Culture / Dakira

The USAID Dakira Program, implemented by the High Atlas Foundation and its partners, Fondation Mémoires Pour l’Avenir (FMA), Mimouna Association, Essaouira Mogador Association, Sefrou Association for Multidisciplinary Arts (SAMA), Fondation Miftah Essaad, and the Catholic Diocese of Morocco, aims to collaboratively develop and pioneer a unique participatory approach to the educational preservation of Morocco’s multicultural history.

 

The program encourages local communities to capture, preserve, and transmit their collective memories so that they are better equipped to take ownership of the revitalization of their own histories. This introspective, experience-sharing approach among local participants maximizes relationship building, leading to collective actions that improve livelihoods and a deepened discovery of Morocco’s multicultural identity.

 

The goal of the USAID Dakira Program is to explore and strengthen interreligious and inter-ethnic solidarity through community efforts that preserve cultural heritage in Morocco through two overarching objectives:

​

1. Enhance Religious and Cultural Preservation, Learning, and Social Cohesion

​

2. Support Initiatives that Promote Tolerance, Interfaith Dialogue, and Multiculturalism

​

HAF has identified, evaluated, and mapped more than 175 cultural heritage sites in various regions of Morocco; created over 50 educational and outreach tools for facilitators and participants of interfaith dialogue initiatives, including tour guides, students, and CSOs; engaged more than 150 schools and 1,500 children and youth in heritage learning activities; and engaged over 1,000 community members in intercultural, interreligious, and intergenerational community dialogue.