{"id":4665,"date":"2019-05-27T13:11:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T11:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highatlasfoundation.org\/?p=4665"},"modified":"2021-02-11T11:51:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T11:51:38","slug":"hafs-commitment-to-girls-education-in-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/hafs-commitment-to-girls-education-in-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Haf\u2019s Commitment to Girls\u2019 Education in Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nisreen Abo-Sido<\/em>
\nHAF Volunteer, Thomas J. Watson Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Morocco, just 26% of girls–in contrast to 79% of boys<\/a><\/span>–residing in rural areas are enrolled in primary school.\u00a0 Furthermore, rates of school dropout–particularly between primary and secondary school–are 15% higher for rural girls than for boys<\/a><\/span>, and three times higher for rural girls compared to urban girls.\u00a0 In effect, the gender gap in literacy is large, and girls continue to be marginalized into womanhood.<\/p>\n

Barriers to girls\u2019 education are numerous.\u00a0 In these impoverished rural areas, the costs associated with sending children to school are too high.\u00a0 Schools are often far away and transportation unaffordable.\u00a0 Walking to school is not only time-consuming, but can be dangerous, and health risks are exacerbated when schools do not have clean drinking water or sanitation facilities.\u00a0 Moreover, parents are reluctant to send daughters to dormitory schools given high costs and safety concerns.\u00a0 Gender role expectations–including domestic work and marrying young–also keep girls from receiving their education.\u00a0 Taken together, families will prioritize sending their boys to school–over sending their girls.<\/p>\n

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is committed to addressing the barriers to girls education on infrastructural, social, and financial levels.<\/p>\n

Access to clean-water and toilets significantly increases girls\u2019 education outcomes, not only by improving the health and safety of school environments, but also by removing the burden of traveling far to collect water from their responsibilities, thus, granting them the time to attend school.\u00a0 HAF, with its partners, has supported the construction of clean drinking water systems in rural Morocco.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The lack of access to education in girls\u2019 lives perpetuates their marginalization into womanhood.\u00a0 HAF facilitates workshops and trainings in women\u2019s empowerment to help women gain the skills, develop the confidence, and secure the resources necessary to improve their livelihoods, strengthen their autonomy, and achieve their dreams.\u00a0 When sharing their dreams, many participating women–most, if not all, of whom are illiterate–relate their visions to education, seeing it as the key to achieve their goals.\u00a0 By facilitating participatory-action workshops–such as one in Anamer village in March 2018–HAF has learned firsthand of the issues women face in the absence of receiving an education.\u00a0 For instance, illiteracy is a major barrier for women hoping to establish cooperatives, as they cannot perform administrative and legal requirements.<\/p>\n

Following HAF\u2019s women\u2019s empowerment workshops, women frequently pledge to return to school or commit to sending their daughters back to school.\u00a0 At the conclusion of this particular 4-day training, a 16-year old girl–who dropped out of secondary school at age 12–volunteered to teach the women how to read.\u00a0 They have since begun a basic literacy program, which has grown from 10 to 40 women from this village.\u00a0 Moreover, the teacher has seen the students progress so quickly, that she is seeking advanced literacy training for herself!<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Empowerment Facilitator, Fatima-Zahra Laaribi, noticed that at the beginning of the workshop, when the women were asked about their visions, they found it challenging to imagine.\u00a0 As the workshop progressed, they recognized that once education was a possibility, their dreams could be realized.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moreover, whenever HAF invites university volunteers, such as those from the Universite Privee de Marrakech (UPM), to join environmental workshops and tree-planting events, the Foundation encourages women university students to share their paths and stories with the girl students.\u00a0 In particular, we ask them to share how they have been able to finance their education, as some of the UPM volunteers are on partial or full scholarships.<\/p>\n

With HAF, the Bernard Mejean Scholarship Fund provides support to enable young females in Taza Province to pursue high school and higher education. This fund contributes to the costs of books, school supplies, and further course instruction for driven female youth, and will alleviate the financial burden of travel and enrolling in high schools or universities far from the students’ homes.\u00a0 The Fund was created in memory of Bernard Mejean, who was born and raised in Morocco and went on to continue his studies in the United States.\u00a0 Bernard\u2019s brother, Bruno, began the scholarship to provide the tools and resources needed to underprivileged girls to achieve their dreams of pursuing higher education.<\/p>\n

Educating girls is among the most impactful ways of breaking cycles of rural poverty and improving the wellbeing of communities.\u00a0 Join HAF in taking a multi-tiered approach to breaking barriers to girls\u2019 education, and support the Bernard Mejean Scholarship Fund<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 By contributing to the Fund, you are empowering girls through education, bringing them closer to their dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nisreen Abo-Sido HAF Volunteer, Thomas J. Watson Fellow In Morocco, just 26% of girls–in contrast to 79% of boys–residing in rural areas are enrolled in primary school.\u00a0 Furthermore, rates of school dropout–particularly between primary and secondary school–are 15% higher for rural girls than for boys, and three times higher for rural girls compared to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,48],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG-20181226-WA0053.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665"}],"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=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19930,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions\/19930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}