A Summer Breeze… from the DSH Agadir Center

Our blog at Dar Si Hmad has been silent for few months now… we have been caught in the midst of adjusting to administrative changes and taking time to constructively reflect on the work we so passionately do with and for our communities.

Safe drinking water has been flowing to all the communities in Ait Baamrane, we have now 8 more villages not to have suffered through the scorching summer-heat to go fetch meager water-amounts from distant wells. They have celebrated the holy month of Ramadan with even more happiness, celebrating water available within the households.

This past summer we have hosted high-school pupils from under-represented groups in the US and we are extremely proud to say that this first experience was an astounding success. The EFS manager Maisie Breit and the DSH team committed all their energy and know-how to delivering a successful program. Gender, race, and indigenous culture were presented, discussed, and scrutinized in different social contexts, thus unveiling how structures of power function in our multiple worlds today.

This summer we have also hosted two very promising researchers from the US, all working on Agadir as their research-site. Their work on ecological issues facing this touristic city is not only timely, but ask key questions as water scarcity and water-waste.  Some of these questions were subsequently taken up by the Climate Chance meetings to have just taken place here in Agadir from the 11^th-to 13^th of September.  All NGO actors coming together to continue and/or initiate the work for a better stewardship and care of our planet. DSH was an active actor during these meetings.

This summer we have hired a new office manager, Abbes Benaissa who comes with a rich experience working in NGOs in Morocco and overseas. We are learning and benefiting from his “past life” and discovering all the enriching new paths in front of us.  New ways of collaborating with other environmentally minded NGOs, with European based volunteers, and with a host of bohemians, free-spirits, folks in love with life and with all the beauty we learn from observing it.

This spring, we also hired a new RISE program officer, Soufian Aaraichi. Another cool breeze of calm and serenity. With Soufian, just like Abbes, other types of free-spirits are joining the organization and taking the environmental work to a new level of connections. All are welcoming and carry the promise of a better today.

From left to right: Soufian, Abbès from their excursion in Wim-Timdouine

This summer we were blessed by a very special visit. All fog-projects in the world place the Chilean case on a pedestal of sorts, it was the first, large-scale and most successful initiative to have endowed fog with the title of a noteworthy source of water. The Fundación un Alto en el Desierto came to visit our fog-project and see how the new CloudFishers function. The blessing of these prophets of fog from Chile to Morocco was a true inspiration to nurture our continuing determination.

From left to right: Mounir Abbar, Natalia Robert and Nicolas Schneider (director and president of Un Alto En El Desierto), Aïssa Derhem

This summer, Soufian Aaraichi, Khadija Changa and Jamila Bargach, we all travelled to the Northern part of Morocco and worked in the mountains close to the Fnideq.  This region is known by water-scarcity during the summer and by the presence of thick fog.  Our field-work concerned some 3 villages in order to evaluate the fog-potential and have the 192 households have access to water even during the dry-season.

Jamila, Khadija and Soufian enjoying the view on the stone quarry.

And finally this summer, we were offered some naked land in the mountains of Ait Baamrane in order to create a fog-fed farm employing the principles of permaculture. Greening the desert, and why not?  This small experiment in which the goal is to mitigate the encroaching Sahara in the region where we work. We are in the process of studying the project and looking into this future of possibilities.

So yes, our summer was quite busy and we are just so happy about it!

International Day of Rural Women

Thanks to Environmental Youth Ambassador Mohamed Ouabbou for this guest blog post about the International Day of Rural Women! We are proud to be working with young Moroccan male feminists.

This post is part of our "Road to Marrakech" social media campaign leading up to COP22. The first Sustainable Development Goal we are highlighting is SDG 5: Gender Equality. From all of us at Dar Si Hmad, happy Rural Women's Day!

The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on October 15, 2008. The idea of honoring rural women with a special day was put forward at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 - the same event where then-First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton first declared "women's rights are human rights". It was suggested that this day be celebrated as World Rural Women’s Day.

The United Nations International Day of Rural Women celebrates and honors the role of rural women who make up one-quarter of the world's population. Rural women are often the primary providers of food and sustenance for their families and contribute to the majority of global food production by constantly adapting to their environments with new agricultural techniques. They do this while frequently working in situations of poverty - bearing in mind that 76 percent of the world's extreme poor live in rural areas.

Today's commemoration aims is to address the human rights of all rural women, improving their working conditions and recognizing the important role they play in society. This is a vital step in ensuring the sustainability of human-nature systems.

In Morocco, many women survive through subsistence farming with limited other opportunities available to them. Poor infrastructure and limited access to credit means that raising enough income to support children's schooling is made more difficult in female-headed households - creating a vicious cycle of poverty and poor education.

Since its founding in 2010, Dar Si Hmad works to support mothers to improve their livelihoods in Southwest Morocco's rural areas. The organization utilizes pioneering research and technology and uses education and ecology to promote intercultural exchange and participatory development facilitating sustainable growth for the region. Some of projects particularly relevant to the International Day of Rural Women are:

• The world’s largest operational fog-harvesting system located in Aït Baamrane in Southwest Morocco. The system includes 600 m2 of nets that harvest fresh water from fog, serving more than 400 rural Berber residents, the majority of them women. Rural women in these villages once held the frequently burdensome role of fetching water. Having water piped directly into their homes means that residents no longer need to travel long distances for potable water. By controlling the household water supply and monitoring the fog system, women continue to maintain power as water guardians.
• Women's Empowerment trainings ensure that women of all backgrounds have the skills they need to take on leadership and decision-making roles, allowing for truly sustainable development.
• Dar Si Hmad’s E-Learning program helps young women in Aït Baamrane to succeed in national exams, opening doors to a wider range of opportunities and experiences.
• The Water School uses environmental concerns to engage rural communities in experiential learning. Children aged 7-13 explore the societal and natural realities of their world, expanding their capacities for and understandings of global change.
• Through the Ethnographic Field School, Dar Si Hmad invites international researchers and students to be a part of their inspiring work with local communities by facilitating academic and cultural programs and service learning. These visits provide new experiences for communities and help reduce the many stereotypes frequently held about rural women.

Two weeks ago, the above programs won a prestigious award from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in recognition of their support for rural women. Momentum for Change recognizes the transformative climate action projects that are already taking place on the ground. Momentum for Change is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat as part of wider efforts to mobilize action and ambition as national governments work toward implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Dar Si Hmad won under the "Women for Results" focus area that showcases women-led initiatives addressing climate change. Our "Women-Led Fog Harvesting for a Resilient, Sustainable Ecosystem" is gaining international attention and more groups are exploring how they can borrow from our learning in fog-harvesting, environmental education, and women-centered rural development to improve their own work.

While today's celebrations focus on the specific situations of  rural women, it is important to also acknowledge the value of rural women to economic growth, food security, and people's empowerment. As former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kofi Annan said, "When women thrive, all of society benefits."



Join Dar Si Hmad on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to learn more about how we are promoting and empowering rural women to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG 5: Gender Equality

The fifth Sustainble Development Goal aims to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls".

Each of the Sustainable Development Goals includes a number of specific targets. In our lead-up to COP22, Dar Si Hmad will be highlighting a few of the SDGs and how we partner with local communities and global initiatives to make progress.

For the United Nations and SDGs, Gender Equality means:

• ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere;
• eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation; 
• eliminating all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate; 
• ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life;
• ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences;
• undertaking reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws;
• enhancing the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women; and
• adopting and strengthening sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all level.

For Dar Si Hmad, gender equality means making sure everyone has the opportunity to make the most of their lives and their communities. We do this locally, nationally, and globally through a variety of programmes.

Tomorrow for the International Day of Rural Women, we will highlight the work we do with Amazigh women in Aït Baamrane's fog villages. Dar Si Hmad conducts bi-monthly capacity-building trainings for women, teaching functional literacy and mobile technologies. The workshops also explore cooperatives as routes to economic empowerment. These seminars were created to ensure that the time saved by the in-home water access brought through our award-winning fog project is invested in future generations of female leaders. The women have subsequently developed tools and skills and are on their way to becoming economically autonomous.

Meanwhile with younger girls, Dar Si Hmad promotes a variety of educational opportunities. Women around the world are discouraged from pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields - as well as higher education in general - by persistent sexist stereotypes. These negative messages sink in at a very early age and are reinforced throughout girls' lives. The Water School seeks to dismantle these internalized ideas through lessons on environmental science, providing opportunities for Berber girls to explore STEM fields. Our Streaming the Water School episode on "Girls in STEM" highlights the Water School's impact on young girls. For teenagers, the Girls' E-Learning program brings computer-based tutorials to young women in rural areas to help them prepare for exams, improving their access to higher education. As young adults, the RISE & THRIVE programs engage university and vocational students in professional skills development.

Nationally, Dar Si Hmad is a member of the Search for Common Ground National Coalition on "Empowerment & Rights". The Coalition focuses on strengthening the advocacy of women's rights in civil society organizations and engages in collaborative, non-adversarial campaigning for legislative reform. Our own Souad Kadi serves as an NGO Representative to the National Coalition to work toward increasing cooperation with key society stakeholders and reducing economic constraints for women.

On the international scale, Dar Si Hmad is proud to be a part of Michelle Obama's Let Girls Learn initiative. Let Girls Learn works "to ensure adolescent girls get the education they deserve. The program recognizes that around the world, girls face complex physical, cultural, and financial barriers in accessing education. As a girl grows older the fight to get an education becomes even harder. Her family must be willing to pay school fees. She may have a long, unsafe walk to school. She may be forced to marry. And she often lacks the support she needs to learn. Yet, we know that educating girls can transform lives, families, communities, and entire countries. When girls are educated, they lead healthier and more productive lives. They gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to break the cycle of poverty and help strengthen their societies. It’s time to Let Girls Learn."

In the documentary "We Will Rise: Michelle Obama's Mission to Educate Girls Around the World", the First Lady of the United States, actresses Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto, and CNN's Isha Sesay journey to Morocco and Liberia, where they meet young women overcoming incredible odds to change their lives. You can read more about Michelle Obama's passion for girls' education in this guest piece written by the First Lady for CNN.

Last Tuesday October 11th, in celebration of the International Day of The Girl, "We Will Rise" premiered at The White House. Two of our RISE Alumni, Zahra and Hasna, and our Director Dr Jamila Bargach were invited to The White House to attend the premiere.

We are proud to be working to Let Girls Learn - in Aït Baamrane, Agadir, and around the world.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to learn more about how we are doing this, the Sustainable Development Goals, COP22, and our work to fight for global gender equality and promote sustainable development for all.

Morocco's Rich Language Landscape: Studying Darija & Berber at Dar Si Hmad

As a language enthusiast, Morocco’s linguistic diversity never ceases to amaze me. As a native Spanish speaker, self-proclaimed Francophile turned Arabic aficionado, I was drawn to Morocco because of its convoluted linguistic intersections. While interning at Dar Si Hmad, I used some of my spare time to learn Darija and some basic Tachelhit with the excellent instructors at the Ethnographic Field School. I also look forward to continuing my studies of conversational Darija and Modern Standard Arabic during the remainder of my time at Dar Si Hmad.

But what inspired me to study three languages over the course of my time with DSH?

The linguistic landscape of Morocco is has been molded by its heritage, colonial past and aspirations to be a major player in the global stage. In Morocco, depending on where you are, you may encounter five or more languages on a daily basis: Moroccan Darija, Tamazight regional dialects, Standard Arabic, French, Hassaniya, Spanish and English. Each of these languages carry significance in Morocco’s cultural history and serve unique functions in society. We can certainly say that Moroccans are natural polyglots, as many speak at least three to four languages by the time they reach adulthood!

To start out, Moroccan Darija is a colloquial dialect that has strong foundations in classical Arabic, or Qur’anic Arabic, which came to this region from the Arabian peninsula during the Islamic Conquests and Arabization of the “Maghreb” in the 7th to 12th century. Classical Arabic has evolved into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is a commonly used and mutually understood written and spoken version of Arabic throughout the Arab world. However, MSA is not a widely spoken language. It is reserved for formal professional or academic settings and literary texts, such as books, newspapers, magazines, and official documents. Due to MSA’s function as a strictly formal version of Arabic, each country throughout the Arabic-speaking world has their own colloquial dialect that is an off-shoot of Arabic. The further away you go from the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East, the greater variety you find in the spoken Arabic of the people in those different countries. A linguistic comparison can be made to dialectal diversity you would notice between Murcian castilian and Andalusian castilian in Spain, for example.

Moroccan Darija is the language used in everyday life in Morocco. It is heavily influenced by the languages spoken by the Spanish, French and Portuguese colonizers of this region who came and left in waves before Morocco officially gained its independence in 1956. For example, semana, the Spanish work for week is simana in Darija. In addition, the Darija word for hospital sbetar bears close resemblance to the French word hopital. These are just some of many examples of words that exist in Darija that originate from the languages of colonial powers. To further complicate the situation, the Darija spoken in the northern part of the country can vary from the Darija spoken in the south. Moroccans themselves recognize linguistic differences between Fassi Darija and “Casaoui” Darija, for the Arabic variety spoken in Fes and Casablanca, respectively.

While Darija is mainly spoken in the streets, it can often influence Moroccans when they speak a more refined MSA in formal settings, causing there to be a middle version of semi-formal Arabic. Despite this fragmented picture of linguistic differences, many Moroccans hold on dearly to Arabic as their main language due to its association as the language of Islam, or the language in which the Holy Qu’ran was received by Prophet Mohammed. The place for MSA in a Moroccan society that is mostly Darija-speaking has been the topic of much debate in Morocco.

Furthermore, there are Amazigh languages spoken by the indigenous people of Morocco. The word “Berber” has been often used to refer to the Amazigh people, but some perceive it as derogatory term because it derives from barbarian, which was used by colonial powers when they first arrived in the country. However, “Amazigh” actually means “free and noble men,” an identity that continues to be a point of pride for many Moroccan Amazighen. While statistics on what percentage of Moroccans are of Amazigh background vary, a great majority of Moroccans claim Amazigh roots. There are three main dialects of Amazigh spoken in Morocco: Tirifit in the north, Tamazight in the center, and Tachelhit in the south of the country. The dialects that are closer in geographic proximity to each other can be understood by native Amazigh speakers. However, a native Tachelhit-speaker from Agadir will find it very difficult to understand a native-Tirifit speaker from Nador. While Amazigh languages may be transcribed in both Latin and Arabic characters, the ancient Tifinagh alphabet was standardized and officially recognized by Morocco in 2003. Through the efforts of some Amazigh nationalists, Tamazight was recognized as an official language in Morocco when the new constitution was passed by King Mohammed V in 2011. Tamazight is mostly spoken at home among family members and relatives. However, it has become increasingly present in Moroccan public spaces. For example, administrative buildings now provide signs translated in Tifinagh and Arabic scripts, Tamazight is taught at select public schools, and locals in predominantly-Amazigh cities like Agadir speak it casually amongst themselves.

While the colonial period officially ended in 1956 with the abolition of the French protectorate, traces of the colonial influence are still undeniably present in Moroccan society, especially when it comes to language. Following decades of French and Spanish influence in most of the country, the languages of colonial powers have made their way into almost all spheres of life. When colonial powers finally withdrew from the country, newly independent Moroccans found themselves inheriting colonial education systems and governmental structures. For this reason, French and, to a lesser degree, Spanish have left their mark on the Moroccan linguistic landscape. Spanish is widely understood and spoken in northern Morocco (and Dar Si Hmad’s hometown of Sidi Ifni). Places in the vicinity of Tangier and Tetouan have major Spanish-speaking populations, which is fueled by tourism from nearby Spain and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. While Spanish is not spoken at home or enforced at school, you may find Moroccans speaking it with each other or tourists in the area.

French has a longer and more complex history in Morocco. Due to the French colonial influence in pre-state and newly independent government institutions, the French language has maintained a strong presence in Moroccan society. While Moroccans learn Arabic, most who pursue education beyond the primary level can speak French at least conversationally. By the time Moroccans reach the university level in the humanities, almost all of their coursework is likely to be in French. Many Moroccans believe that French language skills are necessary in order to progress professionally in the country.

Similarly, English is now starting to gain popularity in Morocco as a global language, especially in a country that aims to open itself up to international business. Interestingly enough, Moroccan youth also see learning English instead of French as an act of resistance to France’s cultural hegemony over Morocco. Nearly half of the Moroccan university students participating in Dar Si Hmad’s RISE program prefer English over French for professional communication.

As you can tell, the linguistic landscape of Morocco is as complex as it is diverse, mirroring the richness of Moroccan society. There is no doubt that many linguists are attracted to Morocco because of its unique diglossic situation in order to make sense of this complexity. Certainly, the country will never cease to inspire those who are willing to take the time to unpack its many layers.