Support High Atlas community earthquake resilience

Thank you for your unstinting support of this project. Before our report today, some news you might be able to use:

If you're wishing your donation could do more, this week it can. From Monday 18 September through Friday, 22 September 2023, during GlobalGiving’s September Little by Little campaign, all eligible donations up to $50 USD per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% by GlobalGiving. 

What we did today

• We helped the Aerial Recovery team set up camp in Taourirt, to provide medical assistance. They will provide aid over the next 4 days. We accompanied them with essential medicines and medical supplies. Within hours of their purchase, that donation of pharmaceutical supplies was easing pain, treating conditions and literally saving lives. Team members Youssef and Hakima translated for the doctors with great sensitivity.
  
  
• An anecdote that brings our team's commitment into clear perspective: as we were returning after dark to Marrakech on washed-out mountain roads, we learned that the interpreter we had arranged to accompany the doctors over coming days couldn't reach them until noon the next day. His daughter's school had collapsed and he had to drop her off at a more distant one. After discussing possible solutions, Hakima quite suddenly asked to be dropped at the next gendarmerie post, so she could return to the communities. That way, she could ready to interpret for the doctors the next day at 9 am to help them interact with community members in need of medical assistance.

What we learned

• We reflected today on the value of rest. The rest we are trying to enable for community members, by sourcing and delivering mattresses, blankets, and temporary shelter; and by seeking trauma counselors to meet with community members. Our own rest, amidst the work to sustain these efforts over the long haul. So, most of our team took a well-deserved rest Sunday, 17 September, after over a week of continuous visits and around-the-clock monitoring of aid requests. (See map of sites we visited this past week, below.)
  
  
• Assessing needs and coordinating relief and recovery efforts are essential at this point in the response to the crisis. GDF, MBLA and other current and potential partners are uniquely placed to assist with the recovery and resilience phases. GDF is working to build a coalition of partners that will help to address these issues and opportunities.

What we’ll do next

• The team also took the opportunity to strategise on field visits, workflow and supply distribution over the coming week. Supplies from our Agadir-based team reached Marrakech, to be distributed starting tomorrow (See image of aid, and regional map).
  
  
• This week we are procuring the materials needed to build toilets in the tented camps, in response to a request from displaced community members.

Images

1. Cover image: What we’re working to rebuild. L to R: Supporting girls' environmental education at Dar Taliba da Ourika; documenting Ait Atta nomadic herding traditions; building plant nurseries to restore wild plant abundance and supply families in High Atlas villages and community conserved areas; documenting, assessing and tracking biodiversity indicator species; and supporting cooperatives, many led by women. Source: Cover image, MBLA Facebook page, posted 19 May 2023. 

2. Material to support rest: mattresses and blankets in the first tranche of supplies assembled by our Agadir team reach Marrakech for distribution. Source: MBLA 

3. Map showing many of the sites where we provided aid in the first week after the 8 September 2023 High Atlas Earthquake. Source: GDF/MBLA Earthquake Response Map

4. Map showing the locations of Marrakech and Agadir, where our teams are based, relative to the sites of the communities we're supporting. Source: GDF/MBLA Earthquake Response Map

Today’s cover image, a 2022 video still of Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association (MBLA) Executive Director Rachid, speaks to why the teams does what it does. In seeking images to share with you of GDF and MBLA's shared work, we want to complement the images of destruction, of the aid we are providing, and the enormous challenges communities are facing, with other, different ones.

These images will convey glimpses of the dignity, knowledge, determination and resilience that High Atlas Communities possess: that they know how to create, and recreate. Our team, and your support, will help that knowledge to guide our efforts, and will enable theirs.

These images will also give you context for our efforts: today included some aerial shots from our photo archive. They help to explain why the plant nurseries—some built on flat, open ground, and organized to enable sapling and plant distribution—have become sites where people are receiving, coordinating and distributing aid, sheltering and regrouping.

What we did today

• Our team visited the 36 families from Awrigh village that are currently camping in Imegdal plant nursery (see pre-quake images of the nursery, below), to assess their specific needs and distribute the following supplies:
  Solar Lamps, 5 units; Sandals; Tents, 3 units; Electricity Cable, 100 metres.

• We also arranged for volunteers to distribute supplies in Agured Village, Oukaïmeden. (See images of our plant nursery there, below). Supplies delivered: Blankets, 48; Mattresses: 25 (see images); Warm clothing; Sandals

What we learned

• We then visited Tiniskt and Ifghan villages to assess the extent of devastation in the area. In Ifghan, the houses are completely inhabitable, with 60 households currently living in tents or in the open. Thankfully, there have been no reported deaths in the village, but they have lost 90% of their livestock and seed storage.
  Supplies Delivered: One big tent; Solar lamps; Sandals.

• The most pressing present needs are toilets, tents (see images) and plastic coverings to protect against the weather. We are working with various suppliers and donors to arrange these, and with community representatives to assess where and how shelter and sanitation facilities can be set up.

Partners and collaborations

• We are working with the international humanitarian Aerial Recovery team to send medical caravans on future trips ,and with recognized Marrakesh architectural firm Archimath to assess how houses can be rebuilt using paraseismic techniques and local materials. We are also collecting fodder from various places to be distributed from next week to support livestock.

Images

1. MBLA Director Rachid on what motivates the team’s work. Source: 2022 MBLA video still, YouTube.

2. In another image from the same vide, Imegdal nursery manager and community researcher Hamid speaks to the challenge of creating the plant nursery now sheltering families in Imegdal, where he is now coordinating aid efforts.

3. image of an aid delivered to Imegdal early in our response. Source: (MBLA Instagram, mbla.morocco)

4. Mattresses our Agadir-based team acquired on 13 Sep 23, now being distributed. Source: MBLA IG, mbla.morocco.

5. High Atlas communities built on rocky hillsides preserve flatter, fertile valley floors near water sources for agriculture. (2022 video still, Anamer village, Imegdal rural commune).