Child Protection Morocco Project #8783

Improve Rural Moroccan Schools: Sami's Project

by High Atlas Foundation

Improve Rural Moroccan Schools: Sami's Project

Project Report | Jul 2, 2019
Hopeful Futures, 1 July 2019

By Caleb Tisdale | HAF Volunteer

Some of the kids want to travel the world. Some of the kids want to start a business. One kid wants to play soccer AND own a bakery. These are lofty and ambitious goals for juvenile delinquents. But not for the boys at the Center for the Protection of Children in Fes. At this center, along with 20 other centers in Morocco, young people dream of their futures - and there’s a good chance these dreams will come true.

Children are usually placed in the care of the Centers because of crime or unstable family conditions. But the goal is not to punish. It is to prepare them for reintegration with society. The staff at the Centers work hard to collect information about the children and create a report. This report helps a judge make the decision that most benefits each individual child. While under the care of the Centers, the children are given an abundance of education opportunities. Again, this is an effort to prepare them for reintegration with society by teaching important and employable skills. This includes classes, metalworking and painting workshops, and agricultural training at the Center’s tree nursery.

During our visit last week, we got to meet some of the boys. We asked them lots of questions about life at the center and what their futures look like. We even got to practice a little bit of Darija and told them where we are from and what we do. As we walked through the Center, the boys happily showed us their metalworking projects, the shop that they had painted, and the trees they had planted. They made sure to point out all the grapes, pomegranates, and olives we passed. We could tell they were proud of themselves. The nursery allows them to practically learn about the importance of agriculture. They learn how important trees are, watch them grow in the nursery, and pick the fruit themselves. By learning practically, the boys quickly become experts. They are encouraged because they know they are learning employable skills.

Thanks to the Center for the Protection of Children and partners like HAF, a marginalized portion of the population has an opportunity to become productive members of society. While these children may not have the brightest past, they have hopeful futures.

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Apr 23, 2019
HAF Enables Dental Care in the Marrakech Region with KIDS

By Clarisse ESPIL | HAF Volunteer

On Monday, April 22, 2019, the HAF visited three schools in the province of Rhamna in the Marrakech region, two in the commune of Aït Taleb and one in the village of Bouchan, this time with the theme of health. Which subject in particular? The oral health of children in the region, some of whom may require dental care and regular follow-up.

Today's mission was therefore for dentists on the move to observe the condition of children's teeth, and to determine whether or not care should be prescribed. This visit therefore made it possible to establish a range of children in need of care. The dentist Dr. Eli Davidyan from « Kids International Dental Services », his wife and their two sons came to Morocco and have been able to examine 600 children (323 boys and 277 girls) in just one day, which shows how successful the day was.

The association had already travelled the day before, this time to the Atlas Mountains. These two visits were a first step in determining what the material and quantity needs would be for the next visit, as the aim was to come back soon for this time to provide care for the children. We had the opportunity to meet with the city's municipality to discuss the next steps in the process. From this meeting, the idea even emerged of training several people from the village so that they could later perform simple dental treatments themselves, which would allow children to have regular follow-up on their teeth.

This day was quite impressive for me. The dentists observed so many children, that I felt I was witness of a successful challenge but I felt also that this day, and globally the entire project was really going to make a difference for the children of remote villages who will finally be able to benefit from access to proper health, at least for their teeth.

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Apr 22, 2019
Be environmentally friendly !

By Clarisse ESPIL | HAF Volunteer

On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, the HAF went to Tassa Ouirgane, a rural commune located in the Atlas Mountains 90 kilometers away from Marrakech to carry out an activity under the theme of the environment. The purpose of this visit in partnership with the United Nations Development Program was first to raise awareness of ecology among a young public, then to support them in collecting waste and finally to create a compost that they can then maintain in the municipality. This day was supervised and animated by Amina El Hajjami (Project Director) who was accompanied by Ilyas Ben Daoud (social network manager, photographer and film director), Fatima-Zahra Lahrire, Rachidelouah Soussi, and myself currently in internship with the foundation.

First of all, we were given a wonderful welcome by the women of the village who had prepared a breakfast for us. In the morning, Amina first focused on raising children's ecological awareness. She defined the concept of environment, asked the children about their knowledge on this subject and what it meant to them. They were then able to work together to find out what the causes were, what solutions could be found to these problems and also to consider how they could protect the environment, whether with small actions or more important ones. At the end of the presentation, the children were able to evaluate what they had learned and sign an attendance sheet, which was for them a synonym for making a commitment to the environmental workshops.

The first concrete action took place in the afternoon. Some children went looking for the best places to collect waste while we were preparing the material for the collection. All the children and ourselves then equipped themselves with gloves and garbage bags to collect as much waste as possible. The children were then able to see the large amount of plastic in the nature and all the garbage bags were filled at an incredible speed, as the children were bursting with energy and saw this action as a real challenge.

When all the garbage bags were full, Amina started a composting activity. She explained to the children the difference between all types of waste and asked them to collect weeds, bark and soil to start composting. The children were asked to guess whether this waste was composed of nitrogen or CO2. Overall, the children were very involved from beginning to end in all activities, both in terms of awareness and concrete actions.

This visit to Tassa Ouirgane was not the first since the HAF had already visited this commune before with agriculture as a theme. The aim now being in the future to create a women's cooperative in this commune in order to empower them in this theme and to create a responsible agriculture. It was a very rewarding day on a human level, and seeing how grateful children and young women were for the foundation's activities was a goal in itself.

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