Arts and Culture Morocco Project #27531

Moroccan Cultural Preservation, Unity & Diversity

by High Atlas Foundation

Moroccan Cultural Preservation, Unity & Diversity

Project Report | Feb 5, 2018
Integration of Multiculturalism and Sustainability

By Fatima-Zahara Laaribi | HAF Team Member

An embodiment of Morocco’s integrated development approach is its way to preserve its diverse cultures. Morocco’s vision is that cultural activities should be advanced in integration with people’s development. King Mohammed VI described in 2008: “That vision consists in making sure culture serves as a driving force for development as well as a bridge for dialogue.” HAF’s cultural projects critically move forward human development, in education, livelihoods, the environment, and with people in remote places.

In Essaouira in 2013, HAF held a conference to present the results of its one-year preservation and education program for the cemeteries of the three religions in the presence of U.S. Consul-General, Mr. Brian Shukan and representatives of local authorities, civil society, and project partners. Mr. Shukan (bottom left photo greeting children) welcomed the achievements of the project, which trained caretakers in good practices, overseen cleaning and planting activities with local community members, organized awareness-raising events with local people, integrated over 400 individual students and schoolchildren into educational and practical activities around cultural knowledge preserved by the cemeteries, and worked with over 120 members of local civil society. He said: "By making the cemeteries most welcoming, encouraging more visitors to discover these cemeteries for the first time and helping the current generation to remember its rich roots of their peaceful coexistence, this project will help preserve the illustrious past of Essaouira for future generations." The project was initiated by HAF and its partners and funded by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation and Essaouira Mogador.
HOUSE OF LIFE is an innovative agricultural initiative whose implications are broad and set in the specific context of Moroccan human development needs and cultural history. The model thus created could be replicated throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. The term HOUSE OF LIFE denotes a traditional name for a Jewish cemetery. It was therefore particularly appropriate for the former Governor of the Al Haouz Province, Younès Al Bathaoui, to employ the phrase in respect of the project, led by HAF in Morocco and endorsed by the Clinton Global Initiative.The uniqueness of the scheme lies in its intercultural aspect. HOUSE OF LIFE facilitates the free loan of land adjoining Jewish burial sites, in order to establish organic tree and medicinal nurseries for the benefit of farming communities.

Akrich: 1) Muslim-Jewish gathering (2016) when the trees were distributed. 2) Ambassador Bush and Governor El Bathaoui planting a fig tree.

In 2014, the HAF pilot nursery on Jewish communal land was established at Akrich, located on the northern side of the High Atlas in Al Haouz province, around 25 kilometers south of Marrakech, at the site of the 700-year-old tomb of the healer Rabbi Raphael Hacohen. Since that time, we planted 120,000 almond, fig, pomegranate, and lemon seeds which have reached maturity and now are maintained by about 1,000 farmers and 130 schools. The project was funded by Wahiba Estergard and Mike Gilliland, and the Lodestar Foundation.

o In 2016, the first trees from the pilot were handed to local children and farmers by the Governor joined by the United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, Dwight Bush, Sr. Earlier, Ambassador Bush hosted a reception for House of Life at his residence in Rabat, at which Advisor to the King, André Azoulay, and former Peace Corps Director in Morocco, Ellen Paquette, addressed the audience.

Having started during the holy month of Ramadan 2017, HAF is hosting a series of community meetings in the Mellah neighborhood of Marrakech to prioritize local needs and establish a path for a sustainable future. In coordination with the Association Mimouna, Jewish Community of Marrakech, Region of Marrakech-Safi and the Marrakech Beladiya, HAF hosted a series of traditional Moroccan breaks of fast with the local community in order to foster participatory development action. Immediately following these interfaith meals at the Slat Lazama synagogue, local residents and organization leaders developed plans to achieve new projects - in clean drinking water, education, and building revitalization.

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Nov 13, 2017
MEETING WARMLY FAMILIAR PEOPLE IN MOROCCO

By Yossef Ben-Meir | President, High Atlas Foundation

There is a joy I feel when talking about Morocco, and the role of the High Atlas Foundation in the great national project to catalyze participatory development with all the nation's villages and neighborhoods. It is a dream and reality. Morocco set itself on a path of democratic planning for human development, decentralization, women's freedom, interfaith action, south-south unity, and more. Its hard trials toward effective implementation in all these areas are also completely real and even troubling. But, the opportunity to achieve people's participation in the change they determine and seek can build to a national scale - and it is up to the people if that will come to pass. For the High Atlas Foundation, the engine for such vast community-driven growth is organic agriculture, the entire value chain, including the monitoring and sale of carbon credits. The new revenue from the agriculture sector we can multiply by five and dedicate it to community planning of development, training facilitators in participatory methods, and be implementing the projects of the people.

I will remember today in Marrakech because I was given the opportunity by Friends of Morocco to share this message and mission with former Peace Corps Volunteers from 16 countries. I am part of them, and our spoken language together is short-hand. I also had the chance to meet them at Hotel Toulousain, our home away from our Peace Corps home in the 1990s when we served. How many times have we developed memories in one place, and then returned again to that same spot in an entirely different point in our lives - and we wonder all kinds of things? That too happened today.

I commit to Morocco because its success as a model pathway for sustainable development is essential for its people and deeply meaningful for the Continent and the Middle East. Morocco is a gateway to a civilization, a crux place, and the realization of its good future is important for the world. So, continue and come here to play a part in pushing the tide of time and decisions toward fairness. Fulfillment, no matter how promising, is never a given - and the light of our values in our era hangs in the balance.

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Aug 29, 2017
HAF HOSTS COMMUNITY MEETINGS IN THE MARRAKESH MELL

By Yossef Ben Meir | President of High Atlas Foundation

Community Meetings at the Marrakech Mellah

Having started during the holy month of Ramadan, the High Atlas Foundation is hosting a series of community meetings in the Mellah neighborhood of Marrakech to prioritize local needs and establish a path for a sustainable future.

In coordination with the Mimouna Foundation, Jewish Community of Marrakech, Region of Marrakech-Sofi and the Bahia neighborhood, HAF hosted a series of traditional Moroccan breaks of fast with the local community in order to foster participatory development action.

Immediately following these interfaith meals at the Slat Lazama synagogue, local residents and organization leaders developed plans to achieve new projects - in clean drinking water, education and building revitalization. HAF implements grassroots development initiatives that community beneficiaries determine and manage.

HAF and Partners Facilitate Renewal of the Historic Marrakech Mellah

Over traditional Iftor meals during Ramadan, HAF, Association Mimouna, Jewish Community of Marrakech and the Region of Marrakech-Sofi brought together community members throughout the Mellah at the Slat Lazama Synagogue to collectively discuss the community’s needs and their hopes for the future.

“What we are talking about are not luxuries, they are simple human rights. We want to have access to water to drink, we want a school for our kids to attend, we want a hospital that we can go to when we are sick, and we want police in our neighborhood that ensure our security. I do not think that this is asking for too much, all other neighborhoods in Marrakesh have these things; why don’t we?” asked one community member.

Community members highlighted that while there was once “no difference between the Jews and the Muslims who lived here,” the community now struggles with a significant lack of resources. Fatiha, a local mother said: “The kids here don’t have many choices; the schools are nonexistent, and they do not trust the local authorities. There are no jobs and they are in the streets all day, they all are turning to drugs and alcohol to forget their struggles. I do not know what we can do.”

In order to attempt to mitigate some of these significant problems, Amina, a facilitator with the High Atlas Foundation, led a series of community activities aimed at mapping what the community looks like now, how it once was, and what it requires to improve for the future. Community members presented their plans to the rest of the group, focusing around the lack of renovation and the need for social services.

In particular, community members emphasized the need for infrastructure improvements: “We have a hospital, but there are no beds in it,” and further they emphasized, “our houses are full of mold and they are falling apart.” Without this infrastructural renovation, the Mellah is suffering. Moreover, community members also highlighted that, “every other neighborhood in Marrakesh has a police force, they stop drugs from being given out, and they also arrest thieves. Here both of those things run wild.” As the Mellah has become more marginalized in Moroccan society, it has lacked the most basic resources to provide for its citizens.

The conversations continued to lead back to the need for the most basic infrastructure amelioration. With little access to running water, the discussions continued to return to the notion that they must first and foremost increase access to water and establish standards that ensure the hygiene of water. Yet, this prioritization just touches at the surface of the Mellah’s needs. While they hope to establish a system of clean water, they are also adamant that the community needs renovations that can bring it back to the center of vitality that it once was.

The High Atlas Foundation is moved and inspired by the conversations occurring at the Mellah and hopes to truly help increase the living standards with the people living in the Mellah. Moreover, HAF ensures that any help it offers to human development occurs through the participatory approach, empowering the community members of the Mellah to implement their solutions.

Planning, partnership-building, proposal development all continue. We are committed to the Mellah's community development vision.

To learn more about these meetings and about HAF's role, check out this video and the blog posts below.

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