HAF TEAM & G4S BACK IN RHAMNA

By Alexandra Stein HAF Country Manager

G4S Morocco from all the company (from maintenance crews to the Regional North Africa Director) planted with community members and schoolchildren some of the 5000 trees G4S donated in honor of Earth Day.

We were quite a site, a caravan of eleven G4S 4X4s and a large bus in a line behind the modest HAF grand taxi driving the 50 kilometers from Ben Geurir to the Ait Taleb commune, also called Jamm’at ma berd, or the village of cold water. I felt very proud to be in the car with my fellow HAF team members, Project Manager Abderrahim Ouarghibi and Administrator Fatima-Zahra Larbi, leading this caravan to one of our big project sites.

Abderrahim Gahouane, HAF’s local community facilitator, greeted us upon our arrival in Aarbet, the village I had visited in September that convinced me quickly to come on board with HAF. Over the past three years, HAF has developed a special relationship with the local people, thanks to two major grants. The OCP Foundation generously granted HAF the opportunity to build drinking water systems, classrooms and teachers’ housing, and plant olive tree orchards irrigated by pressure-drip systems.

The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), a program of the US State Department, made this participatory development training possible through another development grant.

In the end, our group was welcomed by Abderrahim into his home, where a team led by his wife and sister cooked what I imagine was more than 15 pounds of couscous, fitting all 80 of us into their lovely home.

I look forward to returning to Rhamna, as I feel that HAF has a home there, as the projects implemented by HAF are essential to community development and the sustainable future of these communities. The changes that have occurred since we began our work are enormous, and HAF is honored to have the opportunity to continue to make a difference, thanks to our partners such as OCP, MEPI, G4S, and wonderful individual partners through GlobalGiving.