Last week, several members of the HAF staff, the Aboughlou Cooperative, and volunteers from Austria Service Abroad met at the prospective nursery site in the village of Lakdirat in the Youssoufia province to talk about the agricultural aspect of the renewable energies pilot project there. The community is very interested and has several questions about the planting season and the process of promoting organic trees. We gave as many answers as we could and demonstrated how the potential nursery can be a source of providing trees in the future.

Then, we initiated a discussion with the women related to cooperative-building. I opened the discussion with an introduction and updates about creating the cooperative. Rachida, who is president of the Aboughlou Cooperative, shared her experience and story about how Aboughlou started. She described how it is normal to have some confusion in the process of establishing a cooperative. And she continued to share how, with support from HAF in the form of IMAGINE workshops and follow-up technical trainings, the women of Aboughlou feel empowered, rely on themselves, and are becoming an excellent example of a successful cooperative.

Rachida did not hesitate to talk about lessons learned and offer pieces of advice to the women as they embark on the creation of their own cooperative in Lkdirat. These women are focused and ready to work on the nursery, and they know how to prepare couscous. Rachida suggested they meet to discover what else they can offer to the cooperative — and to start work soon.

The women voiced a need and desire for literacy classes; it is a priority for them. An IMAGINE participant from Lkdirat, Houda, has agreed to teach them on a voluntary basis for the time being.

As the discussion came to a close, the F2F team asked them several questions related to agriculture in order to understand their technical needs, develop an assignment, and match a volunteer expert who can assist them to build their organizational capacities.

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Support the renewable energies pilot project in Douar Lkdirat this giving season.

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