This agricultural and multicultural project responds to the demand for high-market-value fruit trees by building nurseries on arable land lent by the Moroccan Jewish community. Villagers will be trained in arboriculture methods and nursery management to grow saplings for donation to nearby farming families. This interfaith, intercultural initiative will increase incomes and benefit thousands of disadvantaged rural people. Donate now to plant fruit trees with interfaith partners in Morocco!
Morocco has a strong history of inter-religious cooperation. This project establishes a multicultural partnership to tackle the national problem of rural poverty. Population growth combined with the low market value of traditional staple crops (barley and corn), from which most rural households derive their income, has undermined agricultural sustainability, compelling farmers to transition to commonly fruit trees. Seventy-five percent of rural families earn less than the national average.
This House of Life project relies on Morocco's long interfaith history to build organic fruit tree nurseries on freely lent land adjoining Jewish burial sites, producing free or lower-cost saplings for the benefit of farming communities. Community-managed and supported by the High Atlas Foundation, the nurseries raise organic seeds into saplings. Once matured, the young trees are transplanted by small-scale farmers and school communities around Morocco, enhancing incomes and the environment.
Launched in 2012, House of Life upholds the notion that Morocco's multicultural past and present, and the preservation of it, should necessarily advance the sustainable development of the country by providing a tangible and vital pathway for the social and economic benefit of generations of Moroccans to come. HAF anticipates increased income for 5,500 farming families (who are predominantly Muslim) per year from fruit and plant sales in these interfaith House of Life nurseries on Jewish land.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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