Peace Corps Volunteers Remain Committed to Morocco
By RPCVs
American Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco spend two years living and working at the local level – often in very remote areas. They live with families and create projects that meet the needs of the communities, in the areas of health and sanitation, maternal child health, agriculture, and environmental sustainability. A typical project might involve educating young mothers on the need for clean drinking water, especially for babies. In many cases, mortality rates dramatically decrease in a very short time as a result of simple hygienic practices.
Many Volunteers have known women who gave birth to a number of babies, only to have a majority of them pass away from preventable causes such as contaminated drinking water. When a father was asked how he carries the grief of losing 18 children, he responded that pain of the loosing his last was as totally overwhelming as his first.
The memories of these projects have stayed with Volunteers long after they return to the United States. In 2000, they were moved to create a nonprofit organization called the High Atlas Foundation, whose mission is to establish community-based projects in rural Moroccan villages. Five years later, they are working across the High Atlas (and beyond) to plant thousands of fruit trees and implement potable water and irrigation projects benefiting tens of thousand of people.
The strength of the High Atlas Foundation is their ability to develop understanding, communication, and productive relationships between rural villages and Moroccan government and nonprofit organizations. They emphasize the inclusion of all community members (particularly women) in the design of projects, which often takes great determination to achieve. Their Peace Corps service taught them that people are more invested in projects that they feel ownership toward. The goal of the High Atlas Foundation is to empower people and ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable men, women, and children are heard and addressed.
The Board of the High Atlas Foundation stresses that the organization allows them to serve as a constant bridge between United States and the country (and especially the people!) they came to love as Volunteers. They work to mobilize broad-based support from across the United States including former Peace Corps Volunteers, Moroccan ex-patriots, and anyone who cares about Morocco’s future.
The High Atlas Foundation will host a reception in New York City on Thursday, September 15, 2005. For more information, visit www.highatlasfoundation.org.
In my heartache and sorrow over the last year I began researching charities. The peace corps and friends of the peace corps are doing fabulous things for the people of Morocco. I plead with you to help organizations like the High Atlas Foundation. They are doing incredible things. As an American mother of a Moroccan baby, I look at her, and even though I am a single mom and struggle to make ends meet, every spare dollar and every spare thought, I dedicate to the poor of Morocco. If you need someone to love and your life has take a turn for the worse, you can look across the ocean at Morocco and find a whole bunch of people that you can help and love and be with.. the poor and suffering of Morocco. Perhaps you are poor, perhaps you are broken hearted.. maybe you can only help the high atlas foundation with only 10 or 15 dollars, my plea is that you connect with others and help someone else. Even if it is just to take some dolls to an orphanage or buy a few backpacks when you are back home with some hygene items and give them to some street kids. Reach out from your brokenness and learn to love and trust and be with others. Even if it is to visit a school and take 100 with you from the USA and buy some much needed school books for a family. YOU DO NOT KNOW, you can change the life of a child or teenager. Money is a gift. It is a sacrament that God blesses you with and a curse if you don't help people sometimes. Beauty and money can sometimes blind you to the things in life that offer true love...character,devotion, compassion. For one year I struggled with depression, listlessness, sorrow over my daughter, my life. Then the window opened. I learned that even if you don't have much, you share your loaf of bread, you give away clothes that don't fit your children anymore. You reach backwards and pull just one person up with you and you love others. Your joy is regained and your love of life is restored. I may never ever love again. But I learned to love myself and love my children even more than ever. Because in giving I teach them that they have dignity and pride and that we are important to others. Please help this event and be the Moroccan that you never thought you could be. Be a hero.
Love,
Kathleen, a single american mom
Lance 10 years old, Kayla 18 years old and Zahra Noelle,7 months old and one of your moroccan sisters
billday : My two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer were among the richest in my life, and to this day I am grateful to the warmth and generosity of my Moroccan friends, friends who were most generous when they had least to share. Thank you Wafin for bringing to our attention this effort to give something back even after we have returned to the United States.
Bill Day, RPCV Outat El Haj, 1988-1990
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
bibliophile@verizonmail.com
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American Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco spend two years living and 
