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Young Aziza Date Survivability
Carlie Daniel HAF-UVA Intern The Aziza Date is a rare type of date that contains a lower sugar content than other dates and can be preserved for up to two years before spoiling. Its long shelf life and nutritional value make it a valuable fruit that has the potential to be very beneficial to farmers […]
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Sustainable Agricultural Villages as a Panacea to Poverty
Sustainable Agricultural Villages As a Panacea to Poverty, By Olufunmilayo Aiyegbusi, moroccoworldnews. By Olufunmilayo Aiyegbusi Volunteer, High Atlas Foundation Nigeria As a nursing mother some years ago, I would have given anything to have had a small business. Working in a highly structured law firm and handling several sensitive case files clashed significantly with that […]
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Youth and Environment: Tree planting with schools in Ouezzane province
Karam-Yane Azzabi HAF Program Coordinator It was with great enthusiasm that we – Karam-Yane Azzabi and Mohamed El Kadiri – travelled to Ouezzane on March 12th, in order to distribute trees to schools in the area. As soon as we arrived, we were received by the Provincial Director of the Ministry of National Education. Our […]
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Harnessing the Sun: Capitalizing on Morocco’s Most Abundant Resource to Power Transformative Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems
October 2020 – Program partners, Ecosia and USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer, visit the solar-powered irrigation system at a HAF tree nursery in Ouarzazate province. Photo by Project Assistant, Hassan Ait Ouatouch. In a country well known for its expansive desert and dry heat, solar-powered irrigation systems are achieving the impossible by consistently supplying clean water to six […]
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Former Pastoral Nomads Considering In-Place Farming
Recent trends reveal that pastoralists in the Maghreb region are turning to sedentary farming practices like agroforestry as nomadic herding becomes more difficult. This unpublished article investigates the causes for this shift, associated environmental impacts, and local responses. Volunteers plant carob and olive tree saplings as part of a community project with HAF in the […]
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Imagine Women’s Empowerment: The Golden Flower, The Flower of Aboghlo.
By Zineb Laadam Farmer-to-Farmer, Morocco The High Atlas Foundation celebrates women’s achievements at the Aboghlo cooperative. In the darkness of every night, she raises her head to the sky, looks with her eyes at the stars, holds the shield of a soldier in her hands, and does not know what to do with it. Does […]
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FENELEC: Renewable Energy in a Moroccan Jewish Community-Managed Nursery
Kaoutar Ait Lahaj Social Media Program Coordinator On Sunday, February 20, 2021, the High Atlas Foundation inaugurated the solar water pumping system at our Akrich nursery. We are grateful to our partner FENELEC for donating the system and for their commitment to promoting renewable energy solutions in Morocco. On February 28, 2021, the High Atlas […]
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Confronting Climate Change: Afforestation Efforts in the Imilchil Circle
Karam-Yane Azzabi, HAF Programs Coordinator High Atlas Foundation’s Karam-Yane Azzabi met with representatives from the Akhiam Association as well as farmers in the Imilchil Circle to discuss afforestation efforts and changes in local agriculture. It was with great enthusiasm that I hit the road to Imilchil from Marrakech. I knew that the road was long, […]
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HAF Celebrates Tree Planting Day 2021 with the People of Morocco
La HAF Célèbre La Journée De Plantation D’arbres 2021 Avec Le Peuple Marocain, World News, By Sanae Benaadim. • Arabic: World News, 11 February 2021. Sanae Benaadim HAF’s Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Caption: The High Atlas Foundation, led by President Yossef Ben-Mier, planting the first tree with a farmer in the Herbil commune to inaugurate […]
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HAF to Plant Trees in Morocco on Martin Luther King Day
Elizabeth Jay Program Manager | Digital Strategist Martin Luther King Day falls in the middle of the High Atlas Foundation’s tree-planting season, the most fertile time of year in Morocco. January 18, 2020 – On Martin Luther King Jr. Day that inspires volunteerism, the High Atlas Foundation celebrates its Tree Planting day. Annually, the Foundation […]
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Meet Hajiba Boumasmar, Program Coordinator of the High Atlas Foundation
Meet Hajiba Boumasmar, Program Coordinator of the High Atlas Foundation, freskincare. The High Atlas Foundation The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is an American-Moroccan nonprofit that focuses on different areas: youth, women, water, capacity building, cuture, and agriculture. HAF’s work in the agricultural sector includes building tree nurseries, planting seeds, planting and distributing saplings and monitoring tree growth. HAF […]
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HAF Proposals That Integrate Interfaith, Multiculturalism and Development
Here are six intercultural and interfaith projects in Morocco for which the High Atlas Foundation has full proposals. These projects will assist marginalized communities in meeting their livelihood needs, and embody the Moroccan government’s approach for integrating multiculturalism and local development: Restore four Jewish cemeteries (two in Marrakech region, one in Beni Mellal-Khenifra region and one […]
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USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Local Volunteer Developing Local Capacities
HAF USAID Farmer-to-Farmer team and F2F local volunteer meeting with Ms. Hind, the head of public relations for the Mejji Argan Women’s Cooperative, Essaouira province – Meiji rural commune Dec 17, 2020 The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) continues promoting sustainable economic growth, food security, and agricultural development in Morocco through the USAID Farmer-To-Farmer (F2F) program. […]
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Morocco’s Multiculturalism for Sustainable Development
Morocco’s Multiculturalism for Sustainable Development, Scoop World, By Yossef Ben-Meir (HAF President). • Arabic: Arab Voice, 24 November 2020. • French: World News, 24 November 2020. One ought not to doubt the Kingdom of Morocco’s abiding sincerity in its commitment to the principles of multiculturalism and to the diverse identities that constitute the whole of this Islamic nation. This embracing on […]
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A New Nursery Is Coming to Life
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, F2F Program Caption: High Atlas Foundation local USAID Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Hicham (green shirt) seen in the field COVID-19 impeded the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) due to travel restrictions preventing U.S. volunteers from traveling overseas. As a solution, USAID encouraged its implementing partners to create paired assignments, linking volunteer experts from the United […]
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Family Planning: Awareness Is Key
Caption: The invitation to the conference organized by the Center for Middle East Studies During the last week of September, the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University organized a conference on “Decolonization, Development and State Building in North Africa”. The panels were facilitated by Ph.D. researchers who are interested in the North African […]
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The I-Tree International Academy Learning Journey
F2F Finance Officer | Lead Empowerment Trainer Photo by: i-Tree One of the High Atlas Foundation’s (HAF) USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) team members, Fatima Zahra Laaribi, was selected from a competitive pool of applicants to attend the “2020 i-Tree International Academy” —a three- month online training organized by the US Forest Service International Programs, Northern Research Station, and […]
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The Women Farmers of Tassa Ouirgane Nursery: From Seeds to Saplings
HAF Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Caption: High Atlas Foundation, Tassa Ouirgane Nursery “Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.” -Kahlil Gibran I always believed that trees are the source of life for humans. HAF encourages the Moroccan […]
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International Toilets’ Day: Save a Life
Caption: November 19th is the UN International Day of Toilets On the 19th of November each year, the United Nations celebrates the International Day of Toilets. This day is meant to raise awareness about the situation of 4.2 billion individuals who do not have access to hygiene services such as toilets and also showcase their […]
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International Men’s Day: Bridging the Gender Divide Through Women’s Empowerment
Errachid Montassir & Said El Bennani HAF Project Managers HAF staff member Hassan Ait Ouatouch and HAF volunteer Houria Chouhab planting an Argan tree with the members of Mogador Argan Women’s Cooperative in Essaouira – 2019 Photo by: Ilyas Dkhissi The concept of gender as a social construct is often met with resistance. While attempts […]
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Haf’s Errachid Montassir Wins the Amwaj Water and Energy Mediathon Award
Errachid Montassir at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the Climate Action Summit, September 2019. Errachid Montassir, High Atlas Foundation (HAF) Project Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program, won the Water and Energy Award at the Mediathon organized by AMWAJ, CEWAS and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Water and Energy ‘Mediathon’, a capacity-building event, […]
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How Skin Care Tackles Climate Change
A wrinkled tree Analogy To care for the people or for your own wellbeing is by no means a contradiction to protecting the environment. While conventional agriculture ensures efficient food production, it still risks the health of many billion people by polluting ground waters, emitting CO2 and further reducing overall biodiversity. But strikingly, the dichotomy […]
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Haf Partnerships Essential to Sustainable Tree Planting
The High Atlas Foundation relies on its partners for successful sustainable development projects. Public and private, local, national, and international – the agencies, companies, universities, groups, and individuals who support HAF make possible the fulfillment of its mission. By Yossef Ben-Meir The High Atlas Foundation would not have survived for the past twenty years without […]
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Haf’s Fruit Tree Nurseries Vision: Fes Province
Tree Monitoring Officer Caption: HAF nurseries, Fes province: tree-planting skills build good members of society The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) uses land given in-kind by the High Commissioner of Water and Forests and the Fight Against Desertification, local associations, and cooperatives around Morocco to establish organic fruit tree nurseries which provide sustainable projects for the […]
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Planting Trees Can Reduce Poverty and Slow Climate Change
Planting trees can reduce poverty and slow climate change, The Daily Guardian, By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts, 29 August 2020. • Arabic: Beirut Taimes, 30 Aug 2020. Photo by the High Atlas Foundation, Morocco. Humanitarian crises have recently been declared in Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Mali, and Somalia—affecting at least 450,000 people—due to flash floods and landslides. Areas with […]
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Golden Seeds
HAF Project Manager FRÉ Skincare and HAF Partnering with Argan Cooperatives in Essaouira Argania Spinosa is the only type of argan tree around the world; it’s a tree endemic to Morocco and characteristic of North Africa for its biological, nutritional, socioeconomic, and ecological value. Argania Spinosa wood is an excellent source of charcoal. The tree’s […]
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The Women of Takhrkhourt Cooperative in Tassa Ouirgane
Article: سيدات تعاونية تاخرخورت بتسا ويركان, Beirut Times, By Amina El Hajjami. HAF’s Director of Projects After building an organic tree nursery and a well, and after facilitating participatory meetings and trainings concerning environmental protections with the farmers and the men’s association in Tassa Ouirgane village (Al Haouz province, Marrakech-Safi region), a project financed by the […]
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Distributing Food and Hygiene Materials in Taroudant Province: A Symbol of Social Solidarity
On July 27-28, a HAF team composed of Field Technician Abdeljalil, driver Mustapha, and I hit the road to Taroudant Province for the distribution of food and hygiene materials, a project implemented in partnership with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy as an act of social solidarity with people who have been severely impacted, economically and socially, […]
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Why Plant Trees?
Yossef Ben-Meir, Amina El Hajjami, and Ellen Hernandez HAF Colleagues The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) has been working with farming families in Morocco since 2000 to plant trees for sustainable agricultural development. The first question we are often asked is “Why plant trees?” Let us address that question as well as exploring other questions about […]
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My Experience with Grant Writing for the High Atlas Foundation
HAF Intern – UVA student As this was my first opportunity working on a grant proposal, I did not know much about the content and format of proposals previously; however, I knew that writing one was an important skill to acquire. Furthermore, I was able to explore new areas of the High Atlas Foundation’s work. […]