Spring 2023
Activism through Storytelling In Morocco - A very special women's month, indeed!
Standing with our team and looking out at the audience on International Women's Day in Tangier, Morocco, how exciting that moment was! It all began in 2019, when Finding Roots & Wings was invited to visit a safe house for single mothers and their children in Tangier. Who could have thought a project would be born then would culminate on International Women's Day four years later?
Since that first trip, we have been through so many societal changes, globally. Changes that have restructured the ways we interact with each other, but also through solidarity across borders and cultures.
Claire Trichot founded 100% Mamans nearly a decade ago to support single mothers and their children who were forced out of their homes, often the victims of abuse within their families and communities. She founded a safe house in Tangier that is so much more than a secure place to sleep. It is a home, a school, a place with access to therapy and medical care. Where young mothers finish their education and learn marketable skills before deciding to go out on their own - and they do go out on their own - and there is always another mother in need who comes in and takes her place.
Claire was determined to make a fundamental change. She had a vision of bringing their stories to the country with a concerted, sophisticated public campaign to change the laws that would give the children a legal place in society, in school and within the healthcare system. It was an honor when she called on Finding Roots & Wings to help tell the stories in collaboration with the mothers.
The vision became communal with an expansive team collaboration. There was to be an exhibit with rooms that visitors could walk through and experience the journey of the young mother-to-be, cast out of her home -- from a dark room of a broken heart, to a room of fear to struggle and finally an oasis - a room of possibilities and examples of positive social change.
An experiential exhibit where visitors, through multimedia stories, would have a deeper understanding of the need for an organization like 100% Mamans and what they could do to effect change.
My assignment was to give the women the tools to tell their own stories, to take others with them on their journeys, their realities, and their traumas, but also their joys with their children and crafting their new lives. This was the vision in 2019.
We met with the mothers and began the workshops, interpreted the vision and created storyboards. We were on a roll...and then the lockdowns came. The uncertainties. When would we ever meet again to continue the work?
Thanks to supporters and friends like you, Finding Roots & Wings and 100% Mamans survived and found the courage to continue. Your seed funding allowed us to grow and reconceptualize the project, submitting it to the European Union with success! When travel opened again, and the funds were secured to reimagine the idea from physical to virtual rooms, back to Morocco we went!
The stories would be told not just once in one large hall in Tangier, but across the country in the form of a Virtual Reality Experience that could be brought to classrooms and community groups nationwide in a carefully crafted public relations and sensitization campaign.
The launch of "Dans ma Peau" ("In my Skin") came on a sunny International Women's Day in 2023, and I am proud to say that it was met with not only grand applause, but with emotions and tears of understanding of someone else’s experience and with singing hearts from knowing there was a way to make a positive change for single mothers and their children in Morocco -- and perhaps beyond.
Congratulations to all! It has been a privilege to be a part of this powerful initiative!
Summer 2022
Morocco Update: Our project in collaboration with single mothers in Tangier has taken flight!
With a sense of pride and appreciation for all your support, I am very pleased to let you know that Finding Roots & Wings’ collaboration with 100% Mamans, the safe house for single mothers in Tangier, is planning to launch the exhibit we’ve been working on since before Covid! Created with additional support from the European Union, it is part of a major national effort to reduce the stigma and legal barriers for young single mothers and their children in Morocco.
The workshops you sponsored with a group of the moms are now completed, their stories have been documented, and the exhibit has been reconceived as a Virtual Reality experience that will be used as a tool for community engagement to build support for their initiative. The digital designers are now working with 100% Mamans, with the goal of launching this fall!
Below are some of the sketches by the artist working on the graphics. The exhibition is divided into four rooms : The Well, The Hospital Waiting Room, The Forest and The Clearing. Each room represents part of the journey of the single mother, the challenges she faces and what society can do to improve their lives and the lives of their children.
December 2021
The project in Morocco - under its French title "RhizHommes" - has launched with great success!
As we prepare to wrap us this year, I am very pleased to share some exciting updates from our ongoing project in Tangier, Morocco with 100% Mamans.
The first presentations to a broader audience of the RhizHommes initiative went extremely well! Our four trainers pictured above presented the program to our seed funders in the European Union as well as community participants and news media outlets.
Local newspapers and press are giving a lot of positive attention to the initiative. And, thanks to this coverage as well as social media organizing, the recruitment for community participants is up to 4 teams of 33 participants!
Next steps include:
3 sensitization trainings unpacking the issues single mothers face in Morocco
Preparation for a return trip in the spring to conduct our creative media workshops
Summer Workshops 2021
With your generous support and the support of the EU Commission, we were able to return to Tangier, Morocco during a lull in the pandemic in July for a second round of Finding Roots & Wings workshops of community-based story facilitation for social justice with a group of wonderful women.
Focusing on "training-the-trainers,” the series will culminate in a touring exhibit in Spring 2023. As an experiential presentation, the exhibit will tell the stories of Single Mothers in Morocco, dividing the chapters of their stories into four rooms mirroring their journeys: The Dark Room, The Glaring Lights Room, The Forest and The Clearing.
Each room will examine the challenges that single mothers and their children face in Moroccan society, from social stigma to legal issues to access to healthcare. The concepts developed during the workshops in July are quite captivating, and will illustrate the stories beautifully. They will honestly depict the challenges, while focusing on tangible solutions, so that each visitor to the exhibit can walk away feeling as though they could make a difference in the lives of single mothers and their children in Morocco.
The very exciting news we have to share is that we have been approved for partial sponsorship from the EU Commission (via EEAS, the European External Action Service) for the next phase : creating a new series of workshops and bringing all the stories together into a touring exhibition.
Spring 2021
Project Plan: An Interactive Exhibition
This is an ambitious two-year project that will build on our pre-pandemic work in Morocco and will culminate in an interactive exhibition by Finding Roots & Wings' workshop participants.
We will continue and expand on our collaboration with 100% Mamans, a social organization with a safe house for single mothers in Tangier, Morocco, to help tell the stories of resilience, using hopeful accounts of the good men in their lives who helped each woman on the path to her survival against all odds.
This idea for an exhibit's focus came from the women in the last workshop and became a clear chance for a courageous form of activism. For some women, the good man was their son, for others mediators with society, and for others the abstract concept of what they would like to see in their lives. Simply expressing these desires on their own and others' behalf was a courageous act.
"If there is a chance to have an exhibition to show something to people in Morocco, we should show examples of what is possible - inspire change and courage."
The Concept
The exhibit seeks to humanize the experience of single mothers in Morocco. Creating an immersive encounter with a mix of audio/visual installations will shed light on the journey the mothers must face in their society and invite visitors to connect with this reality for themselves.
The exhibition will follow a narrative created by the women of 100% Mamans, told through sensory experiences of audio, visual and written stories onto which we apply creative expressions from the workshop participants.Their story is divided into four rooms, each showcasing the work of four different working groups. To experience the exhibit, viewers must make their way through each room, thus gaining a taste of the lived experiences.
We plan to use the mission of 100% Mamans as a platform. Our goal is to help women tell their stories to promote the social and civic inclusion of single mothers and their children by focusing on Tolerance and Freedom, Nonviolence, Solidarity and Sharing, Equality and Justice, Dignity and Participation.
Fall 2019
Workshop Series : The Good Man
This workshop series took place in collaboration with two international organizations focused on helping women share their stories and improve their lives, Vies Parallèles and 100% Mamans.
The workshop series incorporated photography and narrative skills to a group of 10 mothers. With a final goal of creating an exhibit of their work that sought to develop a positive message of change. Our concept focused on The Good Man, and became a courageous form of activism. For some women, the good man was their sons, for others mediators with society, and for others the abstract concept of what they would like to see in their lives. Simply expressing these desires on their own and others' behalf was a courageous act.
"If there is a chance to have an exhibition to show something to people in Morocco, we should show examples of what is possible - inspire change and courage."
