Earthquake Morocco - help High Atlas villages !

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Talat N'Yaaqoub is the epicenter of the terrible earthquake that hit Morocco on my birthday night. Some time ago, I worked precisely at this place as a volunteer. I speak the local language, Tachelhit. I took the above photo of the main street on a sunny Wednesday, weekly market day, in February 2019. The death toll from the disaster is still unknown (2600 estimated on September 11 ). The vast majority of victims, injuries and damage is in remote villages in the High Atlas mountains. Here, houses were often built just of clay, or concrete blocks, with several storeys, not always attached to each other. The villages are difficult to reach, and have no medical infrastructure. The inhabitants are among the poorest in Morocco. They have no health insurance and make a meagre living from local agriculture or small-scale services. For the time being, I have no news of the families I know, there is no electricity and almost no telecommunication network anymore, but the first testimonies on social networks speak of dozens of deaths per family while the clearing has barely and official help only arrived two days later. I'll be returning to Marrakech around September 20, with the money we collected and work together with a local association, Moustaqbel, which I personally know and trust. Since 2016, they are engaged in higher education of some 40 girls per year from remote mountain villages, by lodging them in a boarding house in Marrakech and empowering the students to get independent and take their own initiatives. I already spoke with Rachida, responsible of the boarding house. She told me that the young women, almost all from villages at the epicentre, survived the earthquake in Marrakech although their building was partly affected. They are now in contact with their families up in the mountains, and want to help their villages. They know very well what is needed and where. Thus, we will work together and it will be help to help, rather than assistance, empowerment of young Moroccan women, and the money will arrive directly where it is needed. I will report in communiqués below.

Thank you all very much for your support !

Susanne