Life Pieces To Masterpieces had the honor of hosting Mohamed Aghdouai, our second Professional Fellow from the State Department-sponsored Professional Fellows Program (PFP) – North Africa and our partnership with Legacy International. Mohamed is from Gourrama in rural Morocco. He spent a month in D.C. working with Life Pieces, and has taken the skills and experiences, and especially, the Human Development System he gained to create a new program for his youth center in Morocco.
Mohamed, a technician, considers himself an “eco-architect”, applying environmentally conscious practices towards his work in agriculture, building, and architecture. Working in a youth center in Gourrama, Mohamed learned (and taught us) that we are far more alike than different, and that the difficulties and stresses of boys in rural Morocco are not too different from boys in urban Washington, DC. He notes specifically the mental hurdles that both groups face, and applauds Life Pieces for the attention the program gives to security, safe spaces and activities, and directly confronting risk behavior. Mohamed worked closely with our Legacy class, leading lessons on Morocco and the Gourrama youth center. Mohamed cites the class discussion on the DNA Project, which looks at the intertwining history of all races of people, as his favorite experience with Life Pieces.
Returning home, Mohamed hopes to implement his new program at the Gourrama youth center. He plans to focus the program on essential life skills and hopes it will translate into developing identities and building relationships among the youth in Morocco.
We thank Mohamed for his time with Life Pieces and for expanding the Life Pieces family internationally. We will continue to foster our relationship and offer support for Mohamed. Be on the look out for more posts about his program’s progress in the coming months!