Last week, we had the pleasure and honor of welcoming Australia’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, Mr. Damien Donavan, and visiting the projects of communities that they feel so proud to have achieved.
We first met up with Damien, as he asks to be called, and HAF’s friend Waseem, in Asni, where we then went to visit the Tadmant community tree nursery. It was a rainy, cold day, as we have fortunately been having in recent weeks in the Marrakech region.
After walking through the nursery that is in partnership with the National Agency for Water and Forests and its capacity of 200,000 walnut, almond, and cherry saplings, we then ducked into a small stone structure off to the side and talked together about the great opportunities of Moroccan agriculture, the natural splendor in Australia, and the responsibility of representing one’s country. Nothing like tea cooked with endemic High Atlas Mountain herbs to help nicely warm all moments.
It's always a spectacular few seconds to behold, when emerging from a comfortable, not too tall, not too wide, dim and beautiful stone hut with a chimney for tea in its corner, to then step out and suddenly see stretching mountain terraces filled with saplings that will inshallah grow into glorious trees and live for centuries, framed with the peaks in the mist all around.
From Tadmant, we headed to meet the people of Talat-n-Mimoun and see the work of their farming families and members of their civil association. With wonderful financial partners, we’ve been able to assist in the people’s building of a well by the Ourika River, a solar water pump system, and piping that delivers the water eight kilometers to irrigate 80,000 trees. A basin was very well implemented and the work of planting year after year has been stellar.
Damien’s joy, reflecting the people’s joy, created the inspiration that makes me want to share with you, the reader, about this beautiful day. Sustainable development is the hardest work I know because it challenges us on physical, emotional, and intellectual levels over time with the outcomes never being certain, requiring every sector, everyone, and the contribution of finance, materials, and technical support, which we cannot take for granted, to then see fulfilled implementation, bounty, income, and happiness.
To share it with our kind and generous guest from Australia provides for everyone to reflect on the accomplishment and the exponential potential that remains. With piping to deliver water to more farming families, we can plant another 400,000 trees, enabling families to remain where their hearts are, and families who have emigrated to cities to return home, which is their aspiration.
We then visited the women’s cooperative whose members are dedicated to family literacy and making clothes and other articles made of fabric such as warm clothing, purses, and the apparel that accompanies tea sets. Laughter and good feeling with everyone in each other’s presence is my strongest recollection. Damien planting a tree surrounded by children is an image I carry. The women are on their way, with partnership, to establishing their permanent cooperative structure beside a preschool and a library room. Agriculture gives birth to human development more broadly. Tree planting, when genuinely inclusive, can lift all human development ships.
Damien and I wanted to have this travel day since we first met during Ramadan in 2025 with our Intrepid partners in Casablanca as we had shared ftour. We made it come to pass, found the invigorating feeling that comes with communities’ pride in their achievement, and I, for one, can say I look forward to his return to see more together. In the meantime, we’ll do as much as we can everyday for our Moroccan mission, and feel uplifted together with its good share of joy.