RISE Citizen Journalism Closing Ceremony

Written by DSH intern, Ms. Salwa El Haouti

Group picture of the Graduated RISERs

It was ten in the morning when RISE participants of this year’s edition started gathering in Dar Si Hmad’s conference room. As they all came packed with journalistic realizations to present during the closing ceremony, they also took great delight in gathering again with their fellow RISERS with whom they have shared this incredible journey.

When the small talks and chit-chats began to end, the presentations started taking place.  While attending the ceremony, one would hardly fail to notice the pride and contentment that RISE organizers and facilitators expressed towards the satisfactory work that the young ‘’future citizen journalists’’ have demonstrated. The realizations varied from articles and op-eds on the scams that tourists face in Agadir to expressive photographs on homelessness in the city. 

Ms. Hasna Belkdim during her presentation

The journalistic realizations of the risers also included audio-visual reportages, one of which had absorbingly conveyed the idea of losing the sense of guilt and how such a thing can result in ingrained heedless and defective habits. Podcasts were also produced for this closing ceremony. One of them tackled the issue of using chemical products in the agricultural domain, and further inspected their aftereffects on the environment and the laborers of the fields. Overall, the risers made use of different means of communication to discuss and report divers’ topics and matters.

RISE 2019 closing ceremony was marked by two breaks. The first one was a game in which everybody had to disperse in the room and walk randomly in different directions. Once the signal is given by the coordinator of the activity, each person had to join the closest person walking near them. When assembled, they had to find out three mutual things between them and share them with the class. In the second round of the game, the two regrouped participants had to start the walking again until they are told to gather with the closest duo to them but this time to learn four non-previously mentioned common things between them. 

The final reflections game 

The activity carried on the same way until all the participants ended up making one large circle and trying to discover as many mutual things between them as possible. It was gladdening to learn that everyone, spoke Darija pretty well, though not everybody was Moroccan or grew up in Morocco. The second break, on the other hand, was a moment of food sharing on the rooftop of the building where a buffet of finger food and drinks were served.

The closing ceremony of RISE 2019 was concluded with Mrs.Bargach’s word and that of all the organizing team members of this year’s RISE program, namely MS.Mazoud, MS. Arjdal, MS.Tyler and MS.Elboute. The time left afterward was an opportunity for all the beneficiaries of the program and their trainers to express their gratitude to anyone in the room that they feel they deserve a special word of kindness. And of course, like any other final congregation of a group of people, the risers felt more connected to one another during the ceremony than any other day of the training. They expressed strong willingness to stay in touch with one another and even conceived and considered starting a new group project of citizen journalists.

Ms. Oumaima Maghfour accepting her certificate