Kate's blog
HAF's project to bring clean drinking water to five Moroccan villages is competing in GlobalGiving's Everybody Can Win! Challenge. Help HAF win up to $27,500 in prizes by making a donation before December 15th. Every gift counts - just $15 provides clean drinking water for one person!
GlobalGiving's Everybody Can Win! Challenge
GlobalGiving's Everybody Can Win! Challenge is an opportunity for donors to help innovative projects earn up to $27,500. Just for participating, Project Leaders start out with a $2,500 prize! But to keep it, projects must raise $5,000 from 50 unique donors (at least 50 different people) between November 15 and December 15, 2008. In addition to keeping the $2,500, projects can compete for other rewards. The project that recruits the most unique donors will earn an extra $15,000, and the project that raises the most money will earn an extra $10,000.
President John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps in 1961 with the vision of 100,000 volunteers in the field each year and the goal one decade later of one million Americans with first-hand knowledge of the world. Today, approximately 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers serve in 74 emerging countries around the world. How can Peace Corps achieve Kennedy's vision and at the same time have the greatest impact on communities all over globe? HAF President, Yossef Ben-Meir, advocates for Peace Corps to train volunteers as third party facilitators in participatory community development, as a way to empower local communities to be leaders of their own development process.
Ben-Meir states:
But achieving this potential will remain elusive until the primary role of volunteers in development is transformed to what they are optimally suited to do: act as third-party facilitators to help organize inclusive community meetings and apply participatory planning activities that help groups prioritize and implement socio-economic and environmental initiatives.
The High Atlas Foundation was founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Morocco and who wanted to continue to make a difference. We use the knowledge and experiences gained during our years of service and the relationships we built, to help Moroccan communities achieve their socio-economic development goals.
What do you think about an expanded Peace Corps? Let us know by posting a comment below.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. Photos by Dennie Kirtley.
On November 13th 2008, U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Thomas Riley and Mrs. Nancy Riley hosted a reception at their residence in Rabat for the High Atlas Foundation. The event officially launched three new partnerships to strategically grow and expand HAF's objectives to advance community development in Morocco using a participatory approach.
Ambassador and Mrs. Riley and the Board of Directors of HAF were joined by over 100 guests, representing Moroccan government ministries, international aid agencies, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and local communes, and including Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Meryem and His Excellency André Azoulay, a member of HAF's Advisory Board. The evening marked HAF's first anniversary of full-time operations in Morocco.
Partnerships include:
Hassan II University-Mohammedia to create the Center for Community Consensus-Building and Sustainable Development. The mission of the Center is to promote local community participation in the planning and implementation of socio-economic and environmental projects, and build knowledge of sustainable development practices. The Center uses a participatory approach to training where students learn by doing, and have the opportunity to practice facilitation skills in the field.
High Commission of Waters and Forests to develop and implement participatory sustainable development projects with communities neighboring Morocco’s ten national parks and reserves. An innovative aspect of this partnership is the commitment from the High Commission of land to build community tree nurseries, which can significantly help Morocco achieve its fruit tree agriculture potential.
Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP) to expand rural economic and social development in the region of Ben-Guerir, while strengthening the local environment. For its pilot project, the High Atlas Foundation will facilitate community meetings with rural villages and assist them with the implementation of community driven development projects. This represents the High Atlas Foundation’s first private sector partnership in Morocco.
Maghreb Arabe Presse article (English)
Maghreb Arabae Presse article (French)
On the evening of October 15th the High Atlas Foundation hosted its fourth annual New York City reception at the New York Palace Hotel's Urban Center. Over eighty guests joined us for a Moroccan art exhibit, sale, and silent auction - proceeds from the evening will go towards implementing HAF's first potable water project in the Tifnoute Valley. This project will bring clean drinking water to five villages (approximately 1,600 people) in one of the most remote regions of Morocco.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. Photos by Jenni Morello.
Thank you to our featured artists - Hamid Kachmar, Alan Keohane, Julie Klear Essakalli, and Dennie Kirtley - for helping to make the evening so special, as well as Elizabeth Letts Alalou for being with us to sign copies of The Butter Man. We are grateful to event sponsors Merrill Lynch and Oussaden Tours, and to Tagine Dining Gallery and Zerza for donatiing the delicious Moroccan food. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!
Intricacies
The common thread that connects most of Hamid Kachmar's work is intricacy. He evokes the interconnectedness, interrelations, and interdependency of the world where we live nowadays. As an example, he points to the fact that this exhibit/sale is a fundraising event in New York City to help rural families half way across the world in Morocco. Hamid will exhibit five pieces that are based on the theme of intricacy - all use a mixed techniques approach.
Hamid Kachmar is a Moroccan born artist of Amazigh decent. He received his BA from Meknes University in Morocco (1995) and his MFA from Howard University (2006). For the past ten years Hamid's work has been shown in exhibitions in diverse locales across the United States, such as Washington DC, New York, Oregon, and North Carolina, and internationally in France, Spain, and Morocco. Hamid is the recipient of several awards from Howard University, where he lectures on experimental studio and mixed media.
Learn more about Hamid Kachmar's work and read his artist's statement.
Read more featured artist profiles:
