{"id":845,"date":"2018-10-22T17:15:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T15:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/didouqen.com\/?p=845"},"modified":"2020-09-09T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T14:52:57","slug":"the-vacation-project-and-hafs-visit-to-tassa-ouirgane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/the-vacation-project-and-hafs-visit-to-tassa-ouirgane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vacation Project and HAF\u2019s Visit to Tassa Ouirgane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>By Erracihd Montassir, HAF Project Manager\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HAF\u2019s partner–the Vacation Project (VP)<\/a>, which is a program created for social, service, and experiential travel–engages in voluntary work with communities around the world.\u00a0 From the 2nd to the 4th of January 2018, VP and HAF visited our community partners in the Ouirgane municipality of the Azzadene Valley.\u00a0 Eleven VP travelers and HAF project manager Errachid Montassir spent four days with six host families and committed to voluntary work with the community, especially to implement\u00a0Sami’s Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First day: Tuesday, 2nd Januray 2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We arrived in the Azzadene Valley (Tiziene village) at 11:00h.\u00a0 Meeting our host families was a great beginning of our visit and objectives.\u00a0 The local people were extremely excited to host two of us in one home, so there were 6 host families in total; two of them hosted male travelers and the remaining hosted female. .<\/p>\n

After they had a lunch meal with host families, at 14:00h we moved to an apple orchard four kilometers from the village with host family member Brahim, who wanted to irrigate his 300 apple trees.\u00a0 The trees were not in a flat place so it was quite difficult to water them with a tube coming from the spring.\u00a0Each one of the volunteers contributed in moving earth and\u00a0irritating.\u00a0 We returned to the village and met some of the local youth.<\/p>\n

Just after that I went to meet the director of the primary school in the village, to further coordinate our visit to the same school on the next day.\u00a0 In the evening all the female volunteers helped women from the village cook a group dinner.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Second day: Wednesday, 3rd\u00a0\u00a0January 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our next step was our main effort: to implement Sami\u2019s Project.\u00a0 We went to a school in the morning shared by four with several objectives: Meet the kids and do a workshop with them about the environment, and to deliver school supplies (backpacks, soccer balls, winter hats, pens and others).<\/p>\n

The students and teachers were so happy to have that good\u00a0relation\u00a0with people from outside of Morocco and to spend\u00a0fruitful\u00a0half day with them.\u00a0 We did many activities with the kids; for instance, having them draw their future school, which is a participatory method to figure\u00a0our\u00a0their needs in the school, and the first priority was the bathrooms.\u00a0 Some VP volunteers were so excited to help with the school’s infrastructure in the future.\u00a0During the second half of the\u00a0day\u00a0the volunteers helped farmers in building agricultural terraces.<\/p>\n

Third day: Thursday, 4th January 2018<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>All the volunteers met the local association and they helped them build a new small basin around a spring’s source three hours from the village, as well as they together discussed new project ideas for the local association.<\/p>\n

At night we had an extremely emotional workshop with farmers and youth people, using the HAF’s participatory approach to find out their problems and needs in the village.\u00a0 There were tears after they broke down the barriers between the community and the international volunteers.<\/p>\n

The first three project priorities were:<\/p>\n

1- A center for the local association<\/p>\n

2- Hospital and sewage system<\/p>\n

3- A women\u2019s apple vinegar cooperative and agricultural basin<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fourth day: 5th January 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>On the last day of our visit, we woke up super early, going to the field to help farmers in collecting tree branches.<\/p>\n

We then conducted a workshop with the village women. This was my first time I facilitated a women\u2019s workshop using the participatory approach (with VP volunteers), and it was another emotional moment between the women of the village and us.\u00a0 The women\u2019s priorities are:<\/p>\n

1-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Women apple vinegar cooperative<\/p>\n

2-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sewage system<\/p>\n

3-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hammam<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s workshop ended up with a strong relationship between the women volunteers and the village women, helping to ensure that they will meet again and to contribute in achieving dreams.\u00a0 It was so sad to say goodbye to the community and the host families, everyone cried.<\/p>\n

VP volunteers were so happy to spend a few days with HAF in Tiziene.\u00a0 It was the first time they participate in a workshop using the participatory approach with communities.\u00a0 Some of them will come back to Morocco, and some will apply these concepts at home or wherever life takes them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Erracihd Montassir, HAF Project Manager\u00a0   HAF\u2019s partner–the Vacation Project (VP), which is a program created for social, service, and experiential travel–engages in voluntary work with communities around the world.\u00a0 From the 2nd to the 4th of January 2018, VP and HAF visited our community partners in the Ouirgane municipality of the Azzadene Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC07572.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845"}],"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=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17073,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/17073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}