Improve Rural Moroccan Schools: Sami's Project

The High Atlas Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) together launched the two-year project “Promoting Civil Society-University Engagement” in October 2021 with Cadi Ayyad University (UCA) in Marrakech. A specific partnership agreement was signed in January 2021 with the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences at UCA, Legal Clinic for Studies and Research Association. The target beneficiaries of this project are students at Cadi Ayyad University (Marrakech, Asfi, and Kelaat Sraghna campuses), local community leaders, and civil associations, cooperatives, and centers in the Marrakech Safi Region.

On the occasion of HAF planting trees every year during the third week of January, and in accordance with the university's openness to civil society initiatives, I went with Mr. Beddah, the caretaker of the Akrich nursery in Tameslouht Commune (Al Haouz Province), and Aguerjout, the representative of the Legal Clinic at UCA together dug holes and planted almond, walnut, olive, carob trees and medicinal plants with a number of students who are members of the environment club, their teachers, and the Director of Laghnanma Primary School, Mr. Abdelmoula of the Laataouna village in Tameslouht. Safae and I presented the Legal Clinic’s objectives and roles for supporting the local communities.

I would like to thank Mr. Abdelmoula and the team of Laghnanma School so much for the great moment that we spent with them. I cannot forget how the director of the school talked about his first initiative when he was a teacher in primary school in Azilal Province in 1992, and in a school in Ourika, Talat N’Yakoub, and now in Tameslouht Commune in Al Haouz Province. From his discussion, I found that he is not just doing his job as a teacher or Director, but he always leaves his positive mark in schools and with children. He is a model for teachers and directors that work hard for sustainable development.

After planting trees in the school, the HAF team went and met the women of Achbarou Cooperative, which focuses its activities in artisanry including crochet-work, carpet-making, and natural dye work, and planted trees with them near the facility for the cooperative and local association. Additionally, Safae and I presented the legal aid program and informed the women about future activities. We discussed with them the negative impacts of early marriage for girls and dropping out of school early, which is prevalent for girls in the village. We encouraged the women to support their daughters to attend school and finish their studies, returning if they’ve already stopped out.

We also presented the objectives and planned activities under the framework of another new program funded by the European Union that will focus on family literacy classes, women’s empowerment, the participatory approach, and professional training for 20 cooperatives in the Marrakech-Safi region. The women are very motivated and interested to participate in both of these programs.

HAF and the students from the UCA legal clinic look forward to continued and regular collaboration with both the school and the women of Achbarou Cooperative.

17 January 2022 — In the early morning hours, the entire team at High Atlas Foundation began to orchestrate an event that would last all day and take place from Tangier to Boujdour, from Oujda to Ouarzazate. Trees were planted at dozens of sites all over Morocco—in the ancient medinas, at primary schools, high schools, and universities, and on windswept mountainsides and in quiet valleys—everywhere, a greening of the nation.

Many locations were made possible by land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish community, especially significant as the eighth annual HAF Tree Planting Day coincided with Tu Bishvat, a Jewish holiday: the New Year for the Trees. As HAF is also a U.S.-Moroccan organization, the symbolic planting of a tree at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) and the sharing of thoughts on King, Jr.’s legacy by HAF President Ben-Meir reminded us that this is an American day of service in Dr. King’s honor as well. All together—it was a joyous event as people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds joined in a collective effort of hope after many, many months of physical, emotional, and economic challenges.

The day’s events were viewed as a live stream on Facebook hosted by Dr. Ben-Meir as one by one the news of the day’s activities was broadcast from every corner of the nation. The first stop was a primary school in Laataouna in Tameslouhte Commune, Al Haouz Province (Marrakech-Safi), where the children eagerly got their hands in the dirt to participate. Following that, we traveled to Oujda in the northeast corner near the border to witness youth participants of the Be Green project, which is funded by Dar America and implemented by HAF, receiving an introductory workshop on how to plant trees at Maison Figuig. In both places, the faces of hope and optimism from the participants were inspiring and heartwarming.

In Agouim, one of the newer nursery projects built next to the tomb of the revered Jewish healer and teacher Rabbi David Ou Moshe near Ouarzazate, we saw the caretaker of the Imerdal nursery, Mr. Ayoub, planting fruit trees as the sun shone over the mountains in a scene that could not have been more perfectly symbolic of the interfaith, intercultural heritage of Morocco. This organic fruit tree nursery was made possible with the support of His Majesty King Mohammed VI through the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH).

Dr. Ben-Meir next moved seamlessly from conversing with participants in Darija, the Moroccan Arabic language, in a remote rural setting to greeting his English-speaking colleagues in the busy city center of Tangier, where Dawson, Deputy Director of Dar America, and TALIM Resident Director, Rasamimanana, were on hand to celebrate our partnership with this thriving cultural and education center, the only U.S. national historic landmark located outside of the United States and its territories.

Highlights of the day also included visits to:

-       Guercif, where children and women's cooperative members planted trees in a nursery fitted with a solar water pump to save energy and reduce water consumption;

-       children in Ait Ourir;

-       Abderahman Bouabid Saiss high-school students in the old medina in Fes where they excitedly participated in the tree planting process with their principal;

-       Errouichiya village in Sidi Jaber (Beni Mellal), with a group of 5 women who were motivated and excited to plant the trees by themselves “to prove that it's not just a man's job,” as a member of the cooperative expressed;

-       a HAF field officer facilitating a workshop in Setti Fadma (Al Haouz) on climate change and the value of planting trees;

-       youth at a school in Zerktane as well as the Moulay IGHI Jewish Cemetery there;

-       the 100-year-old Lycée Collégial el Mansour Eddahbi and El Mokef primary school in the old medina of Marrakech;

-       the students, teacher, and principal at a school in Imlil with the Akhyam Association;

-       the Nissae Jamaan women's cooperative and the Agayour elementary school in Jamaan in Setti Fadma Commune;

-       High school and middle school students from in El Menzel in Sefrou province (Fès-Meknès);

-       the Jewish Hospice in Tangier with Mrs. Sonia Azagury, who is in charge of the preservation of the Moroccan Jewish heritage there;

-       HAF’s southernmost site in Boujdour;

-       the Tafza cemetery in Setti Fadma, where a cultural community dialogue workshop was held

-       the small town and rural commune of Ouaouizeght in Azilal Province (Béni Mellal-Khénifra region);

-       Ighir N’Islan primary school, in Tisfane Commune, Taroudant, where team members helped 14 students and two teachers plant olive trees before joining members of Tigmmi Cooperative in Tigmmi n'Targa village to plant more olive trees;

-       Carob trees with students and teachers at the legal clinic at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech…and more!

Towards the end of the day’s activities, a HAF team member reported that the guardian of the cemetery in Oujda and his wife invited the group to their home for tea afterwards. They spoke about what planting at the cemetery meant for them. One participant, Rabeh, remarked, "We planted life at a cemetery where life ends, we started a new cycle of life and hope, and today we plant not only a tree but hope and a symbol that all humans are alike. Regardless of our ethnicity or religion we are all humans. We come from earth and to earth we go back."

With the close of the day, I can only express deep gratitude for the opportunity to bear witness to this extraordinary coming together of all the people. We plant trees, some, such as the walnut, that we will not live to see the fruits of but which we offer to those children yet unborn with all our love and compassion. When we come together in sincere effort with open hearts to make our world a better place, we demonstrate human resilience that cannot be felled by disease or strife or hardship. We get back up, and we set to our task with hope.