On the evening of September 27th the High Atlas Foundation held its third annual reception at the French Institute Alliance Française. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was honored for his many contributions to Peace Corps and to international development. We had a wonderful turnout, which brought together former U.S. Ambassadors to Morocco, former Peace Corps Volunteers and Country Directors, Moroccan Embassy staff and government officials, and supporters from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Funds that we raised from the evening’s celebration will go towards supporting community development projects in rural Morocco.

The High Atlas Foundation is committed to the goals that rural Moroccan communities determine which consistently include potable water, irrigation, women’s cooperatives and fruit tree agriculture. This year, we planted nearly 80,000 fruit trees and saplings with communities throughout Morocco and have plans to at least double this number next year.

In a monumental step for the organization, we hired our first Country Director, Kate McLetchie (Peace Corps Volunteer, Morocco 2001-2003), who will move to Rabat at the end of October and manage HAF projects on the ground, starting with the One Million Tree Campaign. As a nonprofit organization founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers, it meant so much to us when Ambassador Holbrooke remarked that John and Robert Kennedy would be proud of what we have built out of our Peace Corps service.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support this special evening for Morocco. We would like to recognized our sponsors and in-kind donors without who this evening would not have been possible: Aydin Baltaci, the French Institute Alliance Française, Harris Rand Lusk, Moroccan Prestige, and Zerza Restaurant and Lounge.