Morocco Foundation teams up with US department store for charity project

2006-09-12

The Morocco Foundation is teaming with Macy's to raise money for its "Schools Without Borders" programme. The programme will benefit four rural schools near Essaouira.

By Farah Kinani for Magharebia in Washington – 12/09/06

[File] Four rural schools in Morocco will receive proceeds from some Macy's purchases on 16 September.

Some of the proceeds earned by the US department store Macy's on 16 September will benefit the Morocco Foundation "Schools Without Borders" programme, which targets rural schools in Morocco to promote education in underprivileged communities.

"The Macy's partnership is available to all [non-profit] organisations based in the United States," Morocco Foundation General Secretary Nadia Serhani told Magharebia.

Macy's gave the Morocco Foundation 100 tickets to sell for $5 apiece to consumers. The ticket allows the purchaser to receive discounts up to 20 per cent throughout the store.

The proceeds will specifically go to four schools in Ben H'mida, which are located 50km outside Essaouira, notes Serhani, adding that the foundation has been working with the schools to provide school supplies to be distributed on 20 September to all 315 children. According to her, the next step is to help provide the schools with bathrooms or washing facilities.

"The problem is major because over 120 female students were dropping out this year because of the lack of sanitation in the school," she stressed.

Besides Macy's, the Association of Moroccan Professionals in America is also a partner in the "Schools Without Borders" programme.

The association is a non-profit organisation established to promote networking between experienced, successful, and active Moroccan professionals in the United States.

The "Schools Without Borders" programme came about after persistent calls from teacher Khadija El Hadi to the Morocco Foundation about the dramatically severe situation of the children due to the absence of basic infrastructure in the Ben H'mida region, said a release from the foundation.

The Morocco Foundation is a non-profit organisation established and introduced in the United States by Moroccans in September 2004.

According to President Jalil Abou Fariss, the Morocco Foundation was created in the spirit of co-operation, unity, understanding, contribution, peace, and "most importantly communicating with our community here in the United States, abroad and in Morocco."

The Morocco Foundation is also working towards promoting peace by reaching out to friends of Morocco with the hope of building bridges of genuine human connection.

"Our good faith and great religion have been hijacked by lunatics who do not have the remotest idea what Islam means or stands for. Through this foundation, we hope to promote peace and strengthen the Muslim/Moroccan relationship with the Western world," Fariss said in an interview with the Morocco Times.

Among the other projects undertaken by the Morocco Foundation is the building of their second water well in the remote villages of Ait Baha in the Atlas Mountains. The first one was built last year in a boarding school in Souk Larbaa after the death of one of the schoolchildren while fetching water across the street.