Hello there--My name is Paula Derrow, and I'm raising funds for Aziz Bouhayat, a young man I met while traveling in Morocco in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. Aziz has a dream: He would like to buy a coffee cart and brew coffee for tourists in the desert, as they pass through on their way to the Sahara. My husband Randal and I met Aziz in the dining room of the (nearly empty) hotel where we were staying back then, and we ended up spending hours talking and listening to his live music (gorgeous) as well as his dreams of starting his own business one day. We have kept in close touch since then, and he is now married with a young son, and is working as a camel handler at a camp in the desert, often performing his music for guests in the evenings. Though he is working, it has been a hard road. Between COVID and the devastating earthquake in Morocco a few years ago, Aziz has had to spend long months away from his family for work, and in the summer, when tourists are scarce, he has no work at all. That is why he would like to launch this new project, a mobile coffee cart, and serve high-quality coffee to tourists, locals, and travelers as they cross the desert. The coffee cart he would like to buy (see photo) along with supplies, should cost $750 to $1500, which is more than most Moroccans make in a month. I believe in Aziz--he is bright, enterprising, warm, dependable, and anything you can spare will go a long way toward changing his life for the better.