The tremendous earthquake of September the 8th. last year brought devastating damage to the High Atlas. The epicentre was near the small town of Asni in the Al Haouz province, the foothills of Djebl Toubkal, Morocco’s highest mountain of just over 4,000m. Almost three thousand people died, over five thousand people were injured and whole communities have been displaced from their homes.

At the Califa we immediately organised a relief fund with online donations and the entire proceeds from the sales of our Harira soup (a staple for traditional diets all over Morocco) bringing in contributions from guests and friends from all over the world. Our original intention was to send food, clothing and shelter to the villages, our own Moroccan staff wanting to go in person to help with the relief. It became evident very quickly however that the relief effort was very well coordinated with support in all forms being organised on a large scale. The Moroccan Army and Air Force along with highly experienced international rescue teams were able to bring help to even the remotest villages and within days huge contributions of shelter and clothing made their way to those in need.
By the end of October we had achieved over 6,000€ in donations. Local authorities however were not accepting clothing or shelter and were actively discouraging outside help from non-governmental organisations as this was just putting undue pressure on local communities being well served by the official national and international aid organisations.
We changed our focus to a longer term project helping schools in the villages of the Ouirgane valley and mountains. “Collaborating with a local aid organisation Alp Atlas managed by the energetic Nadia Anmar we drove down to Asni (where 90% of the houses were destroyed) and on to Ouirgane to install wood burning stoves in the classrooms of both temporary and brick built schools where temperatures frequently fall below zero in the winter”, says James Stuart, Califa’s co-founder.
Coordinated by our Jardín del Califa general manager Khadija Essaadi and Nadia Anmar we met with local schools, teachers and of course school children.
“It has been a great satisfaction to directly see the work being done by local NGOs like Alp Atlas, especially in this area of the country, one of the most affected by the tragedy. From here, we want to thank the solidarity of all the customers and people who have participated in our campaign. All these generous contributions have made it possible to purchase 38 wood-burning stoves locally made in Khenifra,” says Khadija Essaadi, executive chef and manager of the restaurant El Jardín del Califa.

“My daughter Isabella (1st. year of Bachillerato) came along too, happy to meet the kids and see for herself how direct aid will help in the education of families in the region”, says James.

Asni was no longer the huddle of houses, both cement and mud brick that I remembered. As we drove through the village the long line of tents, stand pipes and ambulances told the story 5 months after the earthquake of how much damage had been done to the area.

As we see above almost the whole village of Tinzer has been displaced, views across the Atlas villages where once the adobe buildings were camouflaged against the red rock are replaced by views of tents and container shelters.
“In Ouirgane the bulldozers had been hard at work, endless empty plots scarred the village where once had lived so many families. As we approached the school we saw a happier side to the tragedy as well fed and well clothed children ran around the playground. With 18 dead in this village alone every family had a story to tell but the headmaster Mohamed Bouchant was upbeat telling us how quickly the children had adapted to their new lives with half the village living in temporary accommodation”.

“We found long lines of tents and portacabins with stickers denoting their origins from Kuwait to Holland, Britain and Germany amongst others. Water purifiers were prevalent but there was a positive sense of order and organisation in the two tented villages we visited. In two villages the schools were modern built, in another the classrooms were timber cabins perched on the hillside. None of them however had any form of heating and despite the thankfully mild winter this year daytime temperatures inside the classrooms are often below 10ºc”.
The government has promised to supply two tons of firewood per school, all from sustainable sources from Ifrane in the Middle Atlas as the High Atlas itself is immersed in a land regeneration project completely prohibiting wood as a fuel source. The school’s consequently have fuel but many have no heaters. All those generous donations have supplied 38 wood burning stoves made locally in Khenifra which will hopefully last many years. School is compulsory until 15 years old in Morocco, keeping kids warm will go a long way to help attendance especially in the winter months. Along with the 14,000€ the government has promised to every family with a ruined house and all the generous aid from around the world the Atlas mountains is well on its way to recovery.
In addition to the Califa Group, there are other organizations from Cádiz that have organized similar campaigns, such as the case of IES Casas Viejas (Benalup), which has collected €3,000 for the Moroccan NGO Asociación Alghad. Thus, a group of teachers and high school students visited the village of Tanisekt, within the municipality of Amagdal in the province of Ouirgane, to check the installation of a prefabricated classroom for the local school. They also brought blankets, educational materials, tablets, and other items. They even conducted workshops with students from the area. “We have had a very interesting experience that we will continue over time thanks to an agreement we have signed with Asociación Alghad. This solidarity trip has allowed us to see the reality, work on it, and involve the youth, introducing them to the solidarity way” says Antonio Verdú, director of IES Casas Viejas.