New semester

We're gearing for an action-packed semester. Tarik is currently in Morocco, creating a partnership with a few other NGOs that are doing similar work. He is also coordinating a tree planting of 2000 trees, which are to be donated by the government ministry on water and forests. Needless to say, dealing with bureaucracy is never a simple procedure, particularly in a developing country, but he's hoping to get things sorted out before he comes home on February 1st. The last project he is simultaneously working on is building a nursery on the school grounds that will be run by the partnership he is creating. They are hoping to provide themselves with a source of trees in addition to operating as a centralized location for awareness and information dissemination.

Back in the U.S. we've got a team of 6 interns that are currently laying out their respective tasks. We are working together to create a program, do the background research, fundraise, write an evaluation study and then go over to Morocco and implement it. There is much to be done and we've got a really good team so far. This is a new model that we're trying out and so far, things are looking really good. Everyone has their goals and projects that they hope to accomplish. You will be hearing about all of them in the months to come.

Danielle

Welcoming Anzar Exchange

Because our previous blog no longer carries anymore news, we have moved on and broadened our topics to that of the entire mission of Anzar Exchange which is, "to strengthen the global community by promoting cross-cultural understanding and sustainable development." We are a non-profit that is very much in the start-up phase making us preoccupied with program development and analysis in addition to the very rewarding admin tasks such as writing bylaws and getting 501c3 status. The royal, "us" in this picture consists of many students and several professionals. All of us are passionate about development and environmental sustainability. Some of us would like to make a career out of it, but global financial trouble has made the path of the "do-gooder" much less lucrative.

In any case, the new route of this blog is intended to keep people informed of what we're doing and thinking. Currently, we are putting together a fantastic program piece by piece. We may be in this development process for quite sometime, but we are patient. Unfortunately, the problems we are addressing are not going away any time soon.