We at HAF are so very excited and grateful for this new funded initiative to secure organic certification of almonds and walnuts for family farmers of the High Atlas Mountains, beginning in the Tifnoute Valley of the Rural Commune of Toubkal. Please read about HAF’s project and other winners here – who all combine non-profit missions and

On September 25, the president of the High Atlas Foundation Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, the vice president Mr. Larbi Didouqen, and myself (Ms. Ouafa Elbargui, HAF’s center coordinator) left Marrakech to Rabat, then travelled together with representatives of Kosmos Energy Morocco, Amideast, and the National Office of Hydrocarbon and Mines to Ifrane for the purpose of

The High Atlas Foundation is proud to partner with the Musicality Club at Carnegie Hall for an evening of classic music performed by the blossoming Moroccan pianist, Rita Saher. HAF embraces this unique opportunity to celebrate Moroccan talent in New York, bringing attention to HAF’s development projects in Morocco and reaffirming its strong ties across the

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 was a very hard day to say goodbye to my family, the people I love most in my life. I travelled from Ait Ourir to Marrakech at noon for the Supratour (Autobus) to Boujdour, which would depart at 2:30pm. The autobus was delayed for two hours and we left Marrakech at 4:30pm.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 I discovered a new district called “Alkhair’ where most of the local Saharawi people live.  After getting my bearings again, I finally decided to take the main avenue to return back.  I prayed and did some readings.  Then I went to the principle market of Boujdour city “Sawiqa”, about 1 kilometer

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 The meeting with Mr Abdelkarim, the president of the Division of the Interior Affairs at the local Government of Boujdour Province “Alaamala, ”was productive, but I still had a great deal to learn and understand about Saharawi culture before hosting community meetings. Boujdour Province is divided into four communes: Boujdour municipality

  This week, I conducted community meetings in Al Haouz provice with locally elected women who I identified with support of community leaders. The purpose of these meetings is to train women on how to be leaders in their community for a project sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy. In this regard, HAF is

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 I first saw the operations of civil society agents of Boujdour Province at the workshop room at the Associative Space, where the INDH training started on Tuesday. Wednesday was the second day of the first training session, which was organized by Boujdour Province within the framework of INDH and in implementation

The High Atlas Foundation participated in a benefit concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on Saturday evening, December 14, 2012, given by virtuoso pianist Rita Saher. Rita, who is originally from Casablanca and began studying piano when she was ten, treated the large and appreciative audience to works by Mozart, Schubert, Poulenc, Albéniz, and Falla; and she responded with

I was pleased to receive a call from Mr Brahim, a member of an association for “education and development” in Boujdour city this morning. He invited me to go to visit their association to learn about its activities. In the afternoon, I went to meet Mr Brahim at L’Entraide Centre Nationale (National Solidarity Center) with which they

Wednesday was an amazing day.  A day full of possibilities and adventure for the HAF Interns we have been training, as well as for our professional staff.  The training was.  The High Atlas Foundation’s MEPI program in Mohammadia had its first large scale – 65 people – meeting and training (held in the main auditorium

   Azul La Luz, PhD., CCHt, Curriculum Specialist, High Atlas Foundation Mohammadia, Morocco It happened again!  Except this time it was twice as great and full of even more excitement than the last time.  The second large MEPI training of students took place in the auditorium of the University of Hassan II in Mohammadia.  This

A blog from Fatima Zahra Laarbi, HAF’s Administrative Assistant انطلاقا من تجربتي الشخصية التي دامت شهرين بمؤسسة الاطلس الكبير اكتشفت ان هذه الاخيرة تسعى الى تكريس مبدأ تنمية العالم القروي ،و خدمة الفئات الهشة فى المجتمعفالمؤسسة هي مؤسسة تقوم بأعمال خيرية محضة دون السعي الى الكسب ، هذه الاعمال تولد لك الاحساس بالسعادة نظرا لأنها تساعد المحتاجين اولا و تساهم في تنمية المغربثانيا و لأنها تخدم الانسانية كافة هذا المبدأ الذي يتماشى مع الفطرة السليمة. فيما يخص عملي بمؤسسة الاطلس الكبير جعلني اعيش تجربة فريدة يغلب عليها الطابع الخيّر المتمثل في اعانة الاخر.فضلا عن التكوينات المستمرة التي تمد جسور الخير والتواصل هده الاخيرة التي تساهم هي الاخرى في تكريس مبدأ الخير المتبادل، فعلى سبيل المثال لا الحصر حضرت احدى التكوينات المستمرة حول المقاربة التشاركية التيكانت بمقر المؤسسة ابتداء من 22 نونبر الى غاية 24 منه فسجلت مجموعة من المواقف اهمها هيمنة العمل النبيل على العلاقات العملية بين اعضاء المؤسسة فضلا على ان هذهالتكوينات لا تنمي العالم القروي فحسب بل تنمي ايضا القدرات الشخصية لكل فرد عامل بالمؤسسة فالإحساس الدى يراودني و انا أؤدي عملى بالمؤسسة اشعر انني انمي قدراتيالشخصية وأساعد على تنمية بلدى فبالرغم من ان هذه المؤسسة صغيرة إلا ان اهدافها كبيرة و تحقق مشاريع اكبر فمؤسسة الاطلس الكبير تقوم بمجهودات جبارة تجعلك تعيش احساس السعادة هدا الاحساس الذي يكبر مع نجاح كل مشروع تنموي انساني لكن هذه المجهودات ليست وليدةالصدفة بل هي ثمرة تكتل كل اعضاء المؤسسة خاصة رئيس المؤسسة السيد يوسف بن مير و السيد عبد الرحيم ورغيدي اللذان يحرصان دائما على اداء المهام بكل اخلاصوتفان و اتمنى المزيد من التألق و العطاء لهذه المؤسسة و ان تكون سنة 2013 سنة ازدهار و نجاح.

Advancing Participatory Democracy A Training Program in Partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is organizing in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) an experiential participatory training program for the locally elected women (LEW) to communal councils in the AL Haouz province.  The purpose of the training program

   Azul La Luz, PhD., CCHt, HAF Curriculum Expert Mohammadia, Morocco Happy New Year, may it be a wonderfully growing experience for you.  It has begun that way for me at the third MEPI training that took place in the auditorium of the University of Hassan II in Mohammadia.  The five Student Interns conducted the

English بعد  انتظارطويل، استطاعت منظمة الاطلس الكبير أن تؤسس فرعا لها  باقليم بوجدور. هذا الفرع الذي كان سببا  لي في عمل عزيز على قلبي وهو العمل التنموي في القرى المنسية، وبالتحديد باقليم بوجدور الذي ـ وبالرغم من كل ميزاته الجغرافية ـ يعرف نوعا من التهميش. بعد الحصول على الوصل المؤقت سمحت لي الظروف بالعمل  مع

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

The High Atlas Foundation Marrakesh, Morocco The High Atlas Foundation is delighted to announce that our founder and president, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, has joined the board of the prestigious EuroMedA Foundation, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The foundation was founded in 2017, and seeks to establish shared cooperation, and unity in the Euro-Med region

By Ramzi Talbi 29/06/2016 My passion for the outdoors and for the protection of the environment drove me to apply for my second Patagonia Environmental Internship. This is an amazing program that allows us at Patagonia to leave our regular roles and work for the environmental group of our choice for up to two months while

14/06/2016  Working in the development aid sector requires passion and the will to do something great.  It also requires time and a huge amount of work! This month, we are celebrating all the hard work that our interns here at HAF accomplish. We wish to thank all the wonderful interns that spend their time, effort

By: Ramzi Talbi Our most recent adventure with High Atlas Foundation (HAF) was thirty kilometers from Marrakech. The Ourika Valley is home to one of HAF’s nurseries, located on the land of Lhaj Abdlekbir by the Ourika river. The nursery is maintained by women of the Aboghlo cooperative, a group of local women who strive