Giving Charity in Morocco - No Pens Please!

Giving is important for many travellers, especially in a country where there is very little in the way of a social safety net for the poor.  However, it is important not to encourage begging. This is especially important with children. A child who makes money from tourists is likely to beg rather than attend school

Every city will have several charities to help orphans and other disadvantaged children, women, disabled people and for working animals, the American Fonduk in Fez or Spana in Marrakech. Some you can visit and volunteer to help for a day, some will appreciate any spare clothes, games, unwanted mobile phones (if you are coming with a half empty suitcase for shopping bring some stuff to leave here) and some will just appreciate a cash donation.

Your Riad or hotel should be able to point you in the right direction. Check the authenticity of any charity you choose to support carefully.

Recently a traveller intending to visit Morocco posted on a travel advice forum.

We are coming to The Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert regions I have heard before that people took ballpoint pens to give to the children. My question is; Do the children still like to receive ballpoint pens?

Our friend, the ever helpful Tim Cullis responded:

Pens are actually extremely cheap in Morocco and are plentiful. Kids don't need yet more pens, what you give out as gifts are sold on or swapped. So please please please do not hand out pens, sweeties and anything else to children, and don't hand out medicines to anyone. It causes utter mayhem for other travellers. I almost took the eye out of one begging girl who got too close to my motorbike on a corner and the handguard hit her on the temple.

 sign erected by the authorities asking you NOT to do this

Translation: Don't make too much noise, keep a distance from wild animals, respect places of worship, avoid behaviour likely to shock locals, don't give to people--especially children--sweets, pens, drugs, so as not to encourage begging.

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"Our Africa" ~ Moroccan Children's Video Project

A few days ago The View from Fez wrote about a project being run by SOS Children, a UK-based international charity which supports orphaned and abandoned children worldwide. One of the interesting things about the way they operate is that their Africa project, Our Africa seeks to give young Africans the power to show Africa the way they see it.

The Our Africa project gives children the means of planning, scripting, shooting and editing their own videos about what it is like growing up in Africa. They began by running a series of workshops with a professional cameraman, who worked with children to help them develop the basic skills they would need to produce a film from start to finish.

After the workshop, a number of the children involved took a camera away with them and gathered footage about their daily lives. The range of videos created by children across Africa is extraordinarily rich and really does have to be seen to be believed. The films they produced are immensely watchable, and variously they are informative, funny, moving and intriguing. All of them are eye-opening.

Our Africa began primarily as a resource for schools – children in Africa would teach children in the UK what life is really like for them, escaping from the cliché of universal poverty and misery while not ignoring the darker sides of life. In its capacity as an educational resource, it has been immensely successful. But the videos children in Africa created have achieved a far wider appeal than anyone ever envisaged. They are accessible not only to children, but to adults too, and everyone can learn a great deal from these remarkable children.

Last year, as testament to its success, Channel 4’s Jon Snow presented the team behind Our Africa with the prize for New Media at the prestigious One World Media Awards.

In Morocco the films reveal much about the heritage and history of Moroccan society. One example is Couscous Friday in which Faduoa talks to her mother about the traditions behind couscous, a simple enough dish which when left in mum’s hands becomes a feast for the whole family. We learn not only about a Moroccan food culture, but also about the importance of family in Faduoa’s household, and the significance of food in the religious week.

But Faduoa’s mother perhaps best summarises the importance of good food in a language we can all understand: “When you are tired after working all day, you want to come home to something beautiful and tasty”.

Faduoa and her friend Rafik take us through many key aspects of Moroccan life, and their view of it is bright and optimistic because they are children. This speaks to the mood evoked by Our Africa as a whole, and the only way to get a true sense of this wonderful vibe is to log on and start watching.

You can check out all the Moroccan children's videos here OUR AFRICA- MOROCCO

SOS Children projects in Morocco

Ait Ourir
SOS began working in Morocco in 1985 when the first SOS Children's Village in Morocco was established at Ait-Ourir, about 40 km from Marrakesh at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. Built in traditional Moroccan style, it has fourteen family houses. The nursery, as in all SOS Children's Villages, is also attended by children from the surrounding area. In Marrakesh itself, there are five SOS Youth Homes that are home to the older children making the transition from family life to independence, under the guidance of a youth leader. A primary school was added in 1999 specialising in children with special learning needs.

Imzouren
SOS opened a second community at Imzouren in 1988, between the foothills of the Rif Mountains and the Mediterranean coast, about 20 km from Al Hoceima. The ten family houses are built in local traditional style and, like Ait-Ourir, the village has a nursery and a primary school (again, specialising in children with special needs).

Dar Bouazza
Morocco's third SOS Children's Village opened in 2000. SOS Children's Village Dar Bouazza is in a suburb of Casablanca, about 15 km south of the city centre, and was built on a site donated to SOS Children by the Moroccan royal family. The village has eleven family houses and a nursery and there is a separate youth house in the city centre. In 2001 an SOS Social Centre was built for handicapped young people, providing them with agricultural training and employment. Dar Bouazza also has a vocational training centre for SOS staff. A Family Strenghthening Programme started operating in 2011, and can help up to 140 children.

El Jadida
A fourth SOS Children’s Village opened at El Jadida in 2006. There are 12 family apartments for orphaned and abandoned children.

Agadir
A fifth SOS Children's Village in Agadir opened in 2008. It has 14 family apartments for up to 126 children, and it is located in the centre of Agadir.

Alongside these projects, are SOS Social Centres in Casablanca and Imouzzer Kandar, which together help over 1,000 children.

You can find out more here SOS Children Morocco 

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A New Documentary About Illegitimate Children in Morocco

Over the last few months The View from Fez has published a number of stories about the crisis in the orphanages in Morocco (see story here) and attempts to improve the situation. We have also reported on a proclamation by the government that seems set to hinder progress - the stopping of foreign adoptions (see story here). But this is an issue that will not go away until concrete steps are taken to bring Morocco into the modern world where adoption is seen as an act of compassion, not a problem to be eradicated. Assisting this process are activists, some more enlightened politicians and hundreds of thousands of Moroccan women. And now a new film will add weight to the calls for change.

The documentary, BASTARDS, is about illegitimate children and the fathers who abandon them. By following single mothers fighting for justice, the documentary addresses big social issues through small human stories….heart-warming and heart-breaking stories captured in the raw, as Moroccan men and women clash about sex, children, marriage and money. It's a surprising contemporary documentary that touches anyone who has loved or been betrayed. The filmmaker is Deborah Perkin


THE OUTCASTS

In the West, a documentary about single mothers, and children abandoned by their fathers is no big deal, but in Muslim countries, where unmarried sex is illegal, the stakes are incredibly high. This timely film captures stories from the cutting edge of Islam.

Illegitimate children in Morocco are outcasts, non people, bastards ... but recent legal reforms give single mothers the right to register their children, either alone, or by persuading the father to recognise the child in court. Registration on the state birth register means access to education and health care, and a respectable position in society. BASTARDS follows single mothers battling for these rights for their children.

THE ACCESS

The radical Casablanca charity L'Association Solidarite Feminine opened its case files to us, and the Moroccan Ministry of Justice granted unprecedented access to film in the Agadir courts. The production team Deborah Perkin (former BBC Senior Producer) and Nora Fakim (former BBC Morocco Correspondent) lived in a Casablanca slum for two months to be amongst the single mothers they were filming. This is a rare glimpse into a hidden world.

In most Muslim countries a documentary like BASTARDS would be unthinkable....but thanks to brave campaigners and a socially tolerant king, Morocco has led the way in social and legal reforms that help single mothers and their illegitimate children to secure a future.

Rabha El Haymar with her daughter Salma and lawyer Lamia Faridi, and
Producer/Director Deborah Perkin, at the Appeal Court in Agadir

THE STORIES AND  CHARACTERS

Rabha El Haymar’s story is the spine of the film. She is a single mother and her daughter is illegitimate because under Morocco's family law reforms, her traditional marriage as a child bride was not legal. She battles through the courts to legalise the marriage, to register her daughter and to force the father to accept his child. We witness extraordinary scenes.… the courtroom lies of her child’s father, verbal abuse from her child's grandfather, Rabha's confrontation with her mother asking why she married her off so young, and finally her triumph in the courts.

Along the way, we also meet larger-than-life Fatiha, tirelessly pressing the father of her child for maintenance, law student Naim, a young man who is distressed about growing up with the shame of illegitimacy, Saida who was rejected by her family and almost gave birth at a police station, and Kultum who is too young to be a mother following her rape, and is struggling with the responsibility.

L'Association Solidarite Feminine's founder Aicha Chenna has given her working life to supporting single mothers to bring up their children with dignity. Her tireless campaigning has gradually changed social and legal attitudes. In BASTARDS we meet her and her equally feisty female colleagues, the social workers and lawyers who work on the frontline with single mothers.

From left: Loubaba El Imlahi, Hafida Elbaz and Aicha Chenna with Researcher and Assistant Producer Nora Fakim 

THE ISSUES

Sex outside marriage may be illegal in Muslim countries but that doesn’t stop it happening. Inevitably, without sex education, or easy access to contraception or to legal abortion, unwanted illegitimate babies are born. With 6500 babies abandoned every year, Morocco faces a crisis, but instead of taking a punitive approach, it encourages single parents to be reconciled and their children to be legitimised. Radical reforms in 2004 to its family law code, the Moudawana, put Morocco at the forefront of developing human rights for single mothers and their illegitimate children. You can read an English translation of the Moudawana here.

WHY DID I MAKE THIS DOCUMENTARY?

Deborah Perkin explains:  I wouldn't pretend that I predicted the Arab Spring, but in 2009 I did work out that Morocco was pushing ahead with democratic reforms and that something interesting was happening in Muslim North Africa. It all started with a holiday with my mum. We had a tour of Morocco and found that everywhere we went women wanted to talk to us, take photos with us, ask us what we thought of their country. This was a completely different experience from traveling in the other Muslim countries we had visited, where women were much less visible in the workforce and on the streets. And so began my passion for Morocco and its people, which led to me putting my all into making this documentary.

When I got home I searched the internet and discovered that Morocco had many women's rights and human rights organisations. They had campaigned for legal reforms which eventually became law in 2004, amending the Family Code, the Moudawana. Child marriages were outlawed with the age of sexual consent for men and women set at 18, polygamy was virtually outlawed, and women's child custody rights improved. Single mothers could register their children alone, choosing a father's surname from a state list if the father refused to give the child his name - and once registered, children are entitled to education and healthcare.

I didn't want to make an issue-based report on legal reform but a moving documentary showing personal stories of women using the new law. Eventually I found Aicha Chenna and L'Association Solidarite Feminine. She and her staff welcomed me in to their radical charity, set up in the face of death threats from conservative Islamists, but working all the time to reintegrate single mothers into society, and make sure their illegitimate children have the best possible start in life. Their work became my obsession. I had to make a documentary with them and the women they support.



The documentary has been shot, and now needs funds to edit it and share it with audiences around the world. To assist please go to kickstarter

See also: 
Adoption Protest Gains Momentum
Unmarried Mothers Cry For Help


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