Former Congressman Hon. Bill Zeliff was a member of a recent U.S. delegation to Morocco with Legacy’s Legislative Fellowship Program.
Legacy is now preparing another U.S. delegation, including expert media strategists, Peter Fenn and Rich Galen, to depart for Morocco to train and support transparency and engagement in the political process.
Read Congressman Zeliff’s reflection on his trip below:
“The trip to Morocco was absolutely outstanding in every way. The country itself is beautiful, the people were friendly, and the hospitality that we received showed the great respect that the people we met had for Legacy International and Atefeh Leavitt.
I very much enjoyed my assignment of talking about democracy and discussing how our government works. Our meeting with the Moroccan Academy for Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was outstanding as well as the two sessions with Al Akhawayn University, and EGE. Meeting with young people shows me that the United States needs to do as many exchanges as possible to develop strong relationships and respect for our country. The timing is perfect, now that Morocco is changing their government structure and this should be a great opportunity for us to work with them on issues like the program that was put together for us. Meeting with government officials needs to be a high priority and I believe our meetings with Ambassador Kaplan, having dinner with his people, and meeting with Khalid Zerouali, Director of National Security and his entire staff gave us a chance to strengthen our insights and develop an even greater relationship that started back in the days of our founding.
I know I don’t have to tell you the importance of literacy, job creation and how to develop small businesses, and in general, the work that we did in Morocco were great opportunities to show and share stories of success as we do exchanges to help the Moroccan people in terms of self-empowerment.
As to the future, I have a strong interest in working to develop stronger trade opportunities for Morocco and the US. I think Morocco is well positioned for the future and I would like to help them. The opportunities are unlimited and I hope we can discuss this in the near future.
Thank you for the work that Legacy International is doing to strengthen the relationship between Morocco and the USA.”
William H. Zeliff, Jr.
Former Member of Congress, NH