Dar Si Hmad Highlights of April 2020

In our previous blog article on Dar Si Hmad’s highlights of March 2020, you learnt that we all went under confinement during the couple last weeks of the month. Well, the situation has remained unchanged and we, happily, continue some of the work. Read on through this article to find out how creative we have been with this physical confinement that ensures our common safety!

Please expect a whole new NGO website. Working from home was the ideal time to do some desk-based work and revise our website. So stay connected because you will soon have our updates on www.darsihmad.org where a new institutional video will welcome you. All Dar Si Hmad team is excited about this long due update!

We virtually hosted a new intern who has contributed to making the UN Water and Climate Change chapters accessible to everyone. Dar Si Hmad had her, and this is for the first time ever, working remotely from the United States. Her Name is Ana Margarita “Gari” De Ramos, she first reached out to us during her Journalism and New Media training that she was taking in the School of International Training (SIT), and as part of the program’s assignment, all participants must complete an internship which she did with us from home due to the current global health situation. Gari has contributed with some great pieces of work, you will learn tremendously from her essays; continue being tuned to read them .

The second event, our Green Fridays - Ljamae Azgzaw  did take place but in a novel way, lecturer Lahcen Lquoute, participants and Dar Si Hmad’s staff organized it online. The session was around an amazigh Ode about the precious Argan Tree, the participants were invited to read and interpret. This topic was of great importance because the Argan tree plays a big role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem in the southwest region of Morocco, and also because it serves social and economic purposes too. Having this event held on a virtual platform was advantageous in the sense that it brought people living outside of Agadir to join the discussion, and thus the session benefited a larger public.

Apart from what Dar Si Hmad had within the organization, April 2020 contained many dates that were worthy of commemoration, at least on our social media platforms. The first date was the 7^th of April:  World Health Day which indeed concerns us especially with the Coronavirus spread all over the world. The UN Forum of Indigenous people was another event we were excited for, especially that the theme of the year was around the role of indigenous people in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. The event was postponed considering the current health situation. And for the exact same reason, Dar Si Hmad wasn’t able to celebrate its 10^th anniversary on April 20. We are however very grateful for all those of you who actively engaged with us on our birthday’s post by sharing their favorite memories with DSH on their Instagram stories. Indeed, those were cherished moments for us too. And then came Earth Day on the 22^nd, a day we normally celebrate, but alas, the circumstances did not allow. And finally came the English Language day on the 23^rd, which was an opportunity to shoutout to all the native English language speakers who joined DSH’s language center and excelled in learning one of the Arabic and Tamazight varieties we offer.

Finally, April 2020 was concluded by the arrival of Ramadan which is the opportune time to invite people into considering the ecological awareness as an important component of their spirituality. For that, we have been posting daily quotes that teach and call upon revisiting one’s relationship with nature and the ecosystem. We believe that strengthening one’s ecological spirituality leads to building a healthier and more sustainable world. Thus, Dar Si Hmad will make sure to continue spreading this conviction even after the end of Ramadan.

Now that April is over, Dar Si Hmad is preparing a surprise for you this May. A new big important project that will make another milestone in the organization’s history, but also of that of our partners in the project. Stay tuned for the next session of Ljamae Azgzaw, on the last Friday of this month to learn more about what’s coming!

Dar Si Hmad Highlights of January 2020

Dar Si Hmad kicked off 2020 with the return of our Executive Director, Jamila Bargach, from the Oak Institute of Human Rights at Colby College. Energized by her return, Dar Si Hmad has already had a busy start to the new year and has laid the foundation for many exciting projects for the upcoming months.

Here are some highlights from this past month:

• Dar Si Hmad was nominated for the « Terre De Femmes» prize from the Yves Rocher Foundation. The prize recognizes the achievements of women in promoting biodiversity efforts. This month, representatives from the Foundation came to learn about and film our work in both Agadir and Ifni. 
• We are currently working on connecting a 16^th village to the fog water system. This month we achieved several milestones with the procedural work that is necessary for extending the project and providing the Taloust Valley with fog water. 
• With our educational programs, we ran hands-on lessons on permaculture both in Agadir high schools and in schools near our fog project in Aït Baamrane. These programs encouraged students to reflect on their own consumption habits and the environmental impact of these habits. 
• We hosted many specialists and consultants at our pedagogical permaculture farm. These specialists helped us develop long-term plans for our farm and specifically discussed strategies for restoring the top soil. 
• On January 13^th, Dar Si Hmad participated in a celebration of the new Amazigh new year (2970), organized by students from Ibn Zohr University. As part of this event, we held an art exposition featuring paintings from our Rhizomes Arts Artistic Residency that took place last September. 
• Finally, we are in the process of preparing for our 2020 Ethnographic Field School programs. We will be hosting a group of professors from Quinnipiac University in February, and a group from Lewis and Clark University this March. Our Executive Director and Ethnographic Field School Manager have already visited a permaculture farm with the Lewis and Clark students as part of their Marrakech-based program, and the students will soon be joining us for a full program in Ifni and Agadir!

Dar Si Hmad has kicked of 2020 with many projects, and we are excited to see what else is in store for the new year! Stay tuned for our annual report recapping all of 2019.