University of Virginia Articles

On Friday, July 11th, we held the closing ceremony at the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) for the 11 wonderful students of the University of Virginia (UVA).

On September 8, 2023, a devastating earthquake struck Morocco, with its epicenter in the High Atlas Mountains, profoundly impacting the provinces of Al Haouz, Taroudant, Chichaoua, Marrakech, Ouarzazate, and Azilal, resulting in the tragic loss of 2,960 lives.

The Central African Republic sits at the heart of Africa — rich in gold, diamonds, forests, and quiet dreams that rarely make global headlines. It is a place people often skip on maps, dismissing it as too poor or too broken to care about.

Each time I visit the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), I get a new experience. On 1 July 2025, I was pleased to travel from Rabat to Marrakech to the High Atlas Foundation.

Education has the power to change a girl’s life if society lets her dream big enough to claim it.

Education is more than classrooms and textbooks. It is freedom, security, and the promise of a different life. Yet for millions of girls worldwide, especially in parts of Africa, this promise is cut short far too soon.

During my journey to Aghbar, nestled high in Morocco’s rugged mountains, I witnessed a piece of living heritage that filled my heart with warmth and a touch of longing for my own homeland.

In a small village deep in the Moroccan mountains, a woman sits beside a stack of handwoven rugs, each stitched with teachings passed down from one generation to the next.

Intercultural communication and overall cultural expansion are growing fields of research for those focused on development studies. Recent literature has highlighted cultural heritage as a strategy for fostering social cohesion and economic development in communities worldwide.

I cannot honestly claim to know a great deal about conservation efforts, although I find myself increasingly concerned about the state of our planet and its climate. In so many ways, climate change feels like an amorphous yet overgrowing problem, something that feels insurmountable to me as I neither grasp the scientific knowledge to recognize every problem or the creative mind needed to find solutions.

The High Atlas Foundation´s (HAF) partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Mohammed Premier University, Oujda (UMP) through their project, Promoting Civil Society-University Engagement-Oriental, is building a bridge between civil society organizations (CSOs) and university students.

Partnerships with universities are invaluable for furthering sustainable development initiatives, as they tap into the valuable skills and knowledge from their respective resource networks and student bodies.

As I climbed the stairs leading back to the road, I passed the stone graves––red, grey, and inscribed with Hebrew, sheltering the dead on my left and the greenhouse tents––covered in thick tarps, full of thousands of tiny trees budding with new life on my right.

The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS) is a site based certification and mentoring programme that assesses biodiversity outcomes of restoration and nature-based solutions.

I am not sure when or how my love for travel developed but I have found it to be a driving force in my life and the thing that I look forward to the most.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I will take from my time in Morocco. Not necessarily physical things like souvenirs (I only brought a backpack so souvenirs are not a feasible option anyway), but rather, concepts, understandings, habits.

As a university student entering my junior year, I have acquired a vast array of information on participatory development practices from experienced professors and well-respected texts.

Children, as the most vulnerable and impressionable members of our society, require the utmost care and the teaching of essential life skills.

Hostels - not to be mistaken with hotels - were a concept so far from my understanding and regular life. I had an idea of what they were, but mixed with the vague negative accounts I heard and the advice of close family not to stay in communal spaces, I stayed away.

In the IMAGINE women’s workshop that we visited this week, the facilitators of the High Atlas Foundation used balloons to represent stress.

Navigating the moral dilemma of participating in a tourist industry involving potential animal mistreatment, Grace Shawah reflects on the ethical considerations, the impact on local livelihoods, and the need for sustainable alternatives in Morocco.

The earthquake that struck Morocco on September 8th, 2023 had immense and multifaceted impacts on the country. The 6.8 magnitude disaster caused widespread devastation, affecting regions in and around the High Atlas Mountains and the bustling city of Marrakech. The earthquake resulted in a significant loss of life, vast damage to the infrastructure, and several disruptions to daily activities.

As Morocco is faced with an increasing crisis of youth unemployment, the High Atlas Foundation aims to respond by establishing a workforce training program to help promote community economic and social development.

In September 2023, a devastating earthquake struck Morocco’s Al Haouz Province. Thousands of casualties were recorded. Significant damage was caused to homes and crucial infrastructure. Families grieved the loss of life and years of work.

Color has always been my lens to the world since I was a child, a young girl who dreamed of being an artist, turning color into a vibrant palette that paints my reality. Each hue, each shade, tells me a story, evokes an emotion, and brings a place to life in ways words often fail to capture.

Both of my grandmothers were excellent gardeners. They grew tomatoes (a notoriously temperamental plant), figs, basil, mint, and a plethora of other plants meant to attract and nurture beautiful creatures such as butterflies and hummingbirds.

When I returned home last summer after spending two months in Meknes, I knew that the only souvenir my dad would want was food. He is not a gift person generally, but especially in relation to material goods, he would much rather buy his own.

Morocco has the potential to lead in renewable energy by harnessing offshore wind farms, as it strives to decrease dependence on imported energy sources and combat the impacts of climate change, including water scarcity, food insecurity, and economic challenges.

"Our group had sat down across from each other to connect, to share our life stories and aspirations, yet we could hardly understand more complex sentences than our first names: was it enough?"

Focusing resources on small farmers and participatory methods can help reduce the need for imports and increase Morocco’s self-reliance.

HAF leaders guide groups of 25 Moroccan women through a 32-hour transformative experience where these women connect with their true selves.

High Atlas Foundation nurseries hope to pave the way for Forest Gardens in Morocco as a way of revitalizing the natural resources of the land and providing for the people who live there.

IMAGINE workshops in Morocco, adapted from the Empowerment Institute, have empowered women, fostering cooperatives and commitments to bettering their future; now, there is a call for similar workshops targeted at men to challenge traditional norms, promote self-worth beyond financial success, and contribute to dismantling gender inequality.

Addressing climate challenges in Moroccan rural villages requires recognizing women as key actors and incorporating participatory methods to empower them, leveraging their knowledge and engagement in agricultural practices to build sustainable and effective solutions.

In the Hivernage neighborhood of Marrakech, a church and a mosque have stood across from each other for twenty years. Jacky envisions a synagogue that faces them both, creating a unique holy place where people of all three Abrahamic religions will be able to pray.

March 1^st is the deadline to apply for the education abroad program – Participatory Development in Practice – offered by the University of Virginia and instructed by the High Atlas Foundation.

For the women of rural Morocco, empowerment takes many forms. Self love opens the gate for the dreams and accomplishments of these women.

Caroline Kirk, an intern at the High Atlas Foundation, shares her reflections on Morocco's commitment to pluralism and how it has influenced her perspective on community and participatory development.

An intern reflects on a visit to Aguerzran, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between health, empowerment, and development in rural communities.

A summer intern explores how agricultural skill-building at the Center for the Protection of Children in Fes is positively impacting youth rehabilitation and social reintegration.

For many people, July 6 marked the passing of just another Saturday. But to over 1 billion people, it was of tremendous significance as it was the 25th UN International Day of Cooperatives.

Attracting young people to radical, extremist ideas is not hard. Just ask the ISIS recruiters behind one of the most effective propaganda presences in the world.

As a child, I frequently remember many lazy summer days spent lugging my purple Huffy bike up the cement dunes of my suburban neighborhood. Following the parade of my two older brothers and my neighbor, I would often times find myself summiting hills that turned my palms sweaty.

The blog post highlights the success of the "Participatory Development in Practice" course conducted in Marrakech by the University of Virginia (UVA) in collaboration with us. The course immersed UVA students in hands-on community development experiences, fostering cultural understanding, practical skills, and a strong connection with HAF and Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir.

This week was all about women empowerment, we had a women’s workshop for four days and it was my first time to experience it. During the four days of the workshop, participants dreamed, imagined, described and drew to express themselves.