{"id":820,"date":"2018-10-22T16:54:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T14:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/didouqen.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2021-01-26T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T12:53:11","slug":"visionaries-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/visionaries-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Visionaries Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013\u00a0Visionaries Then and Now<\/a>, by Thomas Kimmel (Agricultural Expert), 21 March 2018,\u00a0HAF Blog<\/strong>.
\n\u2022\u00a0<\/strong>Arabic:\u00a0Maghress Cawalisee<\/a>, 16 April 2018.
\n\u2022\u00a0<\/strong>French:\u00a0HAF Blog<\/a>, 14 November 2018.<\/p>\n

In the 1980\u2019s, a solo American made a huge impact on Ouaouizerth, Morocco, an Amazigh village, located in the western High Atlas Mountains.\u00a0 His name was J. Christopher Stevens, a Peace Corps. Volunteer and yes the same J. Christopher Stevens, who as American Ambassador in Libya, was killed in the raid on Benghazi in September 11, 2012.<\/p>\n

Chris is still remembered here as the husky American that lived by the community\u2019s Muslim traditions even though he wasn\u2019t a Muslim. He was well known locally because he always was respectful and open to the town\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

He learned Arabic from Lhoussin Waali, at the time a local grocery owner, who he in turn taught English.\u00a0 One of the ways he taught Lhoussin English was having him listen to BBC radio broadcasts.\u00a0\u00a0 Lhoussin remembers how he and Chris would often discuss the similarities between the Muslim and Christian faiths. \u00a0The Arabic that Chris learned here helped inspire his career in the Arab world. \u00a0Chris also was active with kids, teaching English at the local youth center.\u00a0 He was so dedicated to helping the people of Quaouizerth he stayed with them an extra year in the Peace Corps.<\/p>\n

He was known locally principally by his last name, Stevens. \u00a0People recall how Stevens would be invited to tea at someone house and he\u2019d walk there regardless of the distance.\u00a0 He left behind the gift of knowledge. \u00a0\u00a0There was great sadness in the village of Ouaouizerth when they heard about Stevens\u2019s death on television.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later an American nonprofit organization founded by former Peace Corp veterans has honored Chris\u2019s memory by bringing farming solutions to mostly agricultural Ouaouizerth.\u00a0 The High Atlas Foundation, founded by Yossef Ben- Mer of New Mexico, recently dedicated a tree nursery, just outside of town, to the memory of Chris Stevens. \u00a0The nursery grows almonds and olive seedlings for transplanting.\u00a0 The High Atlas grows these seedlings to give to local farmers at no cost.\u00a0 The farmers\u2019 Cooperative (called\u00a0Adrar<\/em>, or mountain) provides the land for the new orchard and High Atlas supplies the trees and expertise to successfully start the new Orchardists on their way.<\/p>\n

While the Stevens-inspired nursery serves the Ouaouizerth area; the High Atlas Foundation currently maintains eleven tree nurseries all over Morocco, partnering with the Ecosia Social Enterprise, to replicate this activity to most regions of the country.\u00a0 This is the modern version of \u201cGive a man a fish with the he\u2019ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish he\u2019ll be fed for a lifetime\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Ouaouizerth village the High Atlas Foundation nursery caretaker is Hicham Farhat and he has become the pied piper of tree growing to the town\u2018s people, especially the school children.\u00a0 This week Hicham showed up at the grade school and he and the kids planted olive trees to enhance the school\u2019s courtyard.\u00a0 His enthusiasm was only exceeded by the kid\u2019s joy and excitement as they helped to plant the trees.<\/p>\n

The High Atlas Foundation is dedicated to the single mission of growing seedlings and distributing them to growers who can use them but can\u2019t generally afford them.\u00a0 Since each different region has its own growing conditions a variety of trees are grown in the High Atlas nurseries and include carob, walnut, pomegranate, cherry, fig, Argan, and date palm in addition to the previously mentioned almonds and olives.\u00a0 High Atlas has become the \u201cJohnny Appleseed of Morocco\u201d except with more than just one tree to choose from.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, the Moroccan government is an enthusiastic supporter with land contributions to this program, but does not contribute financial support.\u00a0 The primary financial support comes from individual donors and grants (such as from Ecosia).\u00a0 The Ouaouizerth nursery\u2019s establishment in 2013 was appropriately made possible by the U.S. Department of State\u2019s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Scientific Research.\u00a0\u00a0 The obvious benefits are to the growers who plant the trees but the hard to quantify \u201cGreen\u201d contributions are substantial.\u00a0 Creating \u201cforests\u201d of orchards creates a carbon displacement mechanism to go along with oxygen generation and erosion prevention.\u00a0\u00a0 All the nurseries use drip irrigation, a 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century technology, which is right at home in an arid nation with no water resources to spare.<\/p>\n

The actions of the High Atlas Foundation fulfill the spirit of what J. Christopher Stevens stood for thirty plus years ago.\u00a0 He had the desire to make things better for Moroccans.\u00a0 The concept of growing and giving away trees is a unique effort, happening only in Morocco.\u00a0 Just as \u201cStevens\u201d did his best for Moroccans so does High Atlas with its ambitious goal of covering the country with fruit and nuts trees.<\/p>\n

Writing this article I realized I too had joined the work of other Americans who have acted in Morocco.\u00a0 My career was spent in irrigation and in Morocco no orchards grow without water.\u00a0 Adding a water component to High Atlas efforts means that the orchards will survive and thrive.<\/p>\n

Tom Kimmell is the\u00a0retired Executive Director of the Irrigation Association, who now volunteers for the “Farmer to Farmer” program created by the US Congress.\u00a0 Morocco is part of the program and is managed by Land O\u2019 Lakes International Development.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013\u00a0Visionaries Then and Now, by Thomas Kimmel (Agricultural Expert), 21 March 2018,\u00a0HAF Blog. \u2022\u00a0Arabic:\u00a0Maghress Cawalisee, 16 April 2018. \u2022\u00a0French:\u00a0HAF Blog, 14 November 2018. In the 1980\u2019s, a solo American made a huge impact on Ouaouizerth, Morocco, an Amazigh village, located in the western High Atlas Mountains.\u00a0 His name was J. Christopher Stevens, a Peace Corps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,47,106,115],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/students-of-Ouaouizerth-M-300x225.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"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=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19393,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/19393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}