Blogs
HAF will receive a Peace Corps Response Volunteer this fall – and it could be you!
The Peace Corps Response program allows former Volunteers to re-enroll in Peace Corps for short-term assignments that range from three months to one year, working in everything from HIV/AIDS education to humanitarian assistance in response to natural disasters to capacity-building of local NGOs.
Since its launch in 1996, Peace Corps Response (formerly Crisis Corps) has sent over 1,000 Volunteers to forty-five countries. The Volunteer who will be assigned to work with HAF and our university partners will be the first to serve in Morocco, the first in the MENA region, and the first to assist an organization founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers – that is a lot of firsts!
The Volunteer will work with HAF and our partners at Hassan II University-Mohammedia for six months to help develop curriculum and training workshops in participatory development for the Center for Sustainable Development and Community Consensus-Building (a partnership between HAF and the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences at Hassan II University). At least three multi-day training workshops are planned for the 2009-2010 academic year, including ones for graduate students, presidents of rural communes, and technicians working in Morocco’s national parks. The Volunteer will play in integral role in helping these workshops realize their full potential, and in so doing create a replicable and scalable training curriculum.
You can learn more about this opportunity and apply at the Peace Corps Response website.
Shortly after its release, in the spring of 2008, HAF teamed up with the authors of the children’s book The Butter Man, Ali Alalou and Elizabeth Letts Alalou (RPCV Morocco 1983-1986), to share their Moroccan tale of “patience, perseverance, and hope” with HAF friends and supporters.
If you missed out on purchasing a signed copy of The Butter Man at one of HAF's book signing events don’t despair! You’ll be happy to know that all Founders’ Circle members receive a complimentary singed copy when they make a gift of $250 or more to HAF – it is our way of saying thank you to our core supporters (forty and growing!) and sharing a small part of Morocco with you.
Weaving between the present and past, this picture book introduces readers to Berber culture in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. While young Nora impatiently waits for couscous to cook, her father tells her about a famine during his childhood. Food was so scarce that his father left home to find work. Baba's resourceful mother helped him stay busy so he did not dwell on hunger. Eventually, his father returned home with food and, ultimately, the rains came. -School Library Journal
The book has garnered notable awards, including:
• A Junior Library Guild Selectionn
• Storytellers World Award Honor Book
• A Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Book
• Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
• A Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choice
• Bank Street College's The Best Children's Books of the Year
• Peace Corps Writers Award - Award for Best Children's Writing
The book’s illustrator, Julie Klear Essakalli was inspired by the beauty and rawness of many trips to the High Atlas Mountains. Julie based her illustrations on the remote Amazigh village of Zig Zaoun, a perfectly nestled, magical, and untouched farming village, dating back several centuries. This picturesque village provided for the perfect backdrop for Ali's surroundings in the story. Julie lives in Marrakech, Morocco with her husband and business partner Moulay Essakalli and their two children. She is the co-founder & creative director of the award-winning company, Zid Zid Kids – and of course a proud supporter of the High Atlas Foundation!
HAF has partnered with G4S (Morocco), the world’s leading international securities group, to combat rural poverty and highlight awareness for dislocation of Morocco’s rural populations due to challenging socio-economic conditions.
Together, this NGO-corporate partnership will bring clean drinking water to five villages in the Tifnoute Valley, benefitting 1,500 people. It will also plant 15,000 saplings in a community nursery of 50,000 fruit tree saplings that will be planted in early 2010. Other corporatiions, NGOs, and individuals are also contributing funds to this nursery that is in partnership with the Regional Division of Waters and Forests-Marrakech and local communities. (Stay tuned for more details about the nursery and how you can join the effort!)
This partnership represents HAF’s second major corporate partnership, also currently partnering with Groupe OCP to work with villages in the Ben-Guerir region of Morocco. Promoting corporate social responsibility has become a key part of HAF’s mission, creating creative opportunities for investment in rural Morocco and strategic partnerships in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco (AmCham).
Read the press release at Maghreb Arabe Presse
Download the press release (English)
Download the press release (Français)
We are excited to let you know that the Moroccan American Cultural Center has initiated a $5,000 matching challenge grant for HAF. Through September 20th every dollar you donate or pledge will be matched up to $5,000! You can make a secure donation online, fill out a pledge form, or send us a check.
Do you live in Morocco? HAF is registered as a local association in Morocco and accepts donations in-country. Please contact us at haf@highatlasfoundation.org to learn more about making a donation in Morocco.
AND if you still need an incentive to give, all donors who give $250 or more are invited to join HAF’s Founders' Circle – a core group of over forty individuals (and growing!) who are committed to supporting HAF’s mission. As a token of our appreciation, we’ll send you a signed copy of The Butter Man – a children’s story set in the High Atlas Mountains.
Read a letter from HAF's President about the challenge and his recent trip to Morocco
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
On the evening of June 1st, Moroccan Ambassador to the US, H.E. Aziz Mekouar, and Mrs. Maria Felice Mekouar hosted a sit down dinner for thirty High Atlas Foundation supporters. High Atlas Foundation President, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, and Country Director, Kate McLetchie, were joined by Board Members, Sir Charles Dahan, Barbara Balaj, and Talal Belrhiti. We were delighted that former US Ambassador to Morocco, Mr. Marc Ginsberg, and Mrs. Janet Ginsberg were able to join us, along with HAF major donors Mrs. Julie Walters Rose, and Mr. and Mrs. Cary Greene.
Ambassador Mekouar began the evening by highlighting HAF's accomplishment of planting 150,000 fruit trees, and the impact such a project has on rural Moroccan families. After presenting the organization's mission for advancing rural socio-economic development in Morocco, Dr. Ben-Meir described HAF's newest project to raise $75,000 to train six graduate students at Hassan II University-Mohammedia in participatory development skills and implement community designed projects for over 2,000 beneficiaries. During their training, students will "learn by doing" and will work with local villages to practice their new skills and implement priority development projects, including those in fruit tree agriculture, irrigation,clean drinking water, women's cooperatives, and youth programs (the $75,000 fundraising goal allows for a budget to cover these project implementation costs).
At the evening's end, Ambassador Ginsberg committed his support to HAF's work and encouraged others to join him and do the same. We would also like to welcome Ambassador Ginsberg to HAF's Advisory Board, where he will join Ambassador Mekouar and eleven other distinguished individuals. We are grateful to have had this opportunity to showcase HAF's work, and look forward to doing it again soon.
