Imagine thirty
bros.
Are you picturing thirty 20-somethings wearing button downs, pastel-colored shorts, and sunglasses with straps on them blasting 90’s pop anthems?
If you
are, then you couldn’t be much further from Morocco’s first BRO (Boys
Respecting Others) camp.
Thirty
campers and ten counselors from eight different towns in the Tadla-Azilal
province arrived at the Dar Talib in El Ksiba on February 23rd for a
weeklong sleepaway camp for boys. Inspired by Peace Corps’ many successful GLOW
(Girls Leading Our World) camps, BRO camp was created to make better boys with a
better future for a better Morocco.
Some of
you may wonder: Why did you make a camp for boys? Don’t boys have many
privileges in Morocco? After all, boys attend school more than girls; boys have
more jobs than girls, and, in many families, are held in higher favor.
While it
is fair to note that boys do hold many privileges in Moroccan culture, boys
also shoulder many of the country’s burdens. Youth face many pressures from
society and family that are challenging to overcome. A 2012 World Bank study
reported that, “…young men are expected to contribute money at home, and to
save enough to start their own family. With the severe lack of opportunities
they are capable of neither, and this failure has resulted in them becoming
alienated within their own families. The psychological pressure that the young
men face is huge. It’s not a coincidence that, for the poorer ones, the coping
mechanism is to use drugs and to drift in inactivity.”[1]
Walking down the street and seeing dropouts lounge at the café and boys smoking
hash in the alley made it very clear to me the importance of an early and
powerful impact on our boys.
Peace
Corps volunteers and our Moroccan association developed an ambitious and
comprehensive curriculum to empower our campers to rise above their challenges
and thrive in their homes, schools and communities. At BRO camp, boys learned
about health, preparing for work, gender and society, teamwork and leadership,
and community service over 18 classes, 8 activities, 5 guest speakers, one
community service fair and clean-up project, and the Building a Better Morocco
Competition. Mornings started with
classes that varied from drug awareness, to expectation versus the reality of
male Moroccans, to community organizing. Guest speakers arrived in the
afternoon and spoke about the themes of the day. One amazing moment was when
Peace Corps’ Fatima Akbeli and Samira Idoue
Laouina fostered a lengthy discussion with the boys about the challenges
women face in gaining employment.
Later
that day, the students harnessed what they learned in class in their afternoon
competitions about being honorable men and sexual harassment. Boys stepped into
their sisters’ shoes (and out of their comfort zones!) when producing skits depicting sexual harassment, the issues of sexual
harassment, and ways to prevent sexual harassment from happening. Students started
thinking about stale and indoctrinated opinions in new, dynamic, and empathetic
ways.
At dusk
campers would gather in teams to prepare for the Building a Better Morocco
Competition at the end of the week. Teams had to identify a problem in their
community, research it, come up with a youth based solution, and present their findings
to a group of judges. What our bros came up with blew everyone away. Boys
passionately and thoughtfully articulated innovative ideas about new
transportation options for young women far from schools, employment training
for new professionals, and tutoring and mentoring services for youth from
youth. But that wasn’t even close to the most amazing thing about our camp.
To see
the most awesome part of our camp, you would have to wait until it was all over.
Everyone transformed. Boys who were once shy became impassioned orators. Boys
who were troublemakers became moral compasses. Boys who didn’t have a
direction, created five year plans. Boys who once sexually harassed women spoke
out vehemently against it. Boys took
what they learned at BRO camp and brought it to their villages. In Ouaouizeght,
two bros taught three lessons from BRO camp to sixty girls and boys. In Foum El
Anser, boys are organizing new clubs and activities in the Dar Chebab. Boys
became Morocco’s best bros.
And
these boys transformed me. My experience with these boys reinvigorated my
service and has made me excited to expand our BRO camp to other villages, new
associations, and more boys in my third year of service. Because of BRO camp there are 30 more bros in
Beni Mellal. We could use a few more bros.