A student helps recover from the Morocco earthquake during co-op work

Michaela Creel spent a semester with the High Atlas Foundation, visiting farmers affected by the major earthquake that struck Morocco last September.

Share this story Copy link Link copied! Email Facebook LinkedIn Twitter WhatsApp Reddit Michaela Creel, a third-year student, spent last semester in Morocco where she worked at a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable development. Photo by Matthew Modono/Northeastern University

The High Atlas Mountains region of Morocco is home to farms that have been producing products such as olives and almonds for many generations. But many of them were hit hard by last year's earthquake, creating a need for recovery in communities that were already undergoing work to become more sustainable in today's changing world.

Michaela Creel, a third-year international affairs and cultural anthropology major, got a front-row seat to this work last semester while working collaboratively for the High Atlas Foundation, a nonprofit in Marrakesh. It was founded by former Peace Corps volunteers in 2000 and is dedicated to promoting sustainable development in Morocco by working with the community.

Creel wasn't originally planning to travel abroad to participate in her first co-op, but when she saw the High Atlas Foundation's listing, she was intrigued by how combining her interests would give her hands-on experience in community engagement rather than just spending her days sitting at a desk.

“It's an interesting combination of my specialties,” she said. “It had this cultural aspect of dealing with people in the field, but the international affairs aspect was international cooperation. I thought it would be a really good experience for me.”

Michaela Creel's collaboration included creating content for the High Atlas Foundation's website, including taking photos during field visits to local farms. Courtesy photo

The High Atlas Foundation has three “pillars” of focus, Creel said. The organization does a lot of work in agriculture; It has planted more than 5 million trees in farming communities and produces 2 million seedlings annually to help support people in more than 15 counties. It also focuses on women in the workforce, holds workshops to help educate women and empower them to start their own businesses, and helps design water systems that can produce clean water for drinking and irrigating crops.

The organization's goal in all its work is to create systems that are sustainable and maintainable over the long term. To help with this, most of its employees are Moroccans and from the villages the organization works with, Creel said.

“It depends on the community,” she added. “They go in and ask people and villages what they need.”

Given the recent earthquake, Creel said much of the work when she was at the co-op in early 2024 was focused on helping farming communities.

“There are a lot of very old rural communities, and they have been farming for a very long time,” Creel said. “There was a lot of relief because… the epicenter (of the September 2023 earthquake) was actually in the mountain range. This has affected a lot of those communities in many ways.

Creel's role was focused on communications, which meant she joined the team as they distributed seedlings, met local farmers, visited market markets to meet women who weave and sell their rugs, and worked to rebuild water canals that were destroyed in the 2013 earthquake.

Creel takes photos and notes and then creates content for the HAF website about the work, whether that's writing blogs or reflections on her fieldwork or reports to donors showing them the progress HAF has made on projects.

One of her most notable assignments was to create an interactive tour of one of the High Atlas Foundation's nurseries where users could have a “conversation” with the nursery's caretaker to learn more about the trees and the nursery's history in honor of International Day of Forests.

“I've never programmed before…so I think that's what I was most proud of,” Creel said. “I definitely learned a lot.”

Creel spent her semester living with two other cooperatives in Medina. Although moving to a new country was an adjustment, she said it was ultimately an overwhelming experience.

By the end of the five months she spent living and working there, she said, she knew everyone on her street, including the man who owned a fruit stand outside her apartment and who gave her and her roommates free fruit. Creel was there during Ramadan, so her classmates who were fasting during this period would invite her and her roommates to meet at the end of the day to break the fast.

“It was much easier to integrate than to join a program abroad,” she said. “When you work there, it's more immediate. We were able to see a different side (of the country) that I think I wouldn't have been able to see than if I had just studied abroad. Everyone is very open there. … How welcoming everyone is to bring you into those traditions. This was something I really loved and resonated with me.

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