المسار التنموي بالأقاليم الجنوبية: إلى أين؟, Cawalisse. By: Hana Ezaoui, Project Manager, Southern Provinces Development programs aim at helping specific regions thrive and attracting more foreign investors in order to boost the regions’ economic activity and overcome the development stagnation affecting several regions in the Kingdom of Morocco. But are Morocco’s southern provinces experiencing similar developments?

by Lahcen Ben Moula HAF Tree Monitor 9 October 2021—Monitoring trees in the Guercif province began in early September and continued throughout the month and into early October. These trees have been grown in the Guercif nursery and distributed to farmers by the High Atlas Foundation in coordination with local cooperatives On 9 September, 3,300

By Yossef Ben-Meir, Ph.D. President, High Atlas Foundation I had the opportunity, for which I am grateful, to visit together with Mr. David Greene, the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, the Jewish and Christian cemeteries in the incredible city of Essaouira. The day prior, we had launched with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) its new

Women’s Empowerment and Yoga in Rural Morocco and in Your Life, Indepth News. Catrin Waters An Imagine empowerment session in Morocco (High Atlas Foundation, 2021) Before you read this, I challenge you to pause and ask your body the question: how do you like the thoughts I think about you? When we make an active choice to listen to

By Sarah Whiteside, UVA-HAF Intern On October 11, 2021, the United Nations will be joined by other UN agencies, NGOs, and CSOs to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child to promote the advancement of female rights across the world. The origins of this global celebration began in 1995 at the World Conference on

By Hajiba Boumasir, HAF Program Coordinator, and Sanae Benaadim, Program Manager, Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator 2 October 2021—Step by step, Douar Lakdirat in the Jnane Bouih commune of Youssoufia will be one of the Moroccan villages to benefit from High Atlas Foundation (HAF) services and open for the new world, enhancing the socioeconomic and

Henry Prillaman On September 22nd, I had the pleasure of attending the World Resources Institute Cities4Forests declaration. City leaders from around the world came together to discuss their current methods of forest conservation and more than 50 mayors pledged to work for greater restoration of forests in the future.  The main panel of our leaders

French version Arabic version Essaouira – U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires David Greene joined H.E. André Azoulay, Senior Advisor to H.M. King Mohamed VI, at Bayt Dakira in the Mellah of Essaouira to launch a three-year USAID program aimed at recording and sharing hundreds of stories that capture the Kingdom’s rich multicultural history. This $3 million

By Aira Matin HAF-UVA Intern People entering the shrine of Sidi Yahya Ben Younes, or John the Baptist, in Oujda Photo by: Iznassen/Wikicommons Link: https://theculturetrip.com/africa/morocco/articles/morocco-home-sacred-christian-tomb/ Religious spaces offer a location of home, identity, and belonging. They hold particular importance for the Christian community in Morocco, where Islam is the overwhelming religion. Christians have often been

By Sarah Whiteside Alexander von Humboldt Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler (1843) On September 22nd, 2021, the University of Connecticut Office of Global Affairs and the German Consulate General Boston presented a discussion on Alexander Humboldt and his relationship to colonialism, imperialism, slavery, the lives of indigenous Latin Americans, and American abolition. Humboldt was born

Catrin Waters, UVA Intern Environmental Peacebuilding and the High Atlas Foundation partnered this past Tuesday, September 14th to present a talk featuring HAF’s president, Yossef Ben-Meir, as the main panelist. Environmental peacebuilding refers to the process by which conflict prevention and community resilience are aided by the management of natural resources. The organization presented a

جريمة الاتجار بالبشر بين الماضي والحاضر/ بقلم: فاتن بلكبير, Al-bayader. من فاتح يونيو وإلى غاية 4 يونيو 2021، نظم أعضاء فريق *العيادة القانونية بفاس*، بشراكة وإشراف من *مؤسسة الاطلس الكبير *، ورشة عمل بعنوان *”Imagine“* لفائدة مجموعة من النساء من مدينة صفرو  يعتبر الاتجار بالبشر من أقدم أنواع التجارة التي عرفتها المجتمعات الانسانية القديمة تحت

By Errachid Montassir HAF Program Manager This week, the Farmer-To-Farmer (F2F) team launched two different assignments in Beni Mellal region, aiming to enrich two local agricultural cooperatives and assist them to achieve their goals. The first host organization (HO) “Tamghart group” aims to value and promote Moroccan plants nationally and internationally through their cosmetics products.

By Jennan Al-Hamdouni I first arrived in Morocco in December 2011 to serve in the US Peace Corps as a development volunteer. I lived in Agourai, a small town in the Middle Atlas Mountains until 2015, when I returned to the States to complete a master’s in humanitarian aid and conflict resolution. The nature of

Creating and Codifying the Right to be Remembered, Global Research. • Arabic: Sot Al iraq, 21 September 2021. Yossef Ben-Meir, Emily Oksen, and Kristin O’Donoghue The Jewish cemetery in Tisfen – and its memory is fading – located in the Taroudant province of Morocco (High Atlas Foundation, 2021) It is human nature to wish to be remembered. We

Gabrielle Rosario We are in a climate crisis. Yet, the impacts of climate change will disproportionately harm marginalized communities, and in the Middle East, increasing surface temperatures and frequent droughts harm vulnerable populations. In fact, the Middle East warms at twice the global average, leaving cities uninhabitable and increasing the risk for heat-related illnesses. Increasingly,

Henry Prillaman HAF-UVA Intern All around the world, we have seen deforestation and overuse of fertilizers and pesticides that have led to degradation of the environment. Contrary to expectation, from the “Healthy Farms, Wealthy Farmers: Repurposing Agricultural Subsidies to Restore Land” discussion from the World Resources Institute, we see that subsidies have actually led to

By Sarah Whiteside HAF-UVA Intern On September, 10th, 2021, Beyond Tree and the US Forest Service International Program presented “In Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Challenge of Conserving Large Carnivores in the Una National Park and Mount Plješevica. Bosnia and Herzegovina, referred to as Bosnia for simplicity, is a small country situated on the Balkan Peninsula

By  Sami Kissai, HAF Volunteer “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” ― Nikola Tesla The Kingdom of Morocco has a reputation for its diverse climate and natural resources, among which is solar energy. In fact, Morocco hosts the world’s largest concentrated solar power

Gabrielle Rosario HAF-UVA Intern We often neglect the importance of trees in our daily lives, passively accepting their shade, beauty, and fruit as we walk beneath their leafy branches and sturdy trunks. Yet, to small farmers, just one fruit tree can help generate an income while also sequestering carbon and reducing society’s carbon footprint. Rather

Moroccan Decentralization: Towards Community Development and National Solidarity, Sais review sais Johns Hopkins. Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir first introduced us to development and decentralization in Morocco in 2018. In this new piece, he re-examines and updates Morocco’s progress towards sustainable development. Background on Moroccan Decentralization Decentralization in the Kingdom of Morocco—aiming to make unprecedented strides for people’s development

– USAID’s Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems, Indepth News. By Henry Prillaman HAF-UVA Intern I attended the 2021 pre-summit for the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, the Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems (AGRF). The forum consisted of many great speakers and commentators discussing different parts of African agriculture,

Youth Activists Are Leading the Way for Peacebuilding in Yemen, Al Bawaba. • Arabic: Sot Al iraq, 16 September 2021. Hanna Hassan HAF-UVA Intern Yemeni youth are among those whose lives have been entirely consumed by the six-year long civil war. This comes as no surprise as young Yemeni men and women represent more than 60% of

By: Mohammed Amine Jbilou, Student Clinician, CJFD Fes As a law clinician for almost a year, I have observed that the essence of a Legal Clinic for us is the way it works and the interest for law students to participate. What is a legal clinic? Inspired by the American legal clinic movement, the legal

Hanna Hassan HAF-UVA Intern My first ever class at university was called Comparative Politics, and for reasons I will explain, I don’t think it’ll ever be a class that I will forget. I remember walking into the mostly full lecture hall on the first day of classes, after having gotten lost in the building. As

Raghda Labban HAF-UVa Intern The concept of empowerment is one that is referenced quite regularly in academic and activist realms as it pertains to achieving equality for underprivileged groups. However, the term ‘empowerment’ is used so frequently that it has become difficult to ascribe a single definition to it or to create a definitive list

By Alyssa Underwood HAF-UVA Intern The global water crisis is caused by a scarcity of clean water available to people all around the world. Only 3% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and much of that is frozen in glaciers and icebergs. Globally, one in nine people lack access to potable water. This crisis will

Samarth Saksena HAF-UVA Intern In the recent webinar titled “Crops to End Hunger: Accelerating Seed Delivery through Sustainable Seed Systems” hosted by Agrilinks, speakers described the challenges, new approaches, and potential solutions surrounding commercial seed delivery in developing nations in Africa. Some of the panelists had recently developed a whitepaper making recommendations on how to

By Noah Ginsburg Have you ever heard the story of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? The Journey follows four children in their quest through the magical land of Narnia where they face countless challenges and meet many fantastic creatures. The story begins when the children step into the closet and open a secret

– The Significance of the New Signage at the Ouarzazate Tree Nursery in Morocco, The Policy Times. By Yossef Ben-Meir Marrakech Twenty-seven years ago, I lived in a village called Amsouzerte in the Tifnoute Valley, the south side of the High Atlas Mountains, closeby to the burial location of the Moroccan-Hebrew saint David-Ou-Mouche. The Tifnoute