The day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived: my site visit!! We visited ANDD, an association that focuses on digital skill development, particularly for women. They have three main programs through which they help stay at home mothers, university graduates, and other young women on how to create and sustain income-generating activities. I was excited for this site visit not only because it’s my group’s focus but also because the ANDD’s work is really impactful and intriguing, and the information online is extremely limited. I knew the visit today would be very interesting.

I learned that many of the skills they taught women in their workshops were similar to what has been applied in other companies. Entrepreneurs at both the Technopark and UM6P put a similar emphasis on using social media and the Internet to promote companies and products. A lot of what ANDD does also helps people with their soft skills like presentations and networking, which I noticed some of the other organizations did as well. In contrast, ANDD focuses more heavily on social media marketing rather than other avenues of promoting a business. They prioritize teaching their students how to create professional content to post on Instagram or TikTok rather than also teaching them how to gain sponsors, create advertisements, and other ways of promoting their products. I think incorporating more promotional skills would really help the women in their programs even more.

All the women had ambition. This one common factor of wanting to create something made these women so effective in growing and sustaining their companies. Starting a company is always going to be difficult. There may not be a right time, there may never be enough money, and there will always be infinite risk involved, but these women all had such a strong ambition to start their businesses that they weren’t afraid to start it in the first place. All it takes is a little but of confidence and ambition to get you started. I truly admire the drive and determination that these women had to get up and start their business even when people probably doubted them. With these similar skills and values, people all throughout the medina and in Rabat can use social media and the Internet to promote their shops and the products they sell.

After meeting all the wonderful women who went through ANDD’s Nisaa Tech program, we headed back to the medina to enjoy free time for the rest of our day. With the trip nearing its end, I knew I had to finish my shopping today. I bought a few last minute items, including a big leather duffel to carry all my new purchases back home. After seeing the beautiful sunset and having a successful shopping day, I spent the night with my host family. We had an amazing dinner together (we had homemade pizzas!!), and I ended up spending almost two hours at the table with the family chatting and having a good time. My host sisters and I even put funny Snapchat filters onto my host mom’s face and laughed about it for hours. I’m really lucky to have a host family that is always laughing, and I can’t wait to spend one final day with them tomorrow!