Hajiba Boumasmar HAF Monitoring Officer For the entire day at the headquarters of the High Atlas Foundation in Marrakech, a meeting took place with HAF’s nursery caretakers, together with HAF’s President Yossef, Director of Projects Amina, Project Manager Said, and Monitoring Officer Hajiba. As part of the 2020 project to plant in 11 nurseries 1.2

By Nora Martetschläger HAF Intern Last week, I had the chance to experience part of developing our new HAF tree nursery. Together with my colleagues Amina and Said, I traveled around 200 kilometers from Marrakech to Ourzazarte, to meet relevant stakeholders of the new project at the governor’s office. The new HAF nursery will be

By Karam Yane Azzabi HAF Project Manager As part of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) project activities, Imane and I – respectively the OES project manager and the OES coordinator in the High Atlas Foundation –  went to the Mohammed VI Technical High School in Marrakech on Friday 27th of

By Kerstin Opfer HAF’s Operations Manager We are living in a time where humankind faces an unprecedented challenge – it is the warmest it has ever been on earth since human presence. The dangers of climate change are known since the 1980s but a lack of will and societal awareness has inhibited the necessary vigorous

By Yaniv Teitel HAF Intern Last Friday, I had the privilege and honor to conduct a workshop for the High Atlas Foundations staff members which I tentatively titled “Feminism & Masculinity”. The workshop was a pilot for a larger program that will hopefully start soon – an empowerment workshop for men from rural areas in

– آن ماري ديل كاستيلو تكتب: من الرمان إلى عصير الرمان, Non Online, 10 December 2019. By Anne Marie Del Castillo Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer As a retired agricultural economist, I participated in the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Morocco, administered by the High Atlas Foundation. F2F’s main goal is to generate sustainable, broad-based

By Anna Ugolini HAF Volunteer On November 20th the International Day of Childhood and Adolescence Rights is celebrated throughout the world. The date reminds us of the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of Children and Adolescents and more than 190 countries have ratified it. The

HAF intern Last week I got the chance to take part in some of the program of the Alumni Seminar. From the 6th to the 10th of the November, 55 youth from all over Morocco who participated in the different U.S. Embassy exchange programs met at the Hotel Dar Atlas in Marrakech to share their

By Imane Akhezzane HAF Project Manager United with a common purpose and with the best interest of the Moroccan community at heart, board members of the High Atlas Foundation, its founding President, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, and guests had the opportunity to meet during a fundraising ceremony at Villa Sbihi in Salé, on Saturday October 19,

By Nora Martetschläger HAF intern From October 2019 to April 2020, HAF will have the pleasure of hosting eight interns from the University of Michigan who will participate in the Global Scholars Program (GSP). They will support HAF in addressing one of its major challenges for the future: developing a green bond to attract global

By Imane Akhezzane Project Manager The Small Grants project of the High Atlas Foundation, which is funded by the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs within the U.S. Department of States aims to encourage the development of innovative, sustainable environmental projects that encourage local sustainable resource management and engage civil society to

Written by Khomenko Ekaterina HAF Volunteer Land degradation is a large issue for Morocco. The Atlas Mountains dominate the central part of the country, explaining why much of the landscape is mountainous with slopes that gradually transition into plateaus and valleys, which are very dry during the summer. Even such, dry areas can be made

By Isabel Clark World Challenge Team Member As part of my World challenge trip to Morocco I was expecting to work on a local initiative in the Tizian village but I never realised how rewarding the experience would be. On the 7th of July my World challenge team and I said ‘Salam’ to Morocco. We

By Hajiba Boumasmar HAF Intern I had the pleasure of accompanying Said, HAF Project Manager; Hassan, an assistant; and Tobi, a teacher at United World Colleges, on two nursery visits in the Marrakech region. As someone who has always been passionate about agriculture and the environment, the nursery visits had a positive impact on my

HAF Intern, UVA student What is scalability? At its core, scalability is expansion, and often unlimited expansion without the need to redefine any of the fundamental elements. Such a concept enters the field of development when discussions of projects, organizational capacity, and networks center around expansion. The number of communities that participate in a women’s

Hajiba Boumasmar HAF Intern, University student Nous avons visité deux pépinières de la région de Marrakech, Cette visite a eu un impact positif sur le choix de la Fondation du Haut Atlas de continuer ma carrière professionnelle après l’obtention d’un Master en biotechnologie et développement durable des agro-ressources. Je suis toujours passionnée par l’agriculture et

On July 26, 2019, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), was invited by AFCD Foundation in Ait Ourir as a leader to give a talk about HAF’s scope, activities, and approaches to sustainable community development. The talk, which was one hour long, is a part of the agenda of a workshop

– Agricultural Literacy: A Solution to Youth Idleness and Unemployment, Global Research, By Anya Karaman (HAF Intern),  27 July 2019. • Arabic: Al-Watan Voice, 1 August 2019. Field work for youth: How getting their hands in the soil could help young Moroccans land a job. At a juvenile detention center in Fes, it feels like summer camp is all year round. There, “maximum

– ‘Without Health, We have nothing’: Need for holistic Sustainable Development in Morocco, Devdiscourse, By Fariha Mujeebuddin (HAF Intern), 01 August 2019.  • Arabic: Al-Watan Voice, 6 August 2019. After a windy uphill journey to Aguerzran, a small village nestled within the High Atlas Mountains, we reached the building where we would be conducting workshops. The small rectangular building,

By Said Bennani HAF Project Manager As a High Atlas Foundation (HAF) Project Manager, my main objective is to work with Moroccan communities and HAF nursery caretakers—of more 13 nurseries around the country—to ensure proper care of the trees, from the time we plant a seed until it becomes a seedling. In partnership with Ecosia,

Errachid Montassir HAF project manager “The world is facing a grave climate emergency – disruption is happening now and faster than top scientists predict,” The UN Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres also made an impassioned call for greater support to help develop the green economy. Abu Dhabi hosted the Climate Meeting on June 30th and July 1st,

Alissa Brenn HAF Intern, graduate student On a sunny Friday morning, the High Atlas Foundation took us on a field trip to the village of Tassa Ouirgane in the Al-Haouz province. Our small but very international group consisted of students from the George Mason University in Virginia, student volunteers from all over the world, and

HAF Intern, UVA student Something I have been thinking about is the relationship between top-down and bottom-up development. Community-led, participatory development plays an undeniably important role in global development within economic, political, and social spheres. I’ve seen HAF initiate local economic development through cooperative building and agricultural support for rural farmers; grassroots political movements can

Morocco is on its way to being the hub of solar energy in Africa. Brooklyn Wenbo Wu HAF Intern Promoting the use of solar energy is an effective way which not only provides more access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, but is also a feasible method to address climate change. However,

SANAE BENAADIM HAF VOLUNTEER On the 15th of June, the team left HAF office in Marrakech in the morning toward Anamer village in Seti Fadma commune which is about 55 km out of the Red city. The team included Said El Bennani, HAF’s Project Manager, and Hassan Ait Ouatouch, HAF’s Project Assistant, Ilyas Dkhrissi (social

By Amine Fattas HAF Volunteer The rendezvous point was the HAF office. I came early and got to meet the whole team. There were two groups: UVA Students who are in Morocco on a research program and with whom I shared a bus, and the Envoys, high schoolers who were on a school trip. As

By Fatima ZAHRA LAHRIRE HAF Volunteer In order to promote and preserve the multicultural past that Morocco is known by, HAF has taken immediate action in partnership with local communities. These actions aim to protect the endemic tolerance and peace in Morocco and the long coexistence between the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. The mission

Peter Wu, HAF Volunteer Essaouira may stand as a great example to the world for how religious diversity should prevail: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities have historically co-existed in Essaouira peacefully. While other regions of the world are endlessly fighting over religious matters, it is both interesting and delightful to observe how the Essaouira people

– The Next Step for Cooperatives Is Certification, The McGill International Review, by Amy Zhang (Undergraduate student and HAF Intern), 12 July 2018. • Arabic: Al-Watan Voice, 13 July 2018. By Amy Zhang Marrakech This week we celebrate the United Nations International Day of Cooperatives, commemorated every year on the first Saturday of July. Cooperatives’ success in sustainable development,