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NEF has a dozen staff based in offices in Rabat, Ouarzazate and Agadir.
1) Primary Education Reform: The US Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative has funded NEF since 2004 to enhance enrollment and retention in rural primary schools, particularly for girls, in the High Atlas Mountains.
- From 2004 to 2007, on a budget of $600,000, NEF's program focused on 21 schools in the Ghessate and Imminoulaoune rural communes in the Ouarzazate province with 3,000 students and increased overall attendance by 35%, girls' attendance from an average of 10% to 100% and retention to 98%.
- In October 2007, at the request of the Ministry of Education and with a budget of $1.5 million for 2 1/2 years, NEF began implementing the fieldwork into a model for community-driven rural primary education reform to be used throughout the Soussa-Massa-Draa Region, which consists of seven provinces.
2) Local Governance: NEF is responsible for providing social support and mediation mechanisms to urban slum dwellers and technical assistance and training to local civil society organizations, as part of a three-year USAID project to support the Government of Morocco's "City Without Slums Initiative". NEF has an $800,000 budget through RTI, the implementing agency.
- NEF has relocated 910 families in Nouaceur; developed links between the slum residents and local government; settled over 50 disputes between residents and officials, provided access to banking services for mortgage and savings programs, developed a Women' Center for income generating projects, and strengthened CBOs.
- NEF will begin work in 3 slums in Mansouria in November 2007. A social assessment already has been conducted.
NEF's History in Morocco: NEF's work with rural communities in southern Morocco began in 1987. A dairy goat and family nutrition project helped to establish a cooperative cheese factory that remains in operation, independent of outside assistance. An appropriate technology training center, founded in 1993, focused on income generation, sustainable agriculture and food processing, water, and health. In 1997, NEF's efforts began to focus on creating village associations to help rural communities organize and build infrastructure. A micro-credit program supported weaving and beekeeping. Adult literacy projects taught women with NEF-developed Berber language materials; and local women's committees taught health skills with similar Berber training manuals. NEF's activities have reached 41 villages in Ouarzazate, Zagora, and Oujda provinces with more than 20,000 of Morocco's poorest citizens.
Latest Reports From the Field:
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Reports From the Field ; Morocco - Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Quality Standards--Motto of NEF-Morocco's Summer Camp 2007
A total of 111 students, including 35 girls, from rural areas of Iminoulaoune and Ghessate and the City of Ouarzazate, went to camp this summer. They are eager learners and participants in NEF's (Near East Foundation) breakthrough primary education reform in Morocco's remote desert and High Atlas mountain areas. All of the rural campers and half of those from the city had never seen the sea before splashing and playing around was part of their daily morning routine from July 19 to August 2.
T ... (more) |
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Reports From the Field ; Morocco - Wednesday, June 20, 2007
NEF-Morocco Celebrates National Day of Children's Rights
In keeping with NEF's (Near East Foundation) very successful educational reform underway in Berber villages in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, almost a thousand children, eight school principals, 36 teachers, two school inspectors, 97 PTA members, and 42 village women took part in NEF's festivities in conjuction with Morocco's May 25th National Day of Children's Rights.
Encouraging education in rural areas of the country, once opening remarks were concluded, participants plunged into a r ... (more) |
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Reports From the Field ; Morocco - Thursday, May 24, 2007
NEF-Morocco Attends To Participation And Creativity Of All
Morocco is a society in transition, impacting young people in particular...this country's future, but Moroccan adults are affected as well. NEF's educational work is covering all the bases, evident in a number of recent activities.
This spring NEF and the Ouarzazate branch of the Education and Development Society partnered on a nine-day workshop for the enrichment of Moroccan teens 14-to-16 years old. Main topics were human rights, citizenship, culture as well as just plain fun--formally la ... (more) |
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Reports From the Field ; Morocco - Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Yet Another Ambassadorial Visit To See NEF's Moroccan Education Reform in Action
In back-to-back months, NEF's (Near East Foundation) highly successful literacy project in Berber villages in the High Atlas Mountains has been honored with visits from top ranking members of the diplomatic corps posted in Morocco.
French Ambassador Jean-Francois Thibault visited a project school in Timicha March 12th, just weeks after US Ambassador Thomas T. Riley paid a call at project headquarters in Ouarzazate February 2.
The French ambassador's tour was comprehensive, including a ... (more) |
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Reports From the Field ; Morocco - Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Ambassadorial Visit to NEF Moroccan Literacy Project
"NEF does beautiful work...keep up your courage and carry on."-- solid praise from US Ambassador to Morocco Thomas T. Riley for NEF's (Near East Foundation) educational reform in Moroccan Berber villages. He visited project headquarters in Ouarzazate February 2 accompanied by M. Mohamed Ichnaren, Governor of the Province of Ouarzazate.
A high protocol occasion, the ambassador toured a special exhibition of the NEF project's accomplishments and activities to date at the young women's home Dar ... (more) |
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