The Bernard Mejean Fund for Girls' Education

24 January 2022—On this International Day of Education, we recognize that education is a human right. We reflect on the role of schooling in all communities of the world, not just in the most developed countries and not just in the most affluent cities, but in the remotest corners of the globe, beyond New York, London, Rabat, or Casablanca. What, we ask ourselves, is the impact on a young person’s life of cutting short their formal education?

Too often, this reality occurs for reasons outside of their control: family obligations, inadequate finances, lack of access, environmental challenges, or traditional expectations. Some places in the world do not have the infrastructure to provide higher levels of schooling to all of the nation’s youth, and Morocco is no exception. In a remote mountain village, building a school for adolescents to continue their education is not as high a priority as building a well or an irrigation system to expand crop yield.

Yet, we know that education can be an essential tool for rising out of poverty, for having opportunity and expanding choices, or simply for the chance to start a small business and earn a simple living that makes one feel greater pride, fulfillment, and satisfaction.

High Atlas Foundation (HAF) works with Moroccan communities to engage in participatory sustainable development initiatives for the improvement of livelihoods. This always begins by facilitating inclusive community dialogues to ascertain the people’s desires and needs. Only then can we know how we can be of assistance. Inevitably, participants will cite increased means of income as a priority, and often, this entails new business ventures. This might take the form of community nurseries built on land lent in-kind by government or civic entities in order to grow organic fruit trees that will be made available to farming families at highly reduced prices. It might manifest as a filtration system for access to clean water. It can involve planting trees with children at schools or with youth at Child Protection Centers so they learn to take care of the plants and gain environmental awareness.

Sometimes, though, it is shaped by the voices of those who want to expand their choices and opportunities and feel that sense of fulfillment and self-satisfaction. HAF has several certified trainers on its staff who facilitate “Imagine” empowerment workshops. These are four-day, 32-hour, rights-based experiences for community groups of women and youth to learn about and discuss information in seven areas, including emotions, relationships, and health, among others. Participants learn about their rights and learn to respect themselves and see themselves as capable. They follow this with opportunities for technical and entrepreneurial training from the USAID Farmer to Farmer program and form cooperatives to manage businesses and earn their own income, some for the first time in their lives.

HAF also engages community members in literacy (and numeracy) instruction. In these cases, people who did not have unlimited access to continued schooling have an opportunity to learn reading, writing, and mathematics skills for better functioning within cooperatives, associations, managed businesses, or just for personal fulfillment as informed people with a voice, a say over their future. With support from the European Union, HAF is now able to hire educated Moroccan women to be trained as literacy instructors by local university students in their region in order to teach the women of these communities, women who have expressed during their Imagine workshops the desire to increase their capacities. Furthermore, the youngest children of these communities will attend classes with their mothers and in this way develop skills they would not normally have access to for lack of pre-primary schools in remote places. The whole of the program is intended to promote family literacy within their households and throughout their communities toward the national goal of eradicating illiteracy in Morocco this decade.

As we recognize and celebrate worldwide educational achievements large and small, we acknowledge that job creation, economic development, and building human capital must include education as a key component.

I have always believed that training is an important and interesting way to meet people who you might not normally connect with: people from different age groups, ethnicities, or social groups. It is like some kind of magic that allows you to meet a wide variety of people from all walks of life, something that can only open your eyes further.

Since the first moment cooperative president Lalla Rachida told me that I would attend an IMAGINE workshop with her in Taroudant, I was so excited to be there and meet the women of Tiferki village. Because of my sociable personality, I am always trying to discover new places and cultures and interact with new mindsets.

Language is an important tool of communication that empowering women can't succeed without it. It was a little bit disappointing that I couldn't speak Tachelhit, the Tiferki people's mother tongue. I was very hesitant and unsure because it can be tricky connecting with someone whose language is completely different. However, it was very important to do my best in order to complete my task.

Once I arrived there, I met Khadija, the local woman who was with us during the four days, and she was familiar with Darija, the Moroccan Arabic language. This advantage made me feel comfortable. Finding someone who is able to switch her language depending on who she is speaking was a huge advantage. It was necessary to keep the lines of communication open with all the people in that beautiful village.

Personally, I have never been surprised by the variety of cultural influences in some huge Moroccan cities, but it's interesting that the same amount of influence was present in a very small village like Tiferki. People who use smartphones and communicate through modern social media, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, are the same people who still preserve their culture, the customs of their tribe, and their mother tongue. This indicates that they consider clothes, language, customs, and beliefs are inseparable parts of their individual and collective identity that cannot change despite the change of time and place and the development of life. "Our culture is our wealth," said Lalla Kaltouma.

Tiferki women proved that illiteracy does not have to be an obstacle to achieving one’s dreams. When they couldn’t express their points of view by speaking or writing, they drew their ideas using colors. Personally, I liked all of the IMAGINE workshop’s activities. But what I found more powerful for women was the meditation phase. Some women talked freely about their painful stories while others’ tears talked louder.

Like any other experience in life, I tried to benefit as much as I could every moment, activity, meeting, and training because I could have another, similar experience, but not with the same advantages or in the same circumstances.

To conclude, Tiferki women are real heroines. They can make change. They are just in need of some training that will push them to take the first step, and then they will surely shine.

This article was completed with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Religious and Ethnic Minorities Activity (REMA), and the High Atlas Foundation is solely responsible for its content, which does not necessarily reflect the views of the USAID or the Government of the United States.