By Hanna Tuoriniemi, HAF Intern and University of Michigan Student A community olive tree nursery in the Meknes area (HAF, 2022) On July 21, HAF’s President Yossef Ben-Meir spoke at the United Nation’s Series of Webinars on Landscape Restoration in the Arab Region during their Second Webinar entitled The Target Plant Concept and Ecosystem Restoration.

By Grace Gray, HAF-UVa student intern Rabia, Amit, Kaoutar, Grace. For the first few minutes of our conversation with law students from University Cadi Ayyad this June, these were the only words our group collectively understood: our names. I latched onto each one like an island amidst churning seas of less-understood Darija and English supplemented

Lede: In Morocco, most doors shed light on the country’s past and present. By Sabine Stratmann, HAF-UVA volunteer A door in Chefchaouen, Morocco. Photo: Sabine Stratmann/HAF Gazing at doors in Morocco is like time-traveling into the depths of Moroccan history. In medinas as well as the newer areas of the cities, both modern and centuries-old

By Abdelilah Ghmiza, YCC tree monitoring officer The City of Bouarfa, located in the Figuig province in the southeast of Morocco, became an important area when manganese was discovered there at the start of French colonization. The local people there, who come from the Bani Eguil tribe, began planting cumin in November and harvesting it

– Triangulating Peace: How a Synagogue Can Revitalize the Jewish Identity in Interfaith Morocco, The Paradise. By Addie Simkin Photo of the Church of the Holy Martyrs and the Mosquée de Guéliz, taken July 13, 2022. Have you ever had a million-dollar idea? One that sticks with you, whispering in your ear that if you

By Susana Fernandez Tuesday of this past week, I along with a few of my fellow interns at HAF got the opportunity to join the tree planting team and visit a location in the Al Haouz province. At this site they are planting almond, carob, and olive trees; in total 40,000 trees are going to

By Cyrena Matingou We spent two days this week in the mountains of Ourika Valley on vast plots of land. On Tuesday, we were more engaged with the tree planting team, and I genuinely felt I was helping further HAF’s mission, but Monday presented me with an invaluable learning experience. Abdeljalil Ait Ali introduced us

– Morocco: Religion, Women, And Police – OpEd, Eurasia Review. By Sabine Stratmann The acronym ‘ACAB’ spraypainted on a wall in Marrakech, Morocco (Photo supplied) Distrust in police institutions is an international phenomenon. Walking among the streets of Morocco, one may notice the occasional wall with the word ‘ACAB’, an acronym standing for ‘All Cops Are

A lesson from the farmers and trees of the al-Haouz province By Livie Nute, HAF-UVa student volunteer Grafted Carob Sapling, Photo by Livie Nute Never before had I sat with a branch in my hand and thought about what it means to sit with a branch in my hand. I tend to address branches with

By Ryan Winegardner, UVa/HAF student-intern The community members and the HAF team unloading and organizing the tree saplings (credit: Ryan Winegardner) There is a great horror and a curse that can sometimes overwhelm me while doing development work. It was maybe at its greatest when HAF visited Al Haouz province to plant trees with the

By Zoe Costello Figure 1: Jemaa El Fnaa at Night, Photo by Keely Fitzimmons, UVA student and HAF intern One of the most iconic sites of Marrakech is the medina, where the bustle and excitement of thousands of tourists and locals is prevalent daily. Rows upon rows of souks line curving alleys with merchants who

By Addie Simkin, HAF-UVa student intern On Monday morning, June 6, the High Atlas Foundation’s office was crowded with young people. Law students from the University Cadi Ayyad who work with the HAF’s legal aid clinic arrived to participate in an identity mapping workshop with the UVA interns. HAF’s Ikbale Bouziane facilitated our dialogue and

By Susana Fernandez On day two of our visit to Tiznit, the first stop was a school in a rural community that desired funding to improve its water infrastructure. The school has been working on improving the conditions of the school, with having new buildings and creating an agricultural presence on its school grounds. During

by Zoe Costello, HAF-UVA student intern How can you sum up a topic as broad as gender or race in 15 minutes? Is it possible to have such discussions with a large language barrier and between two cultures that have widely different understandings of the concepts? These are questions I pondered after completing a workshop

By Fatima Zahrae Lahlou As a student at the National School of Commerce and Management, I volunteered in an empowerment workshop under the supervision of the High Atlas Foundation in the city of Demnat. A women’s cooperative group led by Mrs. N. participated in the workshop. She is the one who contacted the members of

Ryan Winegardner, UVA/HAF student-intern The road to Tiznit from Marrakech runs through the mountains, a landscape that floats and rises and arcs like the mezzanines and cantilevers and walkways of what could only be a heavenly architecture. Over the red and rocky landscape, the mountains truly seemed to be the spires of fairy-tale castles, and

By Keely Fitzsimmons Cacti in the Souss-Massa region were devastated by the Dactylopius Opuntiae pest. Photo Credit: Keely Fitzsimmons This past Wednesday, I attended a virtual Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) workshop on how to use the SDG Impact Assessment Tool. SDSN member organizations from around the world, including the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), were

Addie Simkin HAF-UVA Intern On Monday I made couscous. That morning, we traveled to a HAF tree planting site to learn about grafting. Abdelilah taught us that grafting is important to the carob trees he supervises because when grafting, the farmer can select for the best flavor and the trees produce fruit years faster than

Zoe Costello HAF-UVA Intern While roaming through the winding hilly streets of the Tangier Kasbah, I made a friend. He was laying in front of a shop front as we walked by, with ribs protruding and matted dirty fur. The merchant shooed him away; sickly strays are bad for business. We all stopped to look

By Soukaina Kherdioui, HAF Dakira Cultural Coordinator    I still recall my first time visiting St. Andrew’s Church in Tangier on February 14, 2020: a totally unplanned, enchanting discovery on a sunny Friday afternoon. As new students who had recently moved to the city for graduate school, a couple of friends and I decided to

By Sabine Stratmann HAF-UVA Intern Three interns sitting across from me sparked a game to play. One girl suggested that the people around her should shout out random words, and that she would attempt to make a short story out of those randomly chosen phrases. The boy and girl next to her agreed to attempt

By Hanna Tuoriniemi, HAF Volunteer and University of Michigan Student The High Atlas Foundation is a beacon for multistakeholderism, contributing to the sustainable development of Morocco by promoting better lives for many. One method to classify the impact that they have had can be through positive business. According to the University of Michigan’s Ross School

By Hanna Tuoriniemi, HAF Intern and University of Michigan Student Water has a complex relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals. On one hand, water is a necessity that everyone deserves access to. However, water can also be dangerous in terms of climate change, when we experience an increase in flooding and hurricanes. How will we

    يوسف مزدو مساعد مديرة المشاريع – صورة حول اللقاء التشاركي – قامت  مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير مع شركائها – جامعة القاضي عياض، وجمعية العيادة القانونية للدراسات والأبحاث التابعة لكلية العلوم القانونية والاقتصادية والاجتماعية بمراكش – بفتح حوارًا  تواصليا عن بعد عبر منصة Zoom بالتنسيق مع العيادة القانونية بالناظور وبدعم من الصندوق الوطني للديمقراطية ، وبحضور طلاب

يوسف مزدو مساعد مديرة المشاريع   يشكل موضوع الصور النمطية في الآونة الأخيرة اهتماما واسعا بين فئات المجتمع ، لذلك قامت العيادة القانونية بجامعة القاضي عياض – كلية العلوم القانونية والإقتصادية والإجتماعية بتنسيق مع اتحاد العمل النسائي بتنظيم دورة تكوينية لطلبتها ، وذلك يوم 31 ماي 2022 في مجمع الإبتكار برئاسة جامعة القاضي عياض في

By Houria Chouhab, F2F Volunteer Technical and Field Assistant The F2F volunteer delivering a workshop to the members of Sanad Cooperative. Photo Credit: Houria Chouhab Until recently, quinoa seeds were not widely known in Morocco and only people who had worked with it before knew of its importance and value. In a needs’ assessment visit

بقلم عبد الحق الحيراني : طالب بسلك ماستر الدراسات القانونية والمدنية بمراكش نظمت العيادة القانونية بمراكش بشراكة مع جمعية اتحاد العمل النسائي بمراكش يوم الأربعاء 06/07/2022 على الساعة العاشرة صباحا بقاعة الاجتماعات بملحقة كلية الحقوق بمراكش ،  دورة تكوينية لفائدة طلبتها ،في موضوع :العنف ضد النساء؛مضامين القانون 103.13 تحت تأطير الدكتور زكرياء خليل أستاذ التعليم

تهدف مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير في إطار الاجراءات المتخذة لتعزيز التنمية المستدامة وبشراكة مع مصلحة خدمة الغابات والمياه الأمريكية  إلى تبني برنامج فيلق حماية الشباب ، للقيام بدور المحفز للتنمية على مستوى القاعدة الشعبية، في المجتمعات المحلية الضعيفة في جميع أنحاء المغرب، عن طريق تيسير برامج التنمية القائمة على المشاركة، على أساس وأساليب وتقنيات مضمونة النجاح

By Addie Simkin   When geologists drill core samples, they’re making historic records in the form of cylinders of ice that contain the climate conditions of hundreds of thousands of years ago. The scientists can select a point on a field of ice, drill into the earth to collect it, and from that sample understand the

By Zineb Laadam HAF Program Manager At first glance, Mrs. Nezha Bazzi, and Ms. Hassna Bazzi look no different from any other rural women in Morocco. They live in a far-away area called Tourit in the Chichaoua Province and lead a relatively common country lifestyle looking after their households. But, that is what appears on