Shivani Lakshman HAF-UVA Intern The Moroccan government recently laid out a new forestry strategy intended to meet five major goals: sustain natural resources in forests and National Parks, engage local users in forest management, promote rural development, strengthen forests’ productive potential, and preserve biodiversity (Ministre de l’Agriculture). By 2030, Morocco aims to restore 133,000 hectares

Karam-Yane Azzabi HAF Program Coordinator It was with great enthusiasm that we – Karam-Yane Azzabi and Mohamed El Kadiri – travelled to Ouezzane on March 12th, in order to distribute trees to schools in the area.  As soon as we arrived, we were received by the Provincial Director of the Ministry of National Education. Our

Recent trends reveal that pastoralists in the Maghreb region are turning to sedentary farming practices like agroforestry as nomadic herding becomes more difficult. This unpublished article investigates the causes for this shift, associated environmental impacts, and local responses. Volunteers plant carob and olive tree saplings as part of a community project with HAF in the

Ian MacPherson HAF UVa Student Intern Nov 5, 2018—  High Atlas Foundation facilitates a women’s IMAGINE workshop adapted for Moroccan cultural and religious practices. Deep relationships maintained over time and a global scope at a local scale characterize the participatory approach to development. Methods grouped under the umbrella of participation vary widely, and are formed

By Zineb Laadam Farmer-to-Farmer, Morocco Despite weakening bodies, with grey hair and clenched faces, these people are still closely committed to their work with all dedication and sincerity. Time has not weakened their spirits. Heaven did not bury them but rather made them warriors in the field. They love nature, and it loves them back.

By Zineb Laadam Farmer-to-Farmer, Morocco The High Atlas Foundation celebrates women’s achievements at the Aboghlo cooperative. In the darkness of every night, she raises her head to the sky, looks with her eyes at the stars, holds the shield of a soldier in her hands, and does not know what to do with it. Does

Sanae Benaadim HAF Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. Water is one of the most important resource management aspects that integrates the notion of sustainability in Morocco.The High Atlas Foundation is focused on spreading and strengthening sustainable development in Moroccan communities through several big and small projects.There are nexus cycles between three main elements/keys of life,

Zineb Laadam HAF Farmer to Farmer Field Officer The women of the Ghmat Division Cooperative have started producing honey thanks to our partnership with USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer program. January 7, 2021 – “Success stories,” a short phrase but with great meanings. This phrase was said by Errachid Montassir (Project Manager at the High Atlas Foundation) before

Kaoutar Ait Lahaj Social Media Program Coordinator On Sunday, February 20, 2021, the High Atlas Foundation inaugurated the solar water pumping system at our Akrich nursery. We are grateful to our partner FENELEC for donating the system and for their commitment  to promoting renewable energy solutions in Morocco.  On February 28, 2021, the High Atlas

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir Marrakech Participatory community movements found a contemporary impetus in post-World War II reconstruction of Europe and decolonization, primarily in Africa. The approach of locally managed change, however, was highly distrusted during these initial years, during which the dominant view was that central-level policy makers are in a better position than the people

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, Katie Bercegeay, and Sofia Ashooh A mother language is the language of the heart. This Mother Language Day the High Atlas Foundation celebrates the people of Morocco and recognizes the importance of human connection and understanding to achieve sustainable development. We are able to express ourselves in our mother language unlike any

Karam-Yane Azzabi, HAF Programs Coordinator High Atlas Foundation’s Karam-Yane Azzabi met with representatives from the Akhiam Association as well as farmers in the Imilchil Circle to discuss afforestation efforts and changes in local agriculture. It was with great enthusiasm that I hit the road to Imilchil from Marrakech. I knew that the road was long,

La HAF Célèbre La Journée De Plantation D’arbres 2021 Avec Le Peuple Marocain, World News, By Sanae Benaadim. • Arabic: World News, 11 February 2021. Sanae Benaadim HAF’s Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Caption: The High Atlas Foundation, led by President Yossef Ben-Mier, planting the first tree with a farmer in the Herbil commune to inaugurate

Elizabeth Jay Program Manager | Digital Strategist  Martin Luther King Day falls in the middle of the High Atlas Foundation’s tree-planting season, the most fertile time of year in Morocco. January 18, 2020 – On Martin Luther King Jr. Day that inspires volunteerism, the High Atlas Foundation celebrates its Tree Planting day. Annually, the Foundation

Meet Hajiba Boumasmar, Program Coordinator of the High Atlas Foundation, freskincare. The High Atlas Foundation The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is an American-Moroccan nonprofit that focuses on different areas: youth, women, water, capacity building, cuture, and agriculture. HAF’s work in the agricultural sector includes building tree nurseries, planting seeds, planting and distributing saplings and monitoring tree growth. HAF

بقلم : المتطوع لعريش امين قامت مؤسسة الاطلس الكبير بزيارة تفقدية مع بعض المتطوعين زيارة الى جمعية الجالية المغربية اليهودية المتواجدة بدوار اقريش بتمصلوحت وهي عبارة عن زيارة لدراسة ومعرفة مراحل تطور بعض الأشجار المثمرة ونموها، من ضمن هذه الأشجار المثمرة الخروب، الكرم، والرمان وهناك أيضا تم الاتقاء بمسير المشتل السيد عبد الرحيم باداح وقد قام بتزوبدنا

The High Atlas Foundation has a rich history of working with local Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities toward the preservation of cultural heritage. (Photo donated to HAF’s cultural project) The need to protect and conserve written Jewish archival material in Morocco has been identified for decades and grows more acute as the Jewish community resident

6 ways to #GrowWithUs this season Today's the day! Tree planting season in Morocco begins now, and we are busier than ever as we endeavor to plant the most we've ever planted with more people who stand to benefit. Over the course of 3 short months, HAF will transplant 1 million trees to farming communities and schools around Morocco

Here are six intercultural and interfaith projects in Morocco for which the High Atlas Foundation has full proposals. These projects will assist marginalized communities in meeting their livelihood needs, and embody the Moroccan government’s approach for integrating multiculturalism and local development: Restore four Jewish cemeteries (two in Marrakech region, one in Beni Mellal-Khenifra region and one

HAF USAID Farmer-to-Farmer team and F2F local volunteer meeting with Ms. Hind, the head of public relations for the Mejji Argan Women’s Cooperative, Essaouira province – Meiji rural commune Dec 17, 2020 The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) continues promoting sustainable economic growth, food security, and agricultural development in Morocco through the USAID Farmer-To-Farmer (F2F) program.

Morocco’s Multiculturalism for Sustainable Development, Scoop World, By Yossef Ben-Meir (HAF President). • Arabic: Arab Voice, 24 November 2020. • French: World News, 24 November 2020. One ought not to doubt the Kingdom of Morocco’s abiding sincerity in its commitment to the principles of multiculturalism and to the diverse identities that constitute the whole of this Islamic nation. This embracing on

Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, F2F Program Caption: High Atlas Foundation local USAID Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Hicham (green shirt) seen in the field COVID-19 impeded the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) due to travel restrictions preventing U.S. volunteers from traveling overseas. As a solution, USAID encouraged its implementing partners to create paired assignments, linking volunteer experts from the United

Caption: The invitation to the conference organized by the Center for Middle East Studies During the last week of September, the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University organized a conference on “Decolonization, Development and State Building in North Africa”. The panels were facilitated by Ph.D. researchers who are interested in the North African

HAF Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Caption: High Atlas Foundation, Tassa Ouirgane Nursery “Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.” -Kahlil Gibran I always believed that trees are the source of life for humans. HAF encourages the Moroccan

Caption: November 19th is the UN International Day of Toilets On the 19th of November each year, the United Nations celebrates the International Day of Toilets. This day is meant to raise awareness about the situation of 4.2 billion individuals who do not have access to hygiene services such as toilets and also showcase their

Errachid Montassir & Said El Bennani HAF Project Managers HAF staff member Hassan Ait Ouatouch  and HAF volunteer Houria Chouhab planting an Argan tree with the members of Mogador Argan Women’s Cooperative in Essaouira – 2019 Photo by: Ilyas Dkhissi The concept of gender as a social construct is often met with resistance. While attempts

Errachid Montassir at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the Climate Action Summit, September 2019. Errachid Montassir, High Atlas Foundation (HAF) Project Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program, won the Water and Energy Award at the Mediathon organized by AMWAJ, CEWAS and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Water and Energy ‘Mediathon’, a capacity-building event,

A wrinkled tree Analogy To care for the people or for your own wellbeing is by no means a contradiction to protecting the environment. While conventional agriculture ensures efficient food production, it still risks the health of many billion people by polluting ground waters, emitting CO2 and further reducing overall biodiversity. But strikingly, the dichotomy

The High Atlas Foundation relies on its partners for successful sustainable development projects. Public and private, local, national, and international – the agencies, companies, universities, groups, and individuals who support HAF make possible the fulfillment of its mission. By Yossef Ben-Meir The High Atlas Foundation would not have survived for the past twenty years without

Multiculturalisme et Unité : une alchimie dont le Maroc a le secret, Libération, Par Yossef Ben-Meir et Kati Roumani. Arabic version HOUSE OF LIFE est une initiative agricole innovante dont les implications sont profondes et ont un écho avec l’actualité mondiale. La particularité du programme réside dans son aspect interculturel. HOUSE OF LIFE organise le prêt