{"id":1329,"date":"2018-10-31T15:21:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T14:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/didouqen.com\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2021-02-17T10:49:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T10:49:29","slug":"between-despondency-and-hope-in-moroccos-oriental-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/between-despondency-and-hope-in-moroccos-oriental-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Despondency and Hope in Morocco\u2019s Oriental Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013 Between Despondency and Hope in Morocco\u2019s Oriental Region,<\/a>\u00a0The Perspective<\/strong>, by Elle Houby (HAF writer), 29 January\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02016.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0On the fringes of the Saharan desert, skirted by the rocky coastline of the northern Maghreb\u00a0where it meets the blue Mediterranean, lies the Oriental region of Morocco. Nestling within an\u00a0often verdant, predominantly mountainous terrain is Oujda, the largest city in the northeast of\u00a0the Kingdom and the region\u2019s administrative capital, with a\u00a0population of around\u00a0<\/a>550,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oujda has known prosperity under a variety of rulers over the centuries, owing to its strategic\u00a0location at the crossroads of an intricate web of trans-Saharan\u00a0caravan routes, near the border\u00a0with Algeria, and at the meeting point of the Moroccan and Algerian railway systems. In\u00a0consequence, the city has developed a cosmopolitan, progressive, and adaptable character.<\/p>\n

It remains a bustling metropolis despite hardship– the\u00a0Rif is the most economically\u00a0disadvantaged area of Morocco, with the\u00a0closure of the Moroccan-Algerian\u00a0border in 1994\u00a0making a particular impact.\u00a0Since 2003, there has been official encouragement to revitalize the region; with the increase of\u00a0tourism along the Kingdom\u2019s northern coast, promising mineral deposits and agricultural\u00a0prospects to the south, and the improvement of regional transport infrastructure, there is\u00a0clear\u00a0potential<\/a>\u00a0for Oujda\u2019s economy to flourish.<\/p>\n

Forests constitute one of the many local economic and natural resources, with the Rif region\u00a0receiving more rainfall than any other in Morocco. Yet the ecology is endangered due to\u00a0wide-scale deforestation that has taken place over the large century due to overgrazing, forest\u00a0fires and land clearing for agriculture, particularly for the creation of illegal but highly lucrative\u00a0cannabis plantations. The process is part of a vicious circle of soil degradation and the washing\u00a0away of topsoil that not only threatens a unique area of the Kingdom but also has wider\u00a0ramifications<\/p>\n

Similarly, the youth of the Oujda Child Protection Center (OCPC) represent a microcosm of the\u00a0potential for growth and opportunity and\u00a0sadly, too, for the opposite not\u00a0only in the Rif and in\u00a0Morocco, but far beyond. The Middle East and North Africa region is home to the\u00a0highest rate of\u00a0youth unemployment<\/a>\u00a0in the world, but for the eighty young men, aged 12 to 18, who find\u00a0themselves at OCPC, a new partnership with the High Atlas Foundation means growth and\u00a0opportunity could be just on the horizon.<\/p>\n

They find themselves at OCPC for a multitude of reasons, but share two things in common. \u201cThe\u00a0children\u2019s presence in protection center is court-ordered,\u00a0as they have committed a felony\u00a0punishable by law,\u201d OCPC Director M. Ali Baidou explains. \u201cHowever, they all desire to be\u00a0reintegrated with the rest of the world, with access to the labor market to help themselves and\u00a0their families.\u201d To ensure that the youth of the center do not fall into harmful behavior patterns\u00a0upon release, they require opportunities at OCPC to make time spent there, a more positive and\u00a0productive experience.<\/p>\n

Activities associated with the land, such as gardening, have long been appreciated for their\u00a0therapeutic effects and incorporated into healing programs. Similar, progressive schemes are\u00a0taking place in prison settings, with\u00a0preliminary\u00a0<\/a>research<\/a>\u00a0indicating a clear correlation between\u00a0participation in the program and a lower rate of recidivism. As well as plant raising,\u00a0activities<\/a>\u00a0may include preparing and consuming the fruit and vegetables (resulting in an improved prison\u00a0diet) or in\u00a0a powerful and indeed potentially empowering form of social justice distributing\u00a0them to local disadvantaged families, often with backgrounds similar to the prisoners\u2019 own.<\/p>\n

The transformative power of seeds is something that the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) knows\u00a0well. Founded in 2000, HAF aims to be a catalyst for grassroots development in vulnerable\u00a0communities throughout Morocco, by facilitating participatory development projects, of which\u00a0one of the most commonly identified is fruit tree agriculture. Since its inception, HAF has planted\u00a0over 1.3 million organic, indigenous fruit trees and medicinal plants in 13 Moroccan provinces.\u00a0In 2014, it embarked on its\u00a0One Billion Tree Campaign<\/a>\u00a0that embraces\u00a0Sami\u2019s Project<\/a>, a junior\u00a0educational initiative. As a whole, the scheme aims to support the Kingdom in its bid to\u00a0overcome subsistence agriculture, which lies at the root of rural poverty, and to offset severe\u00a0environmental challenges including soil erosion and deforestation.<\/p>\n

In keeping with standard HAF practice, OCPC youth were fully involved from the outset,\u00a0participating in community meetings under the aegis of HAF trained\u00a0facilitators and deciding on\u00a0a project that included vocational skills and agriculture. Through the establishment of a fruit tree\u00a0nursery producing a total of 400,000 almond, fig, olive and pomegranate seeds, OCPC youth\u00a0will learn the intricacies of arboriculture through the entire value chain from seeds to sales. In\u00a0this way, they will be provided with an immediate outlet and tangible sense of accomplishment\u00a0as well as an enhanced employment skill set in the long term.<\/p>\n

Upon asking HAF President Dr. Yossef Ben Meir\u00a0\u201cwhy trees?\u201d, the response contains an\u00a0unmistakable passion, stemming from the conviction of experience. \u201cMorocco needs to grow a\u00a0billion trees and plants and to empower its disenfranchised youth. We can do both at once,\u201d\u00a0explains Ben Meir\u00a0from HAF\u2019s southern home base in the ochre city of Marrakesh. \u201cEstablishing\u00a0nurseries at youth centers and equipping our young with the skills necessary to comprehend\u00a0and participate in the entire agricultural value chain assures their best chance of a successful\u00a0future and meets the essential needs of rural Moroccans.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the eighty young men at OCPC, an organic tree agriculture project in their backyard may not\u00a0solve everything, but it\u2019s a highly promising beginning. Further, if this pilot scheme, successfully\u00a0implemented, were to be replicated on a national scale, it would have the capacity\u00a0simultaneously to bring vital benefit to the economy and the ecology of the region and stimulate\u00a0an unprecedented level of change among Moroccan youth, breaking through the outer husk of\u00a0despondency and allowing hope to flourish and prevail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013 Between Despondency and Hope in Morocco\u2019s Oriental Region,\u00a0The Perspective, by Elle Houby (HAF writer), 29 January\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02016. –\u00a0On the fringes of the Saharan desert, skirted by the rocky coastline of the northern Maghreb\u00a0where it meets the blue Mediterranean, lies the Oriental region of Morocco. Nestling within an\u00a0often verdant, predominantly mountainous terrain is Oujda, the largest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,47,115],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/unnamed-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20191,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/20191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}