Improve Rural Moroccan Schools: Sami's Project

The availability of sanitation facilities in primary schools in Morocco is a critical challenge. According to UNICEF, in 2018, only 76 percent of Moroccan public primary schools had basic sanitation infrastructure. Historical data highlights the severity of this ongoing issue: in 2015, approximately 5,000 schools—two-thirds of the total—did not have toilets. When rural "satellite" schools are included, the picture becomes even more drastic, with UNICEF reporting that the majority of boys and girls attending public rural primary education lack access to basic sanitation.

A school without a toilet is a difficult environment for every single student, regardless of gender. Currently, entire student bodies face the same basic problem: there is no safe or sanitary way to manage their daily needs. This creates a universal health risk. When waste is not managed, germs spread across the school grounds, putting both boys and girls at risk of illnesses like dysentery and typhoid.

Furthermore, this lack of infrastructure disrupts the school day for everyone. Students are often forced to "hold it" for hours, which causes physical pain and makes it nearly impossible to concentrate in class. When the physical need becomes too urgent, students have to leave the school grounds to find a private spot in the fields. This means students are missing class time and losing their focus on learning. It creates a chaotic environment where basic survival takes priority over education.

While the lack of facilities is hard for everyone, it creates specific and significant complications for female students. Girls have specific hygiene needs that require strict privacy and clean water, particularly when they are menstruating. In a school with no toilets, managing this becomes extremely difficult and stressful.

Without a private space, a simple biological process becomes a logistical nightmare. Girls are often forced to stay home simply because the school cannot provide the basic privacy they need to manage their personal care. Additionally, needing to find a secluded spot outside for privacy is often more dangerous and socially difficult for girls than it is for boys. These extra hurdles mean that girls face more interruptions to their learning, not because they don't want to learn, but because the environment does not support their basic needs.

Building proper toilets is a practical solution that benefits the entire school community immediately. It ensures that no student has to choose between their health and their education. By providing clean, private spaces, we eliminate the need for students to leave the school grounds, keeping them safe and present in the classroom.

This investment improves the quality of life for every child. It allows boys and girls alike to focus on their studies without discomfort or embarrassment. For girls specifically, it removes the extra obstacles that make attending school difficult, ensuring they can come to class consistently. Ultimately, a functional toilet block restores dignity to the entire student body and creates a professional, functional atmosphere where education comes first.
The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is taking direct action to close this gap. We view sanitation not just as a hygiene issue, but as a basic requirement for education. Before the Al Haouz earthquake, HAF successfully built sanitation facilities for 10 schools, improving the daily lives of hundreds of students.

For the majority of my childhood, I never had an answer to the commonly asked question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I knew I wanted to have a career that helped people, but could not get any more specific than that, and no one job stood out to me more than the rest. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school, when I took an Environmental Science class, that I was introduced to a whole new world of possible career fields that finally had an impact on me. This class was just the beginning, and while I still cannot fully answer the question of what I want to be when I grow up, I know it will involve some role in furthering our collective sustainable development goals for a better future.

I think about where I would be if I had not taken this environmental science class in high school. For many students around the world, this kind of environmental education is unattainable. According to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands. It lies also in the hands of today’s younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations.” How can today’s youth become the leaders of this movement without having the necessary knowledge or empowerment tools to understand the role they can play in making a difference? As International Youth Day approaches (August 12th), it is important to take the opportunity to highlight this highly important part that young people around the world have in a global realization of sustainable development.

It has been shown that young people not only want to contribute to capacity-building in their communities but they are already active participants in proposing new ideas for social progress. The concept of youth work is a series of professional principles, practices, and methods which are often described as the science of enabling youth people to believe in themselves and build positive futures. This concept focuses on harnessing youth leaders’ potentials as agents of change and empowerers of marginalized youth from different backgrounds. Important to this process is the development of the existing skills and attributes of youth for long term-capacity building, rather than focusing on “fixing a problem”. 

When youth are engaged in a way that offers them the necessary skills and opportunities to reach their inherent potential, they can become a driving force for sustainable development by encouraging their peers to engage in the movement as well. Young people themselves best understand the problems that youth face today, therefore, positioning them in an ideal position to become the leaders of projects to achieve the sustainable development goals.

With an understanding of the transformative power of youth development, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) has incorporated these ideas as a high priority in our mission. HAF aims to merge the fields of environmental protection with youth engagement and development, creating groups of young people who are excited about the world they live in and even more eager to protect it.

Because education access is still a challenge across Morocco, HAF aims to address first the present state of the Moroccan school system and support students by addressing their needs in this area. Capacity building for students directly enhances their ability to then empower others around them, in a self-amplifying cycle.

HAF’s engagement with youth occurs in a range of ways. Collaboration with leading international universities offer immersive and hands-on study abroad experiences that connect students from around the world with real-world development work. From these experiences, students can take the lessons learned back to their own communities and share knowledge that may be novel to them. 

HAF’s facilitation of the Youth Conservation Corps for young women (and now young men) allow youth to learn new practical skills and build capacity for environmental stewardship and advocacy, that once again can be taken back with each participant to their own communities. 

HAF also conducts a legal clinic program that gives university students from Moroccan law schools real-world, hands-on practice by providing free legal aid to underserved communities in Marrakech, Fes, and Oujda. This offers students an opportunity to engage with what they learn in the classroom on another level, benefiting themselves and the communities they serve.

Environmental education in schools is another pillar of HAF’s work with youth. HAF provides engaging and entertaining workshops to schools around the country for students to not only learn about the environment but also understand the value of becoming environmental stewards in their communities. I recently got to attend a workshop at a local orphanage where one of HAF’s field monitors held a workshop with the children all about tree planting. He highlighted different kinds of trees native to Morocco and the importance of planting trees, and all of the children got to participate in an actual tree planting. Seeing the excitement the kids had to learn about every step in the process gave me a lot of hope for our future of sustainable development so long as kids are simply given the resources to engage. 

Exposing youth to the ideas of environmental awareness and stewardship from an early age can be a determining factor for our ability as a collective to realize our sustainable development goals. Equally as important is the initial empowerment of youth to feel confident in themselves and their ability to make change in their communities and beyond. 

I know that my early environmental education played a major role not only in my awareness of environmental issues and the need for sustainable development, but also in my internal drive to actually take part in solving these same issues.

In light of this year’s International Youth Day, it is important to consider the ways in which today’s youth can be supported as the future leaders of the world, making sure all kids have the opportunity to engage with the environment like I was able to.

Links:

• High Atlas Foundation
• Our Work With Youth
• Support a Community Project