Rebuilding life in earthquake-ravaged Morocco

Psychosocial empowerment session organized by the High Atlas Foundation in Al Haouz Province (Photo by the High Atlas Foundation, February 2024).

Written by Yosef Ben-Meir

Joseph Ben-Meir

Marrakesh, Morocco – More than six months have passed since that disastrous night in the High Atlas Mountains in the Kingdom of Morocco.

Devastating earthquakes are terrifying realities, and only by waking up and taking action day after day can we hope to recover slowly, but surely. The gradual healing process takes many steps forward and in different directions, but ultimately to increasingly better places.

Here, I will share with you some observations about the High Atlas Foundation’s experiences in relief and reconstruction efforts in Morocco, as well as express what the affected families and communities consider to be essential points of support that can help them achieve emotional recovery and build a better future for themselves. which they seek.

First, we usually believe that there are clear stages that define the next period of catastrophic events, which certainly begins with comprehensive emergency aid, followed by relief measures, and ultimately rebuilding livelihoods, development and new growth. Fortunately, we went beyond comprehensive emergency assistance to save lives immediately after mountainsides collapsed onto homes. However, the following stages are not actually stages at all, but continuous, simultaneous fronts on which you need to advance immediately and every day.

Relief and reconstruction operations remain essential at the same time. We still need to deliver food, especially milk to infants and children; hygiene, cooking and other supplies; Fireplaces and other sources of warmth. The horrific drought in which we find ourselves has also intensified. Prices of basic food and other items have risen, deepening already difficult family conflicts. The price of olive oil, for example, one of Morocco's most vital foodstuffs, has nearly doubled since last year.

The trauma is still painful, and this can only be achieved through the courage of the surviving family members as they look for opportunities to confront the pain in one way or another and move forward. Rebuilding – especially water infrastructure for irrigation and drinking purposes – remains an urgent issue and a widespread necessity, especially since the earthquake occurred as the new planting season approaches. Water infrastructure is an integral part of the restoration and rebuilding process; Terraces are essential for agricultural farming and to stop significant levels of erosion and rockslides. Emotional recovery sets the conditions and priorities for rebuilding, and relief through the provision of food and other materials creates the comfort and calm necessary for psychosocial sessions to be as comprehensive and beneficial as possible.

All of this means that today we find ourselves in desperate need of enhanced relief, psychosocial support and rebuilding together, as much as we have ever had before.

The second lesson, which did not surprise us but gave us a deep level of reassurance in the HAF’s participatory empowerment methodology applied over the years, is that a true approach to community-led sustainability has a strong synergy with psychosocial healing that leads to empowerment. At HAF we have always known that IMAGINE's methodology of personal discovery that leads to planning and teamwork has emotional healing benefits. Inevitably, as we work in different parts of the country, the traumas that people experience in people's lives and homes come to the fore as they necessarily analyze their life circumstances in planning for the future they so desperately want. It stands to reason that, for example, we need to analyze our social relationships that lift us up or may hold us back as an important step towards identifying actions and projects that ultimately lead to sustainable personal and societal growth.

Specifically, we learned with post-earthquake humanitarian relief partners that the “Imagine” empowerment methodology that the High Atlas Foundation has facilitated with women’s groups in over 20 Moroccan provinces since 2015 is in fact also an effective applied approach to aid psychosocial healing and equip members of traumatized communities. Psychological needs. The tools to become functional and whole again. To understand this point, planning for community-based sustainable development should resemble, to some extent, strategies for individuals in group settings to promote emotional recovery.

Perhaps the final lesson is a sad irony of our world: This terrible crisis and terrible loss has provided the development opportunities that these same communities that were struck on September 8th need, building these canals and waterways, building these new terraces, installing these drinking water systems, and coming together. And reconciling any previous divisions to secure solidarity and joint action.

The idea is old and remains somewhat worrying that, for some reason, we have to lose in order to gain. As another example, the High Atlas Foundation, which has been planting trees with local communities in Morocco for more than 20 years, is now receiving new, useful trees. Greater investments in trees as understanding of the severity of the climate crisis grows. The rebuilding projects we are helping now are projects that for years, if not decades, have been people's priorities, only now being realized after the tragedy. How many lives could have been saved if the long-awaited dreams of development were realized before September 8? How many people would have been saved if we had built the terraces a year ago that we are building now? How much investment would we have had if revenues from tree planting, monitoring, and carbon offset credits had previously been available to reinvest in the same things we invest in now? Would he have stopped this terrible damage?

Perhaps the lesson is that we as human beings must do our best every day to help fulfill the will of the people, which may lead to saving lives tomorrow.

Looking forward, whether as a caring and generous individual or a representative of an institution, whether Moroccan or wherever we come from, there is a place for each one of us in the campaign for relief, reconstruction and psychosocial empowerment with the Atlas communities. It concerns children, women, men, young people and the elderly, the one and the many. It's about meeting the needs of today, tomorrow, and the next century. It is participatory, personal and public. They are water, renewable energy, food, education, health, culture, production, craftsmanship and agriculture. It's the skills and the infrastructure. It's all sectors, everyone in the affected areas. It is a cross-season initiative. We can be part of the healing to create a wonderful Moroccan reality driven in all respects by the communities themselves, partnering with all Moroccan sectors, and achieving what they set out to achieve long ago.

The High Atlas Foundation is committed to Moroccan society in every aspect of its diversity, to its national goal of empowering societies to explore and achieve their most sincere goals, and to the sustainable development of societies. We are grateful for our call to service, for the participatory, empowering, and psychosocial methodology we have developed over the years with wonderful partners, and for the resources that many thousands of people and many hundreds of organizations have brought together to this end. Community development.

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Dr. Yosef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation and a visiting professor at the University of Virginia (Office of International Studies).

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