A RESPONSIBLE ADVENTURE
Our CSR approach
Maïenga is an agency that designs and organizes committed and engaging sporting adventures.
Since its creation in 1990, the spirit of our company has been to share with all its participants unique, exceptional, life-saving experiences, full of emotion and positivity…
Convinced that the organization of events can be combined perfectly with controlling impacts, we are committed every day to offering environmentally and socially responsible, unifying and inspiring events. of change. It is in this context that in 2007, we began an environmental certification process which culminated in obtaining the standard in 2010. We are proud to have been the first agency and the only one to offer ISO 14001 certified events.
ADVENTURES THAT MAKE SENSE TO RECONNECT MEN AND WOMEN TO HUMAN VALUES.
A COMMITTED ADVENTURE…
The Aïcha des Gazelles Rally is part of MAÏENGA’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program entitled CAP, which is based on three pillars of commitment:
I. FOCUS ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
We have always worked to make girls and women feel free, accomplished and respected. At the end of the 1980s, the founder of MAÏENGA, Dominique SERRA – then at the head of a young communications agency, was interviewed by the President of the Union Patronale de Haute Marne to boost businesses in the region. His answer: change will come through women.
A real beacon to draw attention to the condition of women in the professional world, Dominique is organizing an inter-company event 100 % female in another area where male domination has established itself: sport in general, car rallying in particular.
A COMMUNITY OF WOMEN UNITED AND LEADERS
On October 11, 1990, 27 trailblazers started the engines of their Lada Nivas, headed for the 800 km challenge of the very first all-women’s inter-company rally. 33 years later, more than 11,000 women of 75 different nationalities, between the ages of 16 and 81, have taken part. The women who take part in our events are seeking to experience an extraordinary adventure with meaning and purpose, namely to:
+ STRENGTHEN THEIR VALUES ethics, authenticity, courage, pushing their limits, acceptance of others,
+ UNITE to help bring about change for the status of women in sport.
When they take part in our events, women push themselves and their limits. In this way they become the driving force of their own change, a role model for those around them, their children and future generations.
WOMEN MEN EQUALITY IN SPORT
Through the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, an exclusively female sporting adventure, we offer women a unique space of expression where they cross what they believed to be their own limits, free themselves from mental barriers, and gain confidence and in self-esteem.
So many achievements that allow us to move the lines of gender stereotypes that influence us and lock us all into differentiated social roles assigned to women and men.
PROFESSIONAL EQUALITY FOR WOMEN MEN
For 33 years, 252 companies have hired a female crew for our events as a strong managerial action in favor of the promotion of women within their company.
They find in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles a favorable terrain for personal development allowing them to strengthen their capacity for adaptation, daring, resilience and resolution of complex problems.
Discover the companies that have entered a crew in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc: HERE
DIVERSITY
At MAÏENGA we ensure that our sports adventures are accessible to adults of all ages (our youngest participant to date was 16, and our oldest, 81).
+ Emilie Bénazech, a paraplegic, led the way in 2002 with her teammate, para-Olympic champion Béatrice Hess, by taking part in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc. Other disabled teams followed in their footsteps in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2013.
+ American surfing champion Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack, took part in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc in 2013.
+ A young blind woman with asthma and Asperger’s took part in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc in 2021.
Résultats depuis 1990
II. FOCUS ON OUR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc is the only Rally-Raid to be certified ISO 14001:2015
On the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, taking the necessary measures to continually improve our environmental performance is daily and collective work.
Among the major projects on which we set objectives and plan actions, we note: careful consumption of water and a reduction in our energy consumption, the absorption of CO2 emissions from our activities and appropriate management of our waste. Each year, once our actions have been carried out, we measure them, evaluate their effectiveness, review them and set the following objectives. Then we start again tirelessly and have done so since 2010!
The ISO 14001:2015 standard establishes a framework of requirements, it is a real reference tool which allows us to integrate environmental concerns in our activities, to control our impacts and to deploy a management system oriented towards continuous improvement. This international certification is issued by an independent accredited body (SGS in the case of Maïenga).
AIR: AVOID AND REDUCE OUR EMISSIONS
+ Rally-raid without speed criteria: to win it, you must cover the fewest km
+ Capping the number of participants
+ Event without audience
+ The elimination of 60% of CO2 emissions linked to the non-transport of logistics thanks to storage in Morocco,
+ Purchasing food raw materials in short circuits
+ Limitation and control of energy consumption in the bivouac and fuel during events
WATER: SAVE, PRESERVE, FACILITATE ACCESS TO WATER
+ Careful selection of water catchment areas in order to preserve the balance of local resources
+ Daily monitoring of water distribution installations
+ Installing water savers
+ Control of the volume of water consumed by daily readings
+ Bottles of mineral water not left for self-service
BIODIVERSITY: RESPECT FOR TERRITORIES
+ Positioning of routes and bivouac installations in collaboration with local authorities
+ Limitation of noise and light pollution
+ Use of solvent-free and biodegradable products
+ Floor protection during mechanical and fueling operations
+ Equipping mechanical assistance vehicles with an anti-pollution intervention kit and implementing anti-pollution protocols in the event of fire or accidental spill
+ Filtration and channeling of wastewater from sanitary facilities
WASTE: REDUCE, TREAT, TRANSFORM
+ Active fight against waste by adjusting foodstuffs to real daily needs in particular
+ No single-use plastic cutlery for catering
+ Setting up a system for collecting and sorting the waste produced
+ A dedicated team works to prevent sorting errors
+ 50% of waste is incinerated
+ 50% of waste is recycled in appropriate channels
+ With our charity Coeur de Gazelles and our partner Sidi Ali, we have developed an approach and an entire network of upcycling bottles made of construction material for homes and designer objects made by the social enterprise Ressourc’In in Casablanca which helps young people and women far from employment to succeed in their professional integration.
ABANDONED WASTE IN THE DESERT
III. FOCUS ON OUR TERRITORIES AND HOST POPULATIONS
The Aïcha Rally of Gazelles of Morocco has the honor of being placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. It is an immense recognition of what we have always considered to be a very great responsibility: to have a high positive impact for the territories and populations who have welcomed us for more than 30 years with unconditional hospitality.
We are developing targeted solidarity actions around the Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc Rally, in collaboration with local populations, designed to last in the long term with a desire partnership, and approved by ministerial authorities.
THE COEUR DE GAZELLES MEDICAL CARAVAN
dSince 2001, in partnership with the Moroccan Ministry of Health, the Cœur de Gazelles Medical Caravan, made up of organizers and volunteer health professionals, travels with the bivouac of the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc during the 8 days of test, to offer consultations and care to children, women and men who live more than 100 km from a hospital or dispensary.
But the activities of Cœur de Gazelles are not limited to the duration of the caravan. Certain identified pathologies require year-round monitoring . The association supports these patients by financing transport from their home to the hospital and by financing major operations.
THE COEUR DE GAZELLES AWARENESS ECO-CARAVAN
Since 2001, in parallel with the medical caravan, Cœur de Gazelles has been carrying out an action to raise awareness of the environment in general and the fight against plastic pollution in particular.
The mika khala is a black plastic bag that was a massive part of Moroccan daily life before the government banned its production in 2016. An environmental scourge, this plastic bag takes 450 years to degrade.
The association distributes cotton bags every year to encourage people to move from disposable to sustainable.
EDUCATION
The Moroccan State devotes 25% of its budget to education. In collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Education, Cœur de Gazelles is part of this approach with 3 objectives:
+ Fight against school dropouts: we build schools and classrooms at nursery or primary level. For students returning to school, more than 10km away and residing in areas not served by school transport, we distribute recycled and serviced bicycles.
+ Supporting children: to date, participants in our events have transported more than 3000m3 of donations (from supplies for manual activities, construction and mobility games, computer equipment, etc.)
+ Improving the educational environment: we renovate and equip schools that need it.
TO GO FURTHER
Because solidarity has no borders, we do not forget that equal opportunities must also be defended throughout the world. This is why, every year since 2021, the Rally encourages registered participants to represent the association of their choice. At the end of the Rally, a jury made up of members of the CSR committee votes for one of the projects presented and a prize of €10,000 is paid by Maïenga to the selected association.
+ In 2023, €10,000 was donated to Les Petits Princes to make dreams come true for sick children
To find out more about the Gazelles involved click HERE
