Kate's blog
Between June 3rd and June 5th, HAF hosted fourteen students and two adult leaders from People to People International (PTPI) in the village of Tassa Ouirgane located in southern Morocco's High Atlas Mountains. PTPI, founded by President Dwight Eisenhower, and now run by his granddaughter, is dedicated to cross-cultural communication within and across communities and nations.
The visit helped the students build first-hand knowledge of the socio-economic and environmental opportunities in rural Morocco and gave them the opportunity to participate in a service-learning project. During the program, students gained basic knowledge about participatory development through an introductory session conducted by HAF’s Training and Project Manager, Abderrahim Ouarghidi. In addition, the students practiced hands-on activities with the community, such as social mapping and pair-wise ranking, with the goal of helping local people reach consensus on their priority development needs.
The students also enjoyed traditional Moroccan food, learned basic cultural norms in rural Morocco, and built relationships with local people through community meetings and discussions. Students toured the village with community members - a walk that took them to the local association, springs, orchards, and fields - and to discover the landscape that surrounds the village.
Each fall for the past five years, HAF has hosted an annual fundraising event in New York City to support development projects with rural communities throughout Morocco. These events have traditionally taken the form of Moroccan heflas, featuring North African food, art, music, silent auctions, and distinguished honorees. For the 2010 event, HAF is pursuing something more ambitious: a Moroccan film festival that shows audiences there is more to Moroccan film-making than made-in-Hollywood films like Casablanca and shot-in-Morocco international productions like Gladiator and Babel.
The festival is scheduled for Friday, October 29th and Saturday, October 30th at New York City’s famed TriBeCa Cinemas. The opening evening will be a gala featuring a carefully selected Moroccan film and a reception that features Moroccan hors d’oeuvres and a question-and-answer session with the director of the film. The following day will be an all-day affair designed to interest film buffs and Morocco-philes alike. On this day, eight films will be featured.
We are currently selecting and obtaining permission to show films, and are grateful for the support of of Morocco's Centre Cinématographique Marocaine and the dynamic new Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels film school in Marrakesh.
We are also pleased to share with you opportunities to sponsor the event. A sponsorship starting at $5,000 would make an important difference for rural Moroccan communities and provide an effective avenue for publicizing your company or organization. Please see the attached proposal for more information on sponsoring this event.
Our goal for this event is to raise $100,000 to support community designed and managed development projects in Morocco – primarily in fruit tree agriculture, irrigation, clean drinking water, and women and youth initiatives – while at the same time advancing cross-cultural appreciation and partnership.
In 2010, HAF planted 60,000 walnut and cherry saplings that will benefit 5,000 people, provided clean drinking water for 2,000 people, and has trained over 50 graduate students and local politicians, at its training center at Hassan II University-Mohammedia, in applying participatory planning methods that assist local people in identifying their priority development needs. With your support, we can and will do so much more.
Thank you to event Co-chairs Daniel Cahill (cahilld@nyc.rr.com) and Richard Alleman (REAlleman@aol.com). Please feel free to contact them with your questions and ideas.
See you at the festival!
His Excellency Aziz Mekouar Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States. and the Board of Directors of the High Atlas Foundation, cordially invite you to join us for a special reception and silent auction to honor the contribution of the High Atlas Foundation to rural development in Morocco.
When: Friday, June 18th 2010 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Where: At the residence of Ambassador Mekouar in Bethesda, MD
RSVPs are kindly requested by June 17, 2010 .
Donations Requested. Each $1 donated will plant 1 fruit tree sapling in a community nursery to benefit rural Moroccan families by generating sustainable income.
HAF's goal is to raise $200,000 to plant 200,000 trees in 2011.
On May 2nd, HAF friends and supporters gathered in New York City for the second Eat.Drink.Share event, which focused on women's cooperatives in rural Morocco. Attendees had an opportunity to learn more about HAF's current project in the Tifnoute Valley that will serve ten villages, with the main objective to increase household incomes by 25 percent through fruit tree planting, irrigation, training and the women's choice of projects ranging from carpet weaving to embroidery. HAF presented the topic in conjunction with Kantara Crafts, a fair trade company specializing in women's carpet weaving cooperatives, which gave attendees perspective on the production-to-sale process of the crafts as well as an opportunity to view the final products.
More recently, a delegation of students, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-five, led by People to People International (PTPI) departed for Morocco to work on numerous projects, including a three day program in the village of Tassa Ouirgane with The High Atlas Foundation. As part of their 2010 Young Generation (YG) IMPACT Weekend prior to the students' departure, HAF Board Member Nora Larhouasli Marrakchi was invited to lead an interactive session on the topic of "Global Sustainability through Community Development" at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The discussion was aimed at introducing the students to the importance of community development in Morocco, the participatory community planning methods used by HAF in the field, and the successes and challenges of these development approaches. Students were led through a series of
community mapping activities, which challenged them to focus on defining their actual and ideal community, as well as prioritizing their challenges and opportunities through pairwise ranking exercise.
In rural Morocco, women play an integral role in the sustainability of their communities. HAF works to have these women's voices heard through organized women's cooperatives. HAF will be presenting in conjunction with Kantara Crafts, a fair trade company specializing in women's carpet weaving cooperatives, on the importance of cooperatives, current projects being led in the High Atlas Mountains, and the production-to-sale process of the crafts. Come learn more about women's cooperatives, how the crafts are made, meet new people, and find out ways you can get involved!
Please join us on Sunday, May 2nd for our Women's Cooperative Eat.Drink.Share at La Lunchonette (130 Tenth Ave. at 18th St, NYC) from 11:00am-1:00pm.
RSVP: nora@highatlasfoundation.org
Come hungry for brunch or drop in for a cup of coffee. And please come ready to learn, share and mingle!
To learn more:
Upcoming 2010 Eat.Drink.Share Events
August: Ramadan Iftar
December: Youth Outreach
All questions, comments, and ideas can be directed to:
Nora Larhouasli Marrakchi, Events and Outreach Chair: nora@highatlasfoundation.org
