Project Timidarte

Project of education and ameloration of life for young people in Timidarte

What is this project about?

Timidarte is an oais village with about 3400 habitants. Meanwhile it has become the “beacon” of the Dra Valley with his already well-organized Tiskala Association.

They have an 28-year-old black female mayor who is a human rights lawyer.
The Association has refurbished the Kasbah. With the money for overnight stays the support projects for alphabetisation and other projects for women and also the school bus. 90% of children go to secondary schools (average in Morocco only 45%). Further projects are under way, such as the renovation of the Ksar with its highly interesting mosque and the community center. Here, a center of information and encounter with Islam and the tradition of the historic caravan route to Timbuktu will emerge. The plans are already well advanced and first construction activities have already begun. Jobs will be created here and sustainable tourism will be established.

Hussein Achabak is the gray eminence behind most of these activities. He is an eco-activist and was involved in several projects of ecologic development of the region. (have a look on the site of Kasbah Timidarte: http://www.kasbahtimidarte.com/)

The oasis is a highly complex and fragile but still perfectly functioning ecosystem, closely linked to the village’s social system and the unwritten law of the oasis. Rarely in Morocco you find such biodiversity. There are no cars, not even motorcycles. All work in the fields is still done by hand. No herbicides or pesticides get into the oasis. It is a garden of Eden. There are still enough people in there who are doing the hard work, but more and more they see what is gonoing on in Europe and Casablanca and the graduates are looking elsewhere for work. The oasis feeds 3400 people, who still build their houses in the traditional clay building style and thus can survive without air conditioning in this extremely hot and in winter quite cold region.
It is worthwhile for the world and for these wonderful people with their rich social, ecologic and musical tradition to set up a project that has the defined goal of creating motivation to stay there and maintain this ecosystem.

We can make an important contribution in two ways:

1) By caring for and respecting this way of life and the people there, we value the people there who often consider themselves “backward”. When we make them understand that they still possess something that we have lost, and that they are the ones who get something with their lifestyle and work that has been destroied in our countries, then they feel upgraded and valorised.
(A key experience for me was observing the women weeding in the wheat fields in springtime – straw for straw. The grass was transported on donkey back into the stables of farmhouses and used as feed for the cows and sheep. There are still many fertilizing bees and other insects there is still an enormous variety of fruit trees and the biodiversity is not destroyed by herbicides. Weeding – instead of glyphosate – it works without chemistry – none of the 3400 inhabitants are starving and few are sick – many are over 100 years old)

2) By providing the association with the money for creating a job for Ismail, a well-educated young man from the village who has studied English and Animation. He developped a program (see PDF) to give the young people a perspective to stay. 

The short-term goals of the project are to communicate English skills that enable communication with interested guests and partner organizations. In addition, history lessons will play an important role. The Moroccans have almost no historical consciousness, and in the schools only the common knowledge controlled centrally from Rabat is taught, regardless of the regional conditions. Especially the Dratal can look back on more than 6000 years of history. Here the caravans of Timbuktu crossed through. History was written here. Waking up the interest and awareness of the already proud Berbers is an important part of the project as well as the video archiving of interviews with the ancients, who lived in Ksar before the independence of Morocco and who can tell a lot. The systematic collection and documentation of the oral laws of oasis and agriculture and irrigation are further parts of the project, which make the project and the village interesting for Moroccan scientists. If everything goes the way the Association people would imagine, the project will have far-reaching positive consequences for the village and the entire Dratal.

Farern’s goal, starting from Timidarte, is to classify the entire Dratal with its oases, this highly fragile ecosystem, as a World Heritage Site, which will have far-reaching positive effects on the lives of the people there. The oases will be protected from clearing and decomposition. Swimming pool and luxury hotels will not be allowed to be built anymore. The products will be an organic brand (delicious dates and fine organic wheat, oats and corn), which can bring their sales in Europe at a good price, well above twice what the farmers currently do on the Moroccan general market. This project starts where something already exists and builds on already well-functioning structures. It initially creates a job in the village and more will follow.
The money, which we collect for it (about 5000 euro per year, only once for 2 years), goes to the account of the Association and sets the Ismail then officially with social security and health insurance. He has to give us an report of the activities. I myself am often there and will convince myself of the correct use of the money. No penny goes into the administration somehow.

From a donation of 500 Euro, there is a free weekend with 2 nights in Timidarte with guided tour in the oases and meeting with representatives of the organization. This bonus is also transferable if a donor can not perceive it.

The money transfer takes place with the keyword “Project Timidarte” to the account of a charitable organization in France, which then passes the money on to the Association in Timidarte. It also issues a receipt and will issue a donation receipt before the tax office at the end of the year.

For inquiries I please do not hesitate to contact me

Michael Gentschy

004915118207270,

info@marokko-hautnah.de

If you made the donnation, please write me an email with your name and adress and i will inform you about the progress ot the project and organise the receipt for you.

Further informations >>>PDF