Morocco – Mobile Schools for Nomads

Literacy and schooling in tents

Thanks to the cooperation with the Crocus-Tifaout association, we can benefit from many years of experience in the projects in Morocco.

Help for nomads

The goal of the Moroccan association with which we are cooperating is to help Nomads in the South of the country, more exactly in the region of Midelt-Saghro-Nqob. They carry on multiple and various projects in order to achieve this goal, projects such as literacy for adults, medical campaigns or even marketing of crafts. When we heard about their mobile school project, decided that we would focus our attention and investment on this primarily.

A first class "room" in 2009

Even though it has been compulsory for Moroccan children to go to school for more than 15 years, nomadic people haven’t been able to comply because of their lifestyle. It was decided to address this issue, thereby birthing the school project. They successfully convinced the State to support the project and to provide teachers for it, and so the first class “room” (or should we say class “tent”?) opened in 2009. Since then, six other classes started and there are now around 220 students. Teachers and tents follow the nomads throughout their transhumance.

The needs

Today, the support provided allows the buying and maintainance of tents for the classrooms and canteens (a free lunch is provided for students who often walk long distances in order to attend school).

It also allows the project to give out school material for free and to give a monetary compensation to teachers as they find themselves working under harsh conditions. Indeed, it can be challenging for city people to live in tents without water – it sometimes snows! Over the next years and if our resources increase, we might extend the projects to new communities in need of schools.