Near East Foundation assists Morocco.

Firewood ranks as the second largest source of fuel in Morocco. Despite harsh climates and other dangers, Moroccan girls as young as eight and women as old as 60 spend hours each day finding, collecting, and transporting firewood for cooking and heating. It's a time consuming and burdensome chore, particularly in rural areas where the land around villages gets picked clean. So the task takes ever more time, the distances to walk become longer, and the amount collected progressively less.

According to a recent study covering the south of Ouarzazate Province where Near East Foundation works, women typically collect wood from 4 to 10 a.m., six months per year, traversing on average 15 kms per day, carrying between 20 and 30 kg of wood each, including young girls. Moreover, smoke from cook stoves causes illnesses, particularly eye disorders and respiratory problems. In addition, there are the obvious environmental problems for area woodlands.

In short, daily collection of firewood constitutes the likely prime activity preventing young girls from attending school, diminishing the energy and enthusiasm of young mothers and girls for continuing education and self-improvement, and leading to their premature aging.

FEMALE EDUCATION & LEADERSHIP

It is in these same Berber villagers in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco that NEF, in collaboration with the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is promoting the value of education and encouraging school attendance, particularly for girls. To meet objectives NEF has organized local parent-teacher associations, adult literacy classes, and associated groups of rural women leaders actively encouraged to be involved in their communities.

Naturally the NEF project also focuses attention on what inhibits female education and leadership, since the NEF program's success depends not only on changing people's perception of the importance of education, but also on identifying obstacles--like firewood collecting.

AN ALTERNATIVE

Based on previous NEF work with appropriate technologies for household use, fuel-efficient cook stoves and baking ovens have been tried and passed testing. Made from clay by trained local women, these simple appliances can significantly decrease wood consumption--by 50 to 60 percent; reduce the labor required to collect and transport wood fuel; and cut smoke emissions creating unhealthy conditions within the home. A win-win situation, fuel-efficient cook stoves safeguard the environment, reduce distances traveled to collect fuel, and prepare for sustainable forests in the future.

NEF's interest in this and similar issues goes back to 1993 when we created an Appropriate Technology Training Center in partnership with the Ouarzazate Regional Agricultural Development Authority. The aim was development and promotion of technical solutions to the problems of poor village women in rural areas of southern Morocco--household energy/natural resource management, sustainable agriculture/food processing, water/health, and income-generation.

By 1997 the center had moved beyond simple technical assistance into a more comprehensive program of support for local village associations, helping rural families to take control of their lives and change their communities for the better. NEF's current emphasis on female education and leadership is but the latest effort.

Given our experience, NEF decided last year to provide fuel efficient cook stoves and baking ovens to interested villages within the education project area. To date 28 improved cook stoves and 28 baking ovens have been introduced in the seven villages where NEF is now working. They were made available to rural women leaders collaborating with our project, who were nominated by their peers, and trained to install and use these new technologies, collect data, and promote expanded use.

FACTS & FIGURES

According to NEF estimates, as much as 30,000-plus tons of wood can be saved each year in these seven villages alone and individual women and girls spared as much as 120 hours a year collecting firewood. Also, their kitchens will be cleaner, smoke free, and related health problems significantly reduced.

Local women are excited about the new stoves, "I'm so happy that now my daughters will be able to protect their eyes. They need to be able to see if they want to learn how to have a better life," commented one, a sentiment echoed by many others.

NEF now plans on working with these same women to expand the use of fuel efficient cook stoves in other project villages, which have increased from the original seven to 15 in the program's second year. While appliances are provided free to participating women leaders, individual householders purchase their stoves from the market with women leaders providing training based on their own experience. For its part, NEF will continue with follow-up and support.

Next NEF hopes to establish income-generating projects with one or more PTAs within these communities. The plan is to have the PTAs distribute stoves through the network of women leaders, who also will promote the idea and train purchasers. Profits made from the sale of stoves will support local education, scholarships for secondary school attendance, adult literacy, and the repair and maintenance of local schools. Actualizing this plan will depend on funding availability.

BIG SAVING FOR SMALL INVESTMENT

Cook stoves sell for as little as $30 each and baking ovens for as little as $50. The $600 which provided most of the funding for them came from a North Carolina chef named Debrah Lovan, not incidentally, the sister of Roger Hardister, NEF's Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. She accompanied her brother on a project evaluation trip to Morocco, and this enterprise fit right in with her particular interests in food and women's issues, making her donation to Near East Foundation a very personal expression. When asked by a group of village women about gathering firewood for her own household, Ms. Lovan had to admit, the closest she had come to carrying firewood was using a wooden match to light her oven.

YOU CAN HELP NOW!

Please donate to support this work in MOROCCO and around the world at NEAR EAST FOUNDATION

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news