Improve Rural Moroccan Schools: Sami's Project

The first tree planting day event I participated in as a new HAF member was very meaningful to me. I witnessed the greatest miracle of all. Life.

It was a perfect, sunny day. I met with the team members at Abdellah Oueld Bahia School to plant fig and pomegranate tree saplings.

We were welcomed with great enthusiasm by the administration personnel. We invited the students to join us in the activity. Hana, HAF’s Program Manager, explained the steps of planting fruit trees.

The first tree was planted jointly by Laarbi , the School Director Abdelaziz, and Hana. Next, the students were divided into six groups of 4 and 5 people, and each group was responsible for planting the trees following the method Hana had explained.

I was pleasantly surprised at that sight. The children were very excited; they were running all over the place. All of a sudden, the entire place was full of life. The liveliness didn’t stop for a long time.

The children were very meticulous with their work. They assembled in teams; some brought water, some dug holes, some brought the saplings, and some filled the holes with earth. The buzzing activity that filled the place seemed to me like a beautiful painting whose charm I am unable to describe. They were very excited to be a part of this project, they felt proud of themselves, and they knew they were doing something good for the environment.

Later on, Hajiba, HAF’s Program Director, and Mounia a small workshop about plant life and sustainable development in which they taught the children about the importance of events like this and gave them ideas and information about how to protect the environment. This workshop reinforced the children’s commitment to safeguarding the wellbeing of the young trees that were entrusted to them and their school.

This event had a special significance to me personally. I recalled how one day in the past when I was a student at this school. I met my previous teachers who have grown older under the merciless grinding of time, and so have I. I never dreamed that I would be able to return the favor to my old school. Yet, with the help of HAF, I did.

This event opened my eyes to the cycles of life and death. Time comes and goes, people come and leave, nothing remains but sweet memories and the few kind acts we do along the way. The ‘Life’ we planted in this school may not flourish today but decades later, it will bring its fruits.

The fruits I am talking about here are not merely the trees' fruits, rather, the true fruits are the children in whom we planted the right seeds.

These children will grow to respect their environment. They have learned the importance of Life: the life of the other life forms without which we could not live on this planet.

Climate change is a crisis that is looming on the horizon. It is a heritage of the Industrial Revolution that we, the youths of today, shall bear. Only through consistent tree planting efforts, awareness campaigns and movement to renewable energy sources, could we mitigate this crisis's disastrous effects.

On the 9^th of December, 2022, I visited the High Atlas Foundation (HAF). It was my first visit to the Foundation. I have never forgotten that day.

Before I went to the Foundation, I was all the time thinking about the building, the people who are working there. All the time I wondered about it even though I had some information through the HAF’s website. But I had a strong feeling that I had to pay a visit to HAF because of its noble and human objectives realised by the staff and president, Dr. Ben-Meir, based on sustainable development in Morocco. Its work rests upon the participatory approach, which sees local people participate in their communities’ needed development projects.

 I have first known about HAF on the 16^th January, 2017, during the annual celebration of tree planting that took place at a high school where I was working at the time. That was the first time I met Dr. Ben-Meir, and though we have kept in touch, I have never visited the Foundation because of my work.  I followed all the High Atlas Foundation’s activities because I believe in HAF’s sustainable development objectives and projects. For all these reasons, I have been curious to visit the Foundation and I finally did last December.

I phoned Dr. Ben-Meir to inform him about my arrival to the city and to agree about the time of my visit to the Foundation. We agreed that I would come to the Foundation at 1pm. I was first received warmly by Dr. Ben-Meir. He presented every member of the Foundation to me.

My first remark is that the HAF’s building is very simple and modest in comparison to the huge work they are doing all over Morocco. The wall’s colours are simple and reflect a warm peaceful energy and the offices of the staff are modest as the people working in them. The High Atlas Foundation’s staff reflects one of its main principles supporting cultural diversity. The people working at the Foundation are all sincere and nice. They all belong to different ethnic groups and different religious backgrounds. They are Americans and Moroccans, Jewish, Christians and Muslims, speaking various languages: English, French, Amazigh and Arabic. This variety mirrors their cultural diversity, which is amazing. Belonging to different cultural and religious backgrounds for one unified noble objective that is mainly helping and sustaining communities in need of help and such projects. They all respect each other’s cultural backgrounds.

When I arrived there was a Friday prayer, and I noticed that there are some members of the staff who were preparing themselves to go for prayer. It was really noticeable to me that the staff of the High Atlas Foundation was working at ease because while the president of the Foundation was moving around presenting me to the staff I noticed an exchange of respect but still friendly relationship between Dr. Ben-Meir and everyone. There is trust among all of them because his office was all time open; he didn’t close his office. Personally, I have really appreciated the relationship between him and other members of the Foundation. They were all working together as a beehive and that is one of the main causes of HAF’s prosperity as a non-profit organisation. There is a mutual respect though the multicultural characteristics of the Foundation’s components.

Since my visit to HAF, I have a strong feeling that I should participate and help at least in one of the Foundation’s cultural and sustainable development projects. I wish to pay another visit to the Foundation in the future.