Kate's blog
* * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * *
Date: October 3, 2008, New York, NY
Contact: Kate McLetchie, Country Director at (646) 688-2946 or kate@highatlasfoundation.org
The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) will host a Moroccan art exhibit, sale, and silent auction on Wednesday, October 15th 2008 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm at the Urban Center, New York Palace Hotel (457 Madison Avenue). Featured artists include Hamid Kachmar (mixed techniques), Alan Keohane (black and white photography), and Dennie Kirtley (color photography). The event will also feature signed prints from The Butter Man book by the illustrator Julie Klear Essakalli, and signed copies of the book - a children's story set in the High Atlas Mountains - by the authors Elizabeth Letts Alalou and Ali Alalou.
The event has been generously sponsored by Merrill Lynch, and all proceeds from the evening will go towards HAF's $100,000 fundraising goal to support socio-economic development projects with Moroccan communities, including: planting two community nurseries of 100,000 saplings, benefitting approximately 10,000 people in the Ouirka and Azzadene Valleys, in partnership with Morocco's High Commission of Waters and Forests; implementing clean drinking water projects with five villages in the Tifnoute Valley, benefitting 1,600 people; and providing fellowships to eight university students at Hassan II University-Mohammedia, to train them in participatory community planning skills for a six month period.
The High Atlas Foundation was founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps Volunteers in order to use their professional experience and knowledge gained during their years of service for the continued benefit of the Moroccan people. HAF's mission is to establish development projects that local communities design and manage and that are in partnership with government and non-government agencies.
Honorary Event Chairs include Carol Bellamy, President and CEO, World Learning; John Entelis, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, Fordham University; Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, former US Ambassador to Morocco; Darcy Neill, former Director of Peace Corps Morocco; Kevin Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association; Tim Resch, President, Friends of Morocco; and Ambassador Thomas Riley, US Ambassador to Morocco.
To learn more about the High Atlas Foundation and to purchase tickets for this special event for Morocco please visit http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/ or contact Kate McLetchie, Country Director at (646) 688-2946 or kate@highatlasfoundation.org.
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HAF's October 15th NYC art exhibit, sale, and silent auction will feature five different signed and matted prints from The Butter Man book, by the illustrator Julie Klear Essakalli.
Inspired by the beauty and rawness of many Atlas Mountain trips, Julie based her illustrations on a remote Berber village she discovered in 2004. Zig Zaoun is a perfectly nestled, magical, untouched farming village, dating back to several centuries with an elevation of around 2,000 meters. This picturesque village provided for the perfect backdrop for Ali's surroundings in the story.
Julie - born in Germany, raised in the USA, resident of Marrakech, Morocco - is a studio artist, art teacher, children's book illustrator, mother of two, and the co-founder & creative director of the award-winning company, Zid Zid Kids. 
The authors of The Butter Man, Elizabeth Letts Alalou and Ali Alalou, will be signing copies of thiis children's book at the event.
Featured Artist Profile: Alan Keohane
Check back soon for featured artists Hamid Kachmar and Dennie Kirtley.
To give you a taste of HAF's upcoming October 15th NYC art exhibit, sale, and silent auction, we will profile each week one of the four talented featured artists. We hope you will join us on the 15th to view their work and make a purchase if something special catches your eye! All proceeds to benefit HAF's community development projects with Moroccan communities.
The “Cavalières of Ouled Amra" - the only all female Fantasia team in MoroccoThe exhibit will feature five framed photographs from Alan Keohane's Moroccan Fantasia series,The Horsemen of Islam.
The Doukkala Arabs live on the plains between Marrakech and the Atlantic coast and are the direct descendents of the Bedouin armies that brought Islam to North Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries. They are fiercely proud of their lineage and the historic role played by their forefathers. These Arab tribes still breed and ride the Arab-Berber horses that made them among the finest light cavalry in the world. The Doukkala Arabs commemorate today their warrior origins in the dramatic Fantasia displays of horsemanship, courage, and teamwork.
Alan first came to photography as a fine art printing student, making etchings and woodcuts. He strongly believes that the printing stage of photography is as important as the initial taking of the photo; the one unable to exist without the other. In 2003 he started experimenting with the new ink based photographic printing techniques.
Since 1993 he has been based in Marrakesh, Morocco where he works as a photographer and documentary film consultant through his company Still Images. Alan is the author of the photographic books The Berbers of Morocco (Hamish Hamilton 1991) and Bedouin Nomads of the Desert (Kyle Cathie 1994). He has also contributed photographs to a substantial number of other books and international magazines, and has exhibited his photographs in Europe, Morocco, and Dubai. Alan graduated with a first class honors degree from the University College of Wales in 1985, before going on to study photography at the Central St Martins School of Art in London.
Photographs are printed on 13 X 19 inch Hahnamehule acid free cotton rag, using pure carbon based pigment inks. Prints are signed and in limited editions of 25. The prints are mounted on ivory colored acid free board and are framed. Commercial value of each print is $565.
Upcoming featured artists include Julie Klear Essakalli, Hamid Kachmar, and Dennie Kirtley.
Join HAF Board Members, supporters, and friends this Ramadan to break fast together in NYC. We will be hosting two gatherings - one a traditional Moroccan fitoor (complete with harira soup, chebekia, and dates!) and a second one filled with delicious Moroccan appetizers. We'll catch up, meet new friends, and get geared up for the October 15th NYC reception. We hope to see you soon!
Traditional Moroccan Fitoor
$30 - proceeds to support HAF's One Million Tree Campaign
Date: Friday, September 19th 2008
Time: 6:45pm
Place: Walima Restaurant, 31-06 42nd Street, Astoria, Queens
Moroccan Appetizers
Date: Wednesday, September 24th 2008
Time: 6:45pm
Place: Zerza, 304 East 6th Street, New York, NY
RSVP for Ramadan break-fasts: haf@highatlasfoundation.org
In an effort to keep you informed about our ongoing projects with communities, we will post "Notes from the Field" blog updates on a regular basis. We look forward to sharing our work with you, and reading your comments!
Imenane Valley
In partnership with the Global Diversity Foundation, HAF recently completed a three month participatory monitoring and evaluation program in the Imenane Valley. All nine of the villages in this valley, which includes approximately 3,000 people, participated in HAF's fruit tree agriculture program during the past three years (42,000 fruit trees were distributed 2006-2008). The evaluation brought associations and communities together to discuss the successes and challenges of fruit tree agriculture in the region, along with identifying other socio-economic and environmental projects the communities would like to pursue. In addition to using participatory methods, such as pairwise ranking and community mapping, the evaluation also included an empirical component in order to determine survival rates and health conditions of the fruit trees. Key findings include:
- The need for a community walnut tree nursery because a) walnut trees are hardy and can withstand cold temperatures and require little water; b) they have multiple uses beyond the nut itself (i.e., the bark and roots can be used for medicinal purposes); and c) the walnut tree can live many years, thus providing a long-term source of income for families.
- In order to increase agriculture yields, immediate attention must be given to improving irrigation methods in certain areas.
- Improved fruit tree agriculture training programs.
- Both men and women identified the formation of an iris cooperative as a desirable project. Irises offer an alternative to fruit tree agriculture for those families with little land available to plant fruit trees since they can be planted on the edges of fields. The iris plant has excellent earning potential in the local medicinal plant market.
- Women identified small animal husbandry (i.e., chickens and rabbits) as a desirable activity because they are easy to raise, and increase accessibility to eggs and meat in a remote region like the Imenane Valley.
HAF is currently assessing these needs and making plans for more community meetings where beneficiaries will work with partnering agencies to create action plans. Please check HAF's website soon for a complete summary of the report, along with a PDF of the full report.
Tifnoute Valley
During the months of August and September, HAF is meeting with communities in the Tifnoute Valley to evaluate the Kate Jeans-Gail Tree Nursery Memorial project (a community nursery of 60,000 fruit trees) and create an action plan for the distribution of these trees this winter. We are also meeting with communities to review technical plans for clean drinking water projects, and meeting with women to create a cooperative that will serve up to twenty villages in the region. Please check our website later this fall for updates on the Tifnoute Valley.
