Casablanca in Morocco was the place where all has begun. The 2nd World Congress of Youth, organised by the British NGO Peace Child International in cooperation with the Moroccan government, gathered about one thousand young delegates from 150 countries in order to discuss about tolerance, solidarity and the UN Millennium Goals Together they elaborated the so-called “Casablanca Declaration”.
The twelve founding members of WYC met during the Congress and drafted their first ideas for a future structure and programme. Inspired by the atmosphere and the thematic work of the Congress, their main objective was to stay in contact and to spread the messages of the Congress to other young people.
Most of the first World Youth Citizens took part in the same “action project”. The idea of the Congress organizers was to give all participants the opportunity to make a concrete contribution to sustainable development already during the time in Morocco. In our case, we elaborated together a model of a “souk” (market hall) for the trade of organic food. Once constructed in reality, it should incite local farmers in the rural surroundings of Casablanca to develop a sustainable agriculture. The model was chosen as an example for all the 110 action projects for the final presentation to Her Princess Lala Hasnae and the other visitors from the development community. |
