Assessment of Social Safety Nets in Morocco

I. Handicap in Morocco.
According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, published on April 26th 2016, more than two million people in Morocco suffer from disabilities, representing 6.8% of the total population. The prevalence rate of disability was only 5.12% in 2004, when the first survey was conducted by the same ministry. According to the survey, 50.2% of people with disabilities have motor disabilities, 25.1% have mental disabilities and 23.8% have visual disabilities. The prevalence rate of disability was 6.99% in rural areas compared to 6.66% in urban areas. It reached 6.8% for women and 6.7% for men. Among the population aged between 15 to 59, it represents 4.8%, while it is 1.8% among people under 15 years of age.

Depending on the level of education (5 years and over), people with low levels of education are the most affected by disability: traditional pre-school (17.2%), uneducated (16.4%), and literacy program (11.9%). People with disabilities face many forms of discrimination because of their condition. This deprives them of the simplest rights such as education, employment, and health. They are as Moroccan as we are, but are ignored in public policies, and instead of helping them, the language adopted contributes more to their stigmatization. Accessibility in public places, education and access to employment are the main obstacles faced by this segment of the population.

II. Introduction to the Organization.
A.Date Established and Mission The organization « Solidarité des Personnes en Situation d ‘Handicap et Précarité » is located in El Jadida and has been created in march 2018. This organization defends the cause of people with disabilities in the hope of introducing laws to protect and promote the human rights of people with disabilities.
The organization is presided by Laila Kinani and has 17 members, and their programs aim to:
– Help people with disabilities by providing them with the necessary support in the form of paramedical equipment.
– Help people with disabilities to achieve better social, family and professional integration.
– Raise awareness among decision-makers and public opinion of disability issues. – Advocate the human rights of people with disabilities.
– Facilitate Medical Assistance and Legal Guidance.
– Seek opportunities for socio-professional integration.
– Organize seminars with foreign associations in Morocco.
– Integrate disabled people in the field of sport.
– Create projects for families with multiple disabilities to provide them an income.

B. Sources of Funding.
There are three mains sources of funding. The first source of funding

is from the social assistance of OCP company present in El Jadida, which provides orthopedic equipment, hearing aids and wheelchairs to the organization. The second source of money is the donation of foreign associations, particularly from France, which have a partnership with the organization. The last source of funding is donations from individuals. The organization serves the disabled people of El Jadida and its region.

III. Specific Project and Activity within the Organization.
A. Project specifications and set of responsibilities: As a volunteer within the organization, my action plan was as follows:
– I was in charge of making membership cards for new members with disabilities and add them to the register by mentioning their type of disability, age, occupation, address, telephone number, and requests.
– We delivered four wheelchairs to people with total disability in the province of El Jadida (Moulay Abdellah and Sebt).
– The OCP’ social service visited the office of the organization for the evaluation of hearing aids, which benefited 20 people in 2017. I participated in the smooth running of the event by welcoming the people convoked and helped with the organization and preparation of the event.
– I attended a conference at the municipality of El Jadida to discuss issues related to accessibility for people with disabilities in the city.
– I attended a conference in El Jadida to discuss the code of Law 97-13, which deals with the social, health and accessibility problems faced by people with disabilities.
– I attended a training session that was facilitated by a doctor from the Ministry of Family, Solidarity, Equality and Social Development. The purpose was to specialize a competitive recruitment examination for qualified people with disabilities. The rate was set at 7%. Other topics were discussed, such as the disability card that will be issued by the Ministry. The use of this disability card could offer several advantages to the disabled. For instance, it will result in a reduction of costs for public facilities such as train or buses.
– I attended the association\’s weekly meetings to review the situation.

B. Assumptions before Community Service.
The idea of working in an organization for people with disabilities made me create preconceptions. Those preconceptions were mainly built from what I saw on TV and read on internet. I thought that disabled people in the organization would not interact well with me easily because of many barriers. I was afraid of being clumsy, of being apprehensive to go to the person. It is necessary to have the same approach as for any other person. If there is delicacy and politeness, things are simply done. We should not hesitate to speak directly to the person rather than to the one accompanying them. It is sometimes difficult to accept disability, because it has a mirror effect, it disturbs. This is frightening, because it can happen to us as a result of a life accident. It is a work to do on oneself, to accept the difference. Life is about meeting all kinds of people, it enriches.

C An unforgettable experience.
I believed that I should avoid having preconceptions about anything until I experience it. I had the fear of discovering new people. I had to break out of my comfort zone and it made me evolve a lot. It made me happy to serve people in need and make them smile and forget about all the social issues they are facing and giving them hope to have a sustainable future. I really felt the everyday struggles they are facing. People with disabilities have to think three times before walking out of their home. Volunteering was my way to make an impact in this world. This experience connected me with experienced people who advised me in many things and I took their advices as lessons and with respect. The moment that marked me is when a disabled grandmother in a precarious situation passed to the office to deposit a request, then she invited me to her place near the office to have lunch with her family during a Friday. I was surprised by their simplicity and joyful mindset they have despite the poor financial situation of the family. I made sure myself that happiness is not based in material things but things that money cannot buy.

IV. Personal Impact.
Talking about my experience, I discovered that I was impatience with people, and especially with old people. I generally trusted myself to be a patient individual. However, I found problems with old people who came to the office. Some of them didn’t accept that their requests cannot be processed instantly but takes two to three months, started crying and made me feel uncomfortable and sad.

Resulting from my experience, I learned to be more patient with old people and to control myself by using effective communication skills and analyze problems from different aspects. This experience made me think a lot and realize how grateful I need to be. However, during the second week I started controlling, and hiding those feelings so as not to affect the people with whom I was interacting to avoid making people feel bad about themselves, but rather accept them as they are, and try to come with a good way to help those people. As an engineering student, I developed many skills when it comes to problem-solving. I tried to apply a scientific approach to solve a problem of family with 3 members with disabilities, the mother had skills in cooking, so I tried to find a location in order for her to sell her products. The location had to be chosen efficiently given the constraints and parameters we must take into account such as money, availability, marketability and legal environment.

I believe that a big problem is ravaging our beloved country: the lack of education. By making people more educated, the behaviors towards people with disabilities would improve. Ethics, this moral science, is at the heart of all human conventions and the behavioral essence of the one who aspires to a better future. However, it seems to be absent in the Moroccan\’s relationship with his entourage and environment. Ethics is based on knowledge, as well as on an awareness of the present, an awareness of the inner self and an awareness of the nature of things and the environment.

V. My Vision about the Future.
If there is one thing that I can say about my future with volunteering: It will not stop here. I have never felt so much pleasure in helping people as I did while volunteering with this association. Every morning when I woke up, I was happy to leave my house and go make a small, tiny change in the world. The satisfaction that I gained made me realize that I needed to make social volunteering part of my daily life. We cannot expect things to change if we don’t start making the changes ourselves.

As a next step, I would like to take some time after my bachelor to travel and volunteer. I have been researching many places around the world where my presence could mean something to the people I will be helping. I found a small association in Cambodia that needs volunteers who can work as full-time teachers for children. I chose to volunteer in a country as poor and underdeveloped as Cambodia because I ‘am aware that the percentage of illiteracy is very important in that country and they need people coming from outside to go and help them in any way they can.

Conclusion I have to say that volunteering in “Association Solidarité des Personnes en Situation d’Handicap et Precarité” was one of the best experiences in my life. It helped me shape my personality in the best way. I discovered many things and learned lessons about life. People say all time that when volunteering, you help change lives, when actually, those people you meet while volunteering are the ones who change you, forever.