On December 17, 2021, a ceremony through the Zoom platform celebrated the graduation of people from High Atlas Foundation (HAF) and other NGOs being certified in the Imagine Program. From the HAF particularly, seven members graduated as coaches, mentors, or apprentices.
The program aims to form trainers from different NGOs all over the world, through U.S-based workshops that continue for two years. After graduating, the trainers are responsible for empowering other women through Imagine workshops, with the presence of a certified coach. It is worth mentioning that IMAGINE empowerment workshops were first founded by David Gershon and Gail Straub.
The empowerment workshops conducted by High Atlas Foundation aim to assist women, in both urban and rural areas, in finding their inner voice and accomplishing their goals. Since the implementation of this program in Morocco in January 2016, 50 workshops have been conducted by HAF for 1,087 people in 18 provinces throughout the country: Marrakech, Mohammedia, Al Haouz, Boujdour, Taroudant, Essaouira, Oujda, Azilal, Guercif, Berkane, Fes, Sefrou, Yousoufia, Taroudant, Taounat, Taourirt, Berkane, and Sefrou.
The purpose of these workshops is to empower women with difficult circumstances in the developing world. These women commit to a four-day workshop in which they get a chance to make their lives better. These empowerment workshops aspire to shed light on sections that women tend to neglect in their daily lives, and seek to help them find out their priorities, implement new strategies, and achieve their goals. The training concentrates on seven areas (body, emotions, relationships, sexuality, work, money, and spirituality) during the full four days.
The ceremony was chaired by Theresa McGahran, and trainers from more than six countries attended their graduation ceremony. Theresa commenced the Zoom event by congratulating all the participants and commended their contribution in the program.
Above all the participants, Theresa praised the good qualities that the Moroccan coaches possess: they are all willing to give more; they have the capacity to be passionate and forgiving, to see the source of frustration in women and never blame them for that. Theresa finds that having these qualities as coaches is helping the Moroccan team excel in the empowerment field in their country.
The event host marked the good qualities of the other coaches, too, and mentioned that each of them has a special degree of excellence: bravery, authenticity, determination, faithfulness… without which many women around the world wouldn’t be the same right now.