Abusar in Morocco

MENALDS was awesome. About 270 AIESECer from 19 different countries came to Bouznika to attend to the first Middle East and North Africa Leadership Development Seminar.
The delegations came from Germany, Netherland, Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom, Croatia, Norway, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.
The conference took place from 16th to 20th of march 2007 in the Moulay Rachid Resort in a little town at the atlantic ocean.
The official beginning of MENA LDS was in the Hilton Hotel in the capital Rabat where all delegations met each other for the first time.
In the next few days the participants learned many important things about leadership, teamwork, „bridging the gap“ and had some very interesting discussions about topics like religion, the role of the media in a globalized world, economic challanges in the MENA region, immigration, women in islamic countries, etc.
The goal of the seminar was to develop leaders who are self-confident, culturally sensitive, engaged with world issues, proactive learners, able to interact in diverse environments, and who understand clearly their future goals and how they will achieve them.
The role of the MENA Growth Network is to connect high potential youth in order to learn from each other and break down stereotypes.
The MENA GN aims to provide a platform to develop leadership for the future of the region. The purpose is to establish a high standard for excellence amongst youth by creating a neutral environment for dialogue about the unique culture of each country.

I made a lot of great experiences on the MENA conference. For instance, every person who I talked with loved the idea to build AIESEC in Iran and many of them offered me their support. I showed a Power Point presentation about the expansion of AIESEC to Iran and explained why it is so important to build AIESEC in Iran which is one of the biggest countries in the MENA region. I also had many conversations about expansion projects and tried to encourage students to expand the vision and values of AIESEC to other countries. At the end of the conference some participants told me that they plan AIESEC expansions to Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. Obviously my presentation and my talks had a great impact on their future decisions and that gave me a good feeling.