In January of this past year, 31 of us – YU students in our Global Citizenship 2023 program -traveled to Morocco to spend a week visiting Jewish heritage sites, building cultural bridges with Muslim university students, volunteering, and expanding their leadership horizons. We spent the majority of the week in Marrakesh and traveled to the High Atlas Mountains. There we studied the triage of resources with Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, planted trees, and supported a women's cooperative to lift families out of abject poverty. Many of the villages we visited are now reduced to rubble.
Our close contacts on the ground are providing health care, food, shelter and necessities while also strategizing on larger infrastructure issues like rebuilding collapsed wells. Early intervention is the key to recovery.
In this season of teshuva, tefila, and tzedaka, please join our student-led campaign to raise $18,000 from Yeshiva University stakeholders and friends in the next few days. All monies collected will be sent to the High Atlas Mountains Foundation run by Dr. Ben-Meir. Funds will assist with critical short-term and long-term recovery.
We pray for the welfare of this country and its people and mourn with our students and alumni from Morocco. May our collective efforts across the world, do a world of good for those in crisis.
-Participants of Global Citizenship 2023: Morocco
