PROGRAM
The unique program of the retreat alternates between yoga & meditation, olive harvesting, visits to a breathtaking surrounding and a series of co-created workshops to learn and engage with your peers and with the locals.
Olive Harvesting
Let's go back to the roots. In this retreat, we will have plenty of time to join the Ifigha villagers in their annual ritual of collecting olives. We will harvest olives the traditional way, learn more about permaculture, the (organic) olive oil production process, permaculture and we will get to produce and taste our own olive oil!
Have you ever been to an olive oil tasting? that's your chance!
Yoga & Meditiation
A mindfulness session helps re-connecting with oneself. Through a daily meditation practice, you will learn to listen to your body, relax and refocus your energy. Meditating in a group is an opportunity to connect, learn from each other’s experiences and develop a positive habit.
Sightseeing
We will be staying at Ifigha, a small village nested amongst Kabylie's majestic mountains. Ifigha is well-known for it's olive oil production, it's peaceful atmosphere and the many saints which protect it. While in Kabylie, we will visit local artisans, the largest dam in the region, an eco-village in the vicinity and we will indulge in some of the most beautiful sun rises the country has to offer.
Co-created workshops
Each day, we will make some space to discuss the projects of the participants and to learn from each other. You are able to pitch your project, share a burning challenge or teach a new skill. Participants are welcome to take this space to offer their own content.
WHY JOIN
If jumping into the new year in a fairy-like scenery
with some of the most talented people in North Africa is not enough.Here are few more reasons to join :
1. Connect with Nature
Enjoy a peaceful oasis secluded from the frenzy of urban cities. Produce your own olive and learn how ancestral traditions have been preserved are passed onto new generations in Algeria. Forget smartphones and wifi and instead connect with Mother Earth in a unique way. In other words, Disconnect to re-connect.
2. Connect with amazing people
Meet likeminded people who are passionate about making change in their community. Create bonds and long-lasting friendship across countries. Explore social innovation in the Maghreb region. Learn from your peers. Discuss solutions, challenges and practical recipes / success stories and work together towards a vision for positive change in the region. People from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and beyond all sharing a vision of a positive future.
3. Connect with yourself
In this peaceful setting, take time to relax and refocus your energy. Follow our guided mindfulness program and learn more about yourself: what drives you here and where you are called next. Stories from your peers and mentors will ignite the light for your next year's adventures!
Meditation creates new networks and cells and activates certain parts of the brain linked with concentration, wellbeing, empathy and compassion and less so parts linked with ego, fear and depressive feelings. Meditation is thus a training of your brain. Anything you hear or read about meditation; is only to be seriously understood once you have investigated and experienced it for yourself.TESTIMONIALS
Previous Participants share their feedback on the Maghreb Social Innovation Retreat
Rym Lamrani
Chantier de l'économie sociale - Canada
"I realized challenges are similar in every part of the world, only scale is different. By getting together, we can find collective solutions to the challenges our world is facing."
Mohamed Sifaoui
Enercoop - France
"Join the MSIR and have a chance to learn loving each other and working together for a better future."
Hamza Debbarh
CodCodCodet - Morocco
"MSIR was a real, organic, life changing experience. It's funny how meeting and spending a whole week with 19 absolute strangers in the desert can help getting a deeper understanding of oneself. When is the next one ?
Maëva Tordo
ESCP Europe - France
"One of my best memories from MSIR were the co-creative sessions where each of us shared something of importance to him with the group in a very playful way"
Team
Meet the organisers
Anaïs Amazit
Currently working for Barefoot College, an NGO that trains and empowers rural women through solar energy. After Zanzibar, she’ll be based in Madagascar to supervise the opening of a new training center there. As a global connector, she loves discovering new cultures and supporting positive initiatives, in particular across MENA and Africa.
Melissa Yami
Working in Paris as a strategy and management consultant, Melissa was born in Kabylie and loves to make people discover her native region. She recently founded Yes Lukan : the Facebook page gathering positive initiatives in Kabylie.
Ismail Chaib
COO of the fintech start-up Open Bank Project. Previously cofounder of the award-winning Algerian startup SMSBridge. Ismail is based out of Berlin where he is actively involved with the global social entrepreneurship community MakeSense. Ismail has hosted the previous two Maghreb Social Innovation Retreats. He loves helping people discover the many wonders of Algeria.
Partners
This journey would not be possible without the constant support, help and inspiration of the Algerian Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Moroccan Center for Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, Deceler8 and MakeSense and so many other outstanding organisations and individuals. Thank you guys, we love you!
