Help Keep Ecole Aliwaa Open for Children in Need

Yahia was three years old. His future has already been planned out for him: Because his biological father’s name is not on his birth certificate, no public school would enrol him.  His mother was serving a prison sentence for assault. A childless neighbour took him in but could not afford to send him to a private school or pay a bribe for admission. Yahia would have no education, and, like his father and mother, would most likely turn to crime to survive.

Sabrine was three and half. Her father sold cigarettes on the roadside and saved for months and months to pay her school enrolment fee. No schools in the area would take Sabrine because her parents are Senegalese. Sabrine’s father walked from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, begging schools to take his daughter, offering to pay more than he could ever afford to give her the chance of an education and the future he dreamt of. Every school turned him away.

Ecole Aliwaa stepped in. Owner Mounir fundamentally believes that every child deserves an education and the chance to break the cycle.

Ecole Aliwaa opened its doors for the first time as a pre-school in 1961. Mounir’s grandfather founded the school in the heart of Casablanca’s Derb Sultan. At the time, the neighbourhood was thriving in the midst of a post-independence renaissance. Now, in 2020, it is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Casablanca. Still, at the heart of the community, Ecole Aliwaa keeps its doors open to support the families who helped to build it.

You can find out more about the cultural and historical importance of the school in this article:
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/06/306969/aliwaa-school-moroccos-revolutionary-legacy-under-threat/ 

The school offers homework support classes and language tuition to older students and adults, using the profits to keep the pre-school open for families in need. Some parents choose to pay a token fee of £8 per month, but most cannot afford to.

With help from teaching volunteers from all over the world, expats living in Morocco who pay for language classes, and the love of the Baladiya community, Mounir and the Moroccan staff at Ecole Aliwaa have been able to fund free places for local children since 2014.

Coronavirus closed the school’s doors in March. Mounir has not been able to continue the language tuition or paid classes which fund desperately needed refurbishment, teacher salaries, and free education for vulnerable children.

Over the months of closure, the school has fallen into disrepair. Many of the tables are broken, the paint is peeling, and the school's two toilets no longer have running water.

The lockdown in Morocco has left millions of families with no income, meaning that more families than ever will struggle to enrol their children in schools this year.  Many parents can no longer afford to feed themselves or their children and are turning to the municipal bins in search of food.

You can find out more about the difficulties facing Moroccan families amid the lockdown in this article: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/06/305084/life-after-lockdown-for-many-moroccans-there-is-no-quick-fix/ 

Your donations will pay for:

£100 - one teacher's salary for a month
£8 - school manuals for one child
£30 - three months at school for one child (including insurance)
£150 - one month of electricity, water, and gas for the school
£200 - mend the school's plumbing system
  
Without your help, Ecole Aliwaa will not open in September, leaving children like Yahia and Sabrine without a safe space, the possibility of learning to read, or a chance for a better future.

p.s. for a glimpse into the joyful world on Ecole Aliwaa, please watch our video made by one of our generous volunteers. The short clip features some a pre-school students dressed in their best clothes to show off the school they are so proud of.