HAF is excited to welcome Rabia El Alama, Managing Director for the American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco, to the Board of Directors! With twenty years of experience in project management, entrepreneurship, and international business, Rabia is looking forward to working with HAF to build its corporate giving program, helping to develop creative ways to engage corporations in philanthropy. A true public servant in Morocco, Rabia actively contributes through her volunteer activities to the empowerment of women, women’s access to healthcare, access to education for rural girls, and the reduction of poverty. Read more about Rabia and HAF’s other members of the  Board of Directors.

With a combined seventy-five years of assisting development projects in Morocco, HAF’s eighteen member international board of directors is committed to responding to the priority development projects of local communities. Founded in 2000 by a small group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers wanting to continue to make a difference in their country of service, today 56 percent of HAF’s board members make their ties to Morocco outside of the Peace Corps.

Board of Directors by the numbers:  

18  Board members
12  reside in the US, calling home NYC, DC, and Boston
9    women and 9 men
8    Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, with services spanning between 1968 and 2005
7    Moroccans, residing in both the US and Morocco
6    call Morocco home, including the President, both Vice Presidents, and Country Director
2    Fulbright Grantees to Morocco
1    recipient of the Knight of the Order of National Merit presented by H.M. King Mohammed VI

Bios of the Board of Directors

“A penny can make a difference” was the motto for sixty-five students in the Fairfax County School Age Child Care (SACC) after school program at Shrevewood Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia. The children, ages six to eleven, raised $200 through grassroots fundraising efforts and secured a $200 matching grant from a corporate sponsor, to plant 400 fruit tree saplings in a High Atlas Foundation tree nursery.

Using HAF’s newly launched Teacher Toolkit as a springboard, for one month, the students learned about Morocco’s culture, history, and geography, and connected their newfound knowledge to the more global concepts of volunteerism and environmental awareness. In fact, the overarching theme for the after school program during the 2008-2009 school year focused on volunteerism and giving back to communities in need – whether they be local, national, or international.

With the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to help make a difference, the students focused on collecting only pennies, and totaled an impressive $90 worth by the end of the project (that is 9,000 pennies!). They also held a bake sale at their school that generated an additional $90 in funds.

On Earth Day, April 22nd, they planted a tree on their school grounds – a “sister tree” fruit tree for the ones that will be planted in Morocco later this fall when the planting season begins.

We are incredibly proud of the success of this pilot program, and hope it inspires other educators to use HAF’s Teacher Toolkit in their classrooms. A penny can make a difference, and 40,000 pennies can make a difference for eight Moroccan families whose household incomes will at least double when they sell fruit from their new trees at the local markets – thank you!

A special thank you to all the children and teachers in the SACC after school program at Shrevewood Elementary School, particularly Tori Brent, and to Resource Council member, Tina Khartami, whose leadership helped to make this pilot program a resounding success.

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)