French | Arabic (January 5, 2022 – Guercif, Morocco) The Al Khayr Women’s Cooperative with the support of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) held the Opening Ceremony for a new fruit tree nursery in the village of Maskarat, Ras Al-Qasr, Guercif province on Wednesday, December 29, 2021.The Governor of the Guercif province, Mr. Hassan Belmahi, participated in

By Abby Lohmeyer – HAF-UVA Intern When I think about my conversations with members of the High Atlas Foundation, I realize there are a list of challenges in Morocco’s development. Morocco has untapped potential. There is a plethora of smart, educated people who are willing to work yet are overlooked. Women across Morocco, unfortunately, fall

By Bouchra Zine The Farmer to Farmer (F2F) team visited several cooperatives in the Azilal province on December 16 to collect data, meet new hosts in Ait Iazza village of Afourer commune, and ascertain their activities and technical needs. Afourer Cooperative Afourer cooperative was created in 2011 by a group of local women for pickling

By Zineb Laadam HAF’s Imagine team has completed the Imagine workshop which was held under Farmer -To Farmer program in Berkane province in the oriental region for women members of four agricultural cooperatives from October 29th to 1 November. Empowerment through this workshop is ideally seen as a continuous holistic process with cognitive, psychological, social,

by Zineb Laadam HAF colleagues Houria, Hassan and I went to Chouirig Village in order to meet Daraa Lachhab Cooperative. Since cooperatives are enterprises that place people before profit, they uphold values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equity and solidarity. They practice honesty, openness and social responsibility in their operations. The Daraa Lachhab Cooperative was officially

By Fatima El Mrini Imagine Empowerment Workshop in Tiferki, Taroudant. Photo by: Fatima El Mrini, HAF HAF colleagues Rachida, Bouchra, Aicha, Hassan, and Fatima went to the village of Tiferki in the Taroudant province to carry out a women’s empowerment training course with women there. The IMAGINE workshops organized by the High Atlas Foundation are

Zineb Laadam, HAF Field Officer Women of the Nisaae Tinmel cooperative meet with the HAF F2F team The Farmer to Farmer (F2F) team visited the Nisaae Tinmel women’s cooperative in Tizaghrin village (Talatnycoub municipality, Al Haouz province, Marrakech-Safi region) in November. We spent an unforgettable day with 20 incredible women who shared their personal and

by Noah C. Kohlmayer, HAF intern In September 2020, the project of bolstering women’s development in rural Morocco was initiated. Since then, the project has shown great progress and results. It has been implemented within the AEIF 2020, which is coordinated by the US Embassy in Morocco. This project aimed to provide two groups of

Zineb Laadam HAF Field Officer Team members of the High Atlas Foundation managing the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program met two host organizations (HOs) in Laayoune Charkia municipality in the Oriental region and discussed with them how to collect data and fill out the baseline and Organizational Development Index (ODI) forms. The women’s cooperatives are “Laayoun

In this second installment of HAF program updates, we’re glad to share with you the latest on our collaborative work in renewable energies in Morocco. If you missed the first installment on tree planting, catch up here. Reminder: Tuesday, November 30 at 4:00 PM Morocco / 10:00 AM ET, we are hosting a one-hour event for you to be able

By Amina El Hajjami HAF trainers provided the first two days of an IMAGINE workshop on October 23-24 in the Tazart commune in Al Haouz Province. Twenty-four women from the Attahadi Association for the Development of Rural Women were in attendance. One woman commented, “As women in the Tazart commune, we are very strong and

By Julian Stoiber/HAF Intern Siahmed Hazel explaining to the women of Douar Lkdirat, how to establish a cooperative (Photo Cr.: Julian Stoiber) On October 25th, Programs and Office Manager Sanae Benaadim, Field Technician Mustapha Itihya, and Volunteers Timo Reinitzer and Julian Stoiber joined Siahmed Hazil from the Office du Développement de la Coopération (ODCO) in

By Zineb Laadam HAF Field Officer September 2021—The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) team members met with the TIGMMI cooperative members in Tissfan municipality (Taroudant province) to identify their needs and challenges. The TIGMMI cooperative was created in Tigmmi n’Targa village in 2007 by 17 women and 24 men, and was supported by the local Targa

By Sarah Whiteside HAF-UVA Intern Image Source: The Eudafano Women’s Co-operative in Namibia. Twitter, 19 Jan. 2021, twitter.com/unctad/status/1351485621186002944. Accessed 1 Oct. 2021. Namibia is a country situated in South-Western Africa along the Atlantic Ocean, and it is home to five characteristic geographic regions: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Caprivi Strip, the Kaokoveld, and

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

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 Sanae Benaadim Imagine Empowerment Facilitator HAF Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Thinking back to the beginning of my volunteering at HAF, I attended the first Women’s Empowerment workshop. I was an excited, conscientious, and avid learner who was motivated by understanding the unknown. I loved exploring myself using the IMAGINE workshop tools long after

By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir HAF President The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) implements the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) in Morocco. As part of this volunteer initiative team members visited the members of the Aguerzrane women’s cooperative located in the Toubkal Municipality of the Taroudant Province on Thursday the 8th of July. It was a follow up

By Samirah Jaigirdar HAF Intern – Student at Connecticut College As a person grows, they take on a societal identity which will dictate what they wear, how they act and speak, and how they feel about themselves in the context of their society. As gender is learned, it can be assumed that the cultural constructs

By Jasiah Hasan In the past fifty years, Morocco’s population has nearly tripled. Mass migrations and urbanization have pushed more than half of the growing population into cities, producing huge shanty towns. Residents lack access to clean water and sanitation services. Such barriers can lead to higher risk of waterborne diseases, such as malaria and

By Samirah Jaigirdar A fruit tree nursery managed by members of the Aguerzrane Women’s Cooperative in Morocco’s High Atlas, a project that has benefited from the expertise provided by the USAID-F2F Volunteer Program (HAF, July 2021). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to achieve

By Fatima Zahra Laaribi HAF Program Manager Twenty-three women from the village of El Kdirat in the Jnane Bouih commune of the Youssoufia province, participated in a four-day Imagine women’s empowerment workshop that took place between June 21-24. There are approximately 36 households in El Kdirat, the average size being between 6 to12 people. There

Aira Matin UVA-HAF Intern This word “development” is quite heavy. It is not just a matter of improving the economic conditions of a society, but of changing lives and trying to build a better present and future. As a student from the US, it’s valuable to recognize the position that countries such as the US

Education: the Key to Unlock the Door to Freedom, Modern Ghana. by Professor Ellen Hernandez On Saturday, June 19, 2021, Americans officially recognized “Juneteenth” as a national holiday. Most Americans understand the holiday to be a celebration of the end of slavery brought about by the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment. However, the day is actually

 Imagine Empowerment Workshop participants in Sefrou on June 1, 2021. By: Zineb Mellouki, Clinician, USMBA Legal Aid Clinic Over a period of four days, from June 1-4, 2021, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in partnership with the Legal Aid Clinic (CFJD), housed in the Faculty of Social, Legal, and Economic Sciences at University Sidi Mohamed

Imagine workshop participants in Sefrou, Morocco | June 2021 By Souhaila Rhaleb, Clinician, USMBA Legal Aid Clinic The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) organized a workshop in the beautiful city of Sefrou. This Imagine Empowerment Workshop offers the opportunity for participants to explore their goals and the challenges that hinder them, among other things. Two clinicians

By Fatima Zahra Laaribi HAF Program Manager, Empowerment Since its founding in 2000, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) has committed itself to offer its beneficiaries, predominantly women, training related to self-knowledge. This empowerment programming is implemented across Morocco. In total, HAF has conducted 38 such Imagine Empowerment Workshops that have impacted 900 women so far