Earlier this month (week beginning 10 June), HAF met with representatives of the coalition of associations of Mohammedia (CAM). This meeting was an opportunity to strengthen our work with the coalition. The objectives of this meeting was to follow up on the status of CAM; to discuss the main elements of a press release text;

Dimanche le 16 juin, la Fondation du Haut Atlas en collaboration avec l’Association Argania et des partenaires de la société civile ont organisé un deuxième nettoyage collectif du cimetière musulman « Chouhada », le cimetière musulman le plus historique d’Essaouira. Cette activité fait partie de notre projet visant à réhabiliter les cimetières des trois religions à Essaouira, soutenu

On the evening of Friday, June 23rd in Washington, DC, His Excellency Aziz Mekouar, Moroccan Ambassador to the United States, and the Board of Directors of the High Atlas Foundation hosted a reception to raise awareness and support for fruit tree planting projects with rural Moroccan communities. The reception was held at the home of

This planting season HAF worked with rural Moroccan communities and its partners to plant 80,500 fruit saplings and trees – this represents the most trees we have planted in any planting season to date! As part of the Kate Jeans-Gail Memorial Tree Nursery we planted 60,000 saplings with community members in the Tifnoute Valley of

On the evening of Friday, June 23rd in Washington, DC, His Excellency Aziz Mekouar, Moroccan Ambassador to the United States, and the Board of Directors of the High Atlas Foundation hosted a reception to raise awareness and support for fruit tree planting projects with rural Moroccan communities. The reception was held at the home of

Please join High Atlas Foundation Board Members, Event Committee members and friends for Happy Hour at the Casablanca Tea Room (details below) on Mercer Street on Thursday, May 18th, from 6:00 to 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome. Please forward this email to anyone you think might be interested and rsvp to lafanning@hotmail.com. Hope to see you there!

This 2006 planting season, the High Atlas Foundation funded the planting of 5,000 fruit trees in the Rural Communes of Ait Mohamed and Ouirgane, in the Province of Marrakech.  About 100 rural families received the trees (almond and olive), which will generate transformative socio-economic benefits after six years.  Tree planting was ranked by these communities

With the planting season just around the corner, it is time to call out – Plant a Tree. Our project goal for this initiative (which also includes potable water) is an ambitious $500,000. Benefits for communities involved in this project include income diversification and employment, ecosystem restoration, technical capacity building, diversification of household diets, the

To all who were part of the High Atlas Foundation’s “Kick-off” Reception in New York City, we sincerely thank you.  We are thrilled to tell you that we had over 140 guests and achieved our fundraising goal – $20,000!  The proceeds will go towards an irrigation and tree-planting project in the Ait Wafqa Commune near

American Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco spend two years living and working at the local level – often in very remote areas. They live with families and create projects that meet the needs of the communities, in the areas of health and sanitation, maternal child health, agriculture, and environmental sustainability. A typical project might involve

Jason Ben-Meir and Liz Fanning traveled to Washington, DC, on Friday, July 22, 2005, for a series of meetings around the upcoming reception and gala events in New York City.  They met with Ambassador Aziz Mekouar at the Moroccan Embassy.  They updated the Ambassador on the progress of the reception set for September 15 at

On Friday March 18, 2005, the High Atlas Foundation, working in partnership with USAID, Morocco’s Ministry of Waters and Forests, and the Marrakech 21 Foundation, distributed 7,000 apple and cherry trees to ten rural villages in the Marrakech Province. US Ambassador to Morocco Thomas Riley provided the funding and critical leadership to the project. This

(EN) Protect Essaouira’s cultural heritage! HAF and partners will be working again in Essaouira’s “Chouhada” cemetery this Sunday 30 June. Come along from 10am! (FR) Préservez le patrimoine d’Essaouira! La Fondation du Haut Atlas, Argania et les partenaires vont travailler à nouveau dans le cimetière “Chouhada” d’Essaouira (près de l’hôpital) ce dimanche 30 juin. Venez nombreux à

In this world, people go through many things; some are good and some bad. But the memories stay with us. No matter how much experience we gather, the memories remain. The challenges people go through can change the way they think, feel and act. I know this because of what I experienced as a HAF

PRESS RELEASE Ouaouizerth Project: in love and honor for the spirit of the late U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) partners with the commune of Ouaouizerth, in the Azilal Province of Morocco, and the Adrar Cooperative to help the local community to achieve an agricultural development project. By the High Atlas Foundation Published:

On Thursday July 4th, 2013, the High Atlas Foundation held a conference with university students, members of civil society organizations (CSOs), representatives of government, and community participants. The event took place at the local Cultural Center and was an opportunity for the newly created Coalition of over 30 CSOs in the city of Mohammedia that

رمضان كريم July 10, 2013 was the first day of Ramadan this year, the greatest month of Muslim Lunar months; a month of repentance, and forgiveness, a month of compassion and giving. Ramadan was created in Islam not just for the sake of experiencing hunger and thirst, but to feel the billions of people in

By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, president of the High Atlas Foundation I have come to recognize a familiar feeling after ends of tree planting seasons, one of gratitude for what the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), communities, and partners have accomplished in rural Morocco, and at the same time a longing for what could be and will

On 14 July, HAF was pleased to welcome a group of US high school students, in Morocco to study Arabic to the site of our cultural heritage project in Essaouira. Over the last months, HAF and partners have been working to rehabilitate the Muslim, Christian and Jewish cemeteries of Essaouira. The group of 35 teenage students and their leaders, including Ms.

By William Nichols  F2F Volunteer  Land O’Lakes International I am a late career American businessman.  Currently I spend up to half of each year volunteering with NGOs in developing and middle income countries.  I assist across a range of business disciplines (marketing, sales, strategic planning, and organizational improvement.) Over the past eight years I have

At HAF we have had a very busy and successful few months. We are currently developing new projects and applying for funding to continue our work on sustainable community development in Morocco. However, it is useful to reflect on our achievements when considering the way forward… HAF has had diverse and sustainable achievements since it

By Hanan Ezaoui, Community Facilitator in Boujdour, High Atlas Foundation Marrakech, 15 August 2013: The National Holidays are memories of historical and political events in the Kingdom of Morocco.The Commemoration 34 of Oued Eddahab remembers August, 14 1979 – an important historical date for all Moroccans andparticularly the local people of Oued Eddahab, when the territory

21 August is Youth Day in Morocco. This article was written by Malika Kassi, HAF Project Manager, in tribute to Morocco’s young people. Community-driven and Participatory Development: Morocco’s Key to Sustainable and Equitable Growth One of the things that I discovered and recognized during my experience with HAF is the concept of participatory contribution to

Whilst researching participatory approaches to development during my second year at university, I came across the Center for Community-Consensus Building and Sustainable Development; a partnership of University Hassan II and the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Mohammedia. The Center takes a participatory approach to facilitating development in the city of Mohammedia which is central to

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is growing as fast as the hundreds of thousands of well-maintained walnut saplings we have planted in several regions of Morocco in recent years. The HAF is moving closer to becoming a large-scale creator of green-jobs in Morocco, while continuing to provide participatory training and development based on community-expressed needs

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) has launched the second year of its capacity building program on participatory democratic planning and project management in Mohammedia, Morocco – in collaboration with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Led by the HAF team in charge of the Center for Community Consensus and Sustainable Development at the Faculty of

“They say charity begins at home.  For the High Atlas Foundation, the first charity I have visited in Morocco as an ambassador for Global Giving UK, charity begins in the office. And this week it began with me. I have been utterly bowled over by the care and generosity I have received from every single

In my first week interning with the Center for Community Consensus-Building and Sustainable Development (a partnership of University Hassan II and the High Atlas Foundation), we had a meeting with a civil society organisations (CSOs) in the rural commune of SidiMoussa Ben Ali. In the second week, we had a meeting with representatives from a

(EN) HAF will present the outcomes of its one-year Essaouira cemetery project supported by the US Ambassadors Cultural Preservation Fund and the Association Essaouira Mogador on 1 October at 9:30am at Dar al Mouwaten. We will also discuss opportunities to continue the maintenance and outreach as well as possibilities for further cultural heritage projects in Essaouira.

Note: this article, by Asher Knafo, is currently only available in French. We hope to have it translated into English very soon. Pendant un an entre septembre 2012 et septembre 2013, la Fondation du Haut Atlas[1] (High Atlas Foundation – HAF) et ses partenaires ont réalisé un programme de préservation et d’entretien des cimetières musulman, juif et