By Lisa Maria Wiese, Social Media Intern
February 9, 2016

On February 8th, I had the great joy of accompanying the HAF team and HAF’s president Yossef Ben-Meir to the rural province of Rhamna. There, I attended my first tree distribution which took place at Bouchane schools in the area. The first school I visited was an all-girls school with 102 students between the ages of 13-17 and the second school I visited was a boy’s school with about 105 students of the same age.

The trees were being distributed for Sami’s Project which was established in 2012. The goal of Sami’s Project is: “to enhance and enrich primary school education and facilities, particularly for rural students in Morocco”. Based on this goal, HAF is improving the infrastructure of 113 schools this year, thereby increasing the student’s opportunity of furthering their education.

When we arrived at the all-girls school, the teacher showed us around. A portion of the girls live on school property, which gives the students from far away villages the life-changing opportunity to attend school, therefore increasing their chances to create their livelihoods. Although there is an ability to provide students with housing, there is still a lack of technical equipment such as laptops, that help students learn the skills necessary to succeed in the modern day workplace.

Each of the students were given three saplings to plant: a grape, a pomegranate and a fig. The saplings given to the children will be brought home and planted to help support each family.

Planted in the school’s garden, we could already see the little saplings growing steadily from last year’s distribution. In the dry areas of Morocco planting trees makes a large positive impact on the environment and it also improves the school’s appearance and atmosphere for the students.

After spending the day alongside the students at their school, I got the impression that they learn about sustainability in a creative way. When talking with the girls, they told me how grateful they were to be bringing home the trees and how much it will help their families. It was an important experience to see the faces and facets behind HAF’s work.

I was reassured in my work as a social media intern for HAF. This was especially important for me as I see that the rural areas in Morocco have a drastically different development level compared to my daily experiences in Marrakech.