Morocco
Whilst travelling and visiting some Workaway hosts south of Marrakesh in Morocco we met Mohamed an interesting character who opens his home to Workawayers and loves to share his Berber culture in exchange for some help around his wonderful house.
During our conversation he told us how many of the Workawayers that visited often helped in the local school giving classes to the local children. Intrigued we arranged to go and take a look ourselves.
This small school, set on the out skirts of the village with a spectacular view of the snowcapped Atlas mountains, currently has 5 classrooms, each very basic, all surrounding a small playground. The children were very eager to learn, super friendly and filled with curiosity about who we were and what we were doing there. Through conversation with the head teacher, Rashid, we learned that the school is rapidly growing because of a large influx of Berber villagers from the higher mountains, where very little Arabic is spoken. Those Berber children are excluded from government schools because of the disadvantages in their limited knowledge of Arabic. With its limited resources and an insufficient budget, the school is still single-minded and determined to expand to cope with its influx of students from the mountains
With funding from the Workaway Foundation, we are able to help build a library for this independent school and sponsor them with some books, computers and projectors.
We'll be keeping a close eyes on the progress, Workawayers are most welcome to visit or to volunteer help at the school. The Berber nomads, which make up approximately 60% of the total population in Morocco, are widely populated in the deserts and mountains in Morocco. Among all, the High Atlas is Northern Africa's highest mountain range and one of its most remote territories. As a melting pot of Arabs and Berbers, both Arabic and Berber (also known as Amazigh) are official languages in Morocco, but the Berbers retain their own separate cultural identity.
Donations from the Workaway foundation will go to support this local school in Boulaouane, Morocco.
- Help helping to fund the library and buy books, materials, computers and projectors
- Provide more volunteer teaching support.
- Helping via education to lift the Berber community out of a cycle of poverty and illiteracy in a long term and sustainable way.
So far we have been able to help:
