Photo: HAF’s Director of Sustainable Agriculture, Souad Agnaou, with Pieter van Midwoud, Ecosia’s Chief Tree Officer, in Anins village visiting the community’s fruit tree planting and water infrastructure project (photo by HAF, 26 March 2026).

Some months ago, we visited the village of Anins and saw the impressive water infrastructure work that they achieved in partnership with the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) and Ecosia, and saw the beautiful mountainside of terraces that they’ve filled with 20,000 local varieties of fruit trees.

As an essential part of the earthquake recovery work is of course the support for emotional healing and the initiatives that are identified through that psychosocial, interactive, personal, and group experience.

The women and youth of Anins also implemented the goal that they set out for themselves, which was to make warm clothing of their own designs for the local markets. The first products they made, which are sets that include a hat, scarf, and gloves, were beautiful, and they were all immediately purchased by the visitors in our group and shared with schoolchildren in the local area. 

It then dawned on all of us: can we expand their business model out of this approach? So many people want to support the empowered work of rural women and young people, and the demand for warm clothing in these cold mountainous climate regions is so real. Can we market this together and build partnerships that employ these women’s groups who, through their own self-determination, have embarked on clothes making enterprises?

Fast forward: Our next visit to Anins saw significantly more production and the financial commitment to purchase all of their products again for the young people of this mountain area. Students of the Global Scholars Program at the University of Michigan helped develop marketing materials, and through HAF’s networks, we have been able to raise and dedicate $20,000 to now employ the members of four women’s cooperatives who have been so committed to make, by hand, warm winter clothing for local schoolchildren.

There is a special affirmation that comes by purchasing products that are of the choosing and design of their makers. The exchange of making something from one’s own honest will that meets a sincere need is a form of production that warms the human heart. It motivates us to produce more, improve, and provide this quality and appreciation for what it is that we consume.

Thank you to the women’s cooperative members of Anins, Achbarou, Talat-N-Mimoun, and Tafza for embarking on their own journey of making what they want to make most of all and fulfilling this need of children that is very significant in the cold winters that we experience in the High Atlas. We hope the readers can share this experience with others and give what’s possible for women’s livelihoods and the wellbeing of children.