.
For his part, Youssef, 38 years old, observed that the Moringa tree, a food plant, i.e., oriented towards self-consumption, is endowed with a great resistance to drought, which allows it to grow in semi-arid zones also called hardiness zones. Based on this, Youssef decided to plant Moringa in Assa-Zag, a province that perfectly meets the conditions of implantation, and produces cosmetics and medicinal products based on Moringa.
Aicha, a 28-year-old woman from Tan Tan, went from teacher to founder of the SEA SILK cooperative. Her idea was born out of her desire to fight the belief in the masculinization of jobs, and it was when she observed that women who mastered sewing were limited to daily life clothing and traditional clothing in general, that she took on the challenge of entering the field of sewing fishing nets. With the Dare Inc. program, her idea took shape and her goals grew to include the production of fishing nets.
In Guelmim, Yahjabouha, 56 years old, chairs the Zaouiat Cheikh Mohammed Limame development and cooperation association for the Abaynou commune. Thanks to the support of the program, she was able to strengthen the capacity of her association to meet more of the objectives it has set, including the supervision and training of rural women in several social, economic and cultural areas.
In Sidi Ifni, Abdelkarim, a young man of 26 years with experience in the field of perfumery, wished to break the stereotype of using local resources by producing a perfume made from Argan. Originally from the same province, Mohamed, at the age of 35, wants to participate in the preservation of water in the southern provinces, but also address the problem of plastic bottles, a material that can be toxic at high temperatures. This is how he came up with the idea of producing bottles made of clay, capable of preserving the freshness of the water.
These projects have been developed and supported through several programs such as Dare Inc, Mincom, Dar space, Tanara, Chabaka, Soar among others in the different provinces of the region. These programs were developed after 10 years of expertise in the field by MCISE and its partners in incubating social entrepreneurship projects and inspiring entrepreneurship.