At midday today, following the singing of the National Anthem and the raising of the Moroccan flag, Mr  Abdelouahab El Jabri, the Governor of Essaouira Province, lifted the first spade of earth to plant the first of 23 olive trees in the grounds of Agdal Primary school in the commune of Ait Said, Essaouira Province.

We are pleased announce that the High Atlas Foundation has been selected to participate in the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Brokerage Event on Research and Innovation on 12-13 February 2014 in Cairo, Egypt.  The event entitled “Mediterranean Science, Policy, Research & Innovation Gateway” will be an opportunity for Project Manager in Al Haouz Province Malika Kassi to

Tree planting with the High Atlas Foundation for me became more than a number on a budget when I visited Rhamna Province and planted olive trees with my colleagues and members from the community back in 2012. It was a cold but sunny day, and the vast hill was spotted with people eagerly digging and

بعد إرسال إخبار للسيد عامل إقليم بوجدور، والسيد باشا الإقليم بمدة تفوق الشهر قام فرع مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير ببوجدور بنشاطه الأول  “مشروع سامي ..الأشجار من أجل الأطفال ” وذلك يوم 16 يناير 2014. النشاط كان تخليدا لغرس الشجرة المليون حيث  أنجز في أربع مؤسسات تعليمية بالإقليم إضافة إلى المجمع الرياضي،  بشراكة بين مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير

The 16th of January was an unforgettable day for me. In the early morning, Aicha Galef, a Program Manager of the High Atlas Foundation, and I left together from Marrakech to Rhamna to visit five schools: Oulad Ba, Ouladlhaj, the Educational Complex of Bouchane, DarTaliba and DarTalib. We celebrated this memorable event – HAF and

On January 16th this year we celebrated our successful planting of one million fruit bearing trees for the benefit of local communities at simultaneous ceremonies held across eight Moroccan provinces.  To date the campaign is estimated to have helped some 50,000 Moroccans take the step out of poverty. HAF is now poised to expand this

Program Manager Last week I had the pleasure of presenting HAF’s innovate social enterprise, High Atlas Agriculture and Artisanal (HA3), at the Agora MedSpring brokerage event held February 12-13 in Cairo, Egypt. Chosen as one of 15 idea carriers from throughout the Mediterranean region, HAF was given the opportunity to pitch its sustainable and eco-friendly business

Communities are ready and land has been granted. This is your opportunity to support the 2014 planting season! Make this season transformational for Morocco by donating to the High Atlas Foundation’s nursery projects.  Public and private partners have lent nine plots of land in nine provinces. Your help can provide seeds for community nurseries before the season ends

“The growth of women’s power and the sustainability of development are inherently tied together. Women have great potential to create and implement solutions to their community problems; these solutions often turn into opportunities for the socio-economic benefit not only of themselves, but of their whole families.” Malika Kassi, HAF Program Director of Al Haouz Province

photo credit: Al Akhawayn Univeristy Al Akhawayn University and the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), a nonprofit organization with offices in Morocco and the United States, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to create a community tree nursery on the Al Akhawayn campus. The nursery intends to be an organic agricultural space to promote human

by Safae Lacheheb, Project Assistant, HAF Mohammedia Team It is not my habit to write about topics related to gender, or to highlight the words “women” and “men”, and I will explain the reason. But lately I have been thinking a lot about the position of women in Morocco, maybe because during the past two

The High Atlas Foundation has been conducting participatory planning meetings with local communities in Boujdour province for most of the past year, where people’s voices are heard and action plans are created for priority projects.  As part of the participatory process, public-private partnerships are forged toward providing support for the community initiatives. HAF is pleased

World Water Day (22 March 2014) is a celebration of the gift of water in our lives and an opportunity to reflect on the importance of clean water for a healthy lifestyle and for socio-economic development. Celebrated since 1992 when it was launched at the UN conference on Environment and Development, this year the UN

It is spring of 2014, and we are a year and a half into the life cycle of our project in Mohammedia for training and capacity building in participatory democratic planning and project management with Moroccan members of civil society organizations and university students. When the program first started, its aim was to promote social

A cooperative is a social enterprise owned and run by its members. Whether those members are the employees, customers, or the local community, they share the profits and have an equal say in how the business is run. Cooperatives often enable underprivileged individuals to collectively compete in a market through democratic decision-making and joint-ownership agreements.

I decided to intern with HAF because I wanted to see their work in the field firsthand, and was especially interested in the role of handicrafts for income-generation since I had worked with a women’s cooperative in the community of Oasis Siwain in Egypt. I was keen to see the differences and similarities between two

Each year on April 7th, World Health Day attracts international attention to the world health issues. This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the serious and increasing threat of vector-borne diseases that are affecting millions of people worldwide among the poorest populations, particularly where there is a lack of access to adequate housing, safe

Through the incredible achievement of the 1 million tree campaign, HAF was able to pilot and roll-out a model of transformative rural arboriculture and irrigation which provided the training, start-up capital and confidence for 5,000 families to make the step away from subsistence farming and out of poverty. This is a success in itself, but

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!

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