The beautiful city of Marrakech was chosen as the location for two SOS Youth Houses for young people from SOS Children's Village Ait-Ourir, Morocco's first SOS Children's Village. At present thirteen girls and thirty boys aged 15 to 21 are making use of this opportunity to prepare for an independent and self-reliant future.
SOS Children's Village Ait-Ourir opened its doors about 40 kilometres from the city of Marrakech in 1985. Some eight years later, the first children were ready to move on from the village. To provide these adolescents with adequate housing, SOS-Kinderdorf International rented a house in Marrakech, which was big enough to accommodate 16 teenagers.
In September 1994 three girls decided to continue their professional training in Marrakech. They moved into two rooms on the ground floor of the Youth House, which had originally been intended for boys only. Two years later a house was rented for the girls in a residential area in the city.
However, after a few years, the number of young people had increased considerably. As a result SOS-Kinderdorf International decided to purchase two apartments for girls and four small apartments for boys. The apartments are located in Amarchich, a densely populated and modest quarter of Marrakech, which has good infrastructure. The students can choose from a wide range of educational institutions, which includes both secondary and vocational schools as well as a university. Since the SOS Youth House for girls is situated close to the SOS Youth House for boys, the young people can organise their free-time activities together.
One of the apartments at the boys' house is a youth community. The boys living there are a little older than the others and they have full responsibility for the maintenance and housekeeping. The other apartments have a mixed system of independent group responsibility and central support by youth facility educators.
Another aim of SOS Children's Villages is to support the youngsters in choosing and looking for a job. The SOS Children's Village Association in Morocco has been actively working for the social integration of their young people since 1994.
The association introduced an obligatory traineeship for boys from the SOS Children's Village. This gives the youngsters the opportunity to work at several companies in July. This programme serves two key purposes. On the one hand the teenagers get used to the routine of a typical working day, hierarchical structures and taking orders, on the other hand they learn to work in a team.
The young people who already have specific ideas about their professional future are given the opportunity to choose their placements. Others, who don't have a specific interest, can discover their own abilities and interests as well as the wide array of possibilities available.