Moroccan Woman’s Mission: Bringing Warmth to Atlas Mountain Villages

In Tazarin as in the Berber villages located in the High Atlas in Morocco, it is difficult to get through the winter without a blanket. Aïcha Errazani has understood this well, and is fighting to make it easier for the inhabitants who are often not equipped to face the harshness of the weather. The young woman, who has part of her family still living in one of these villages, Tazarin, has set up an association to provide polar blankets and other winter equipment to the villagers.

Called "Les Racines de Tessanou" (my heart in Berber), this association collects funds to buy these blankets. "The people there walk for kilometers to get water, wood, go to school, to the market... They really need it," explains the young president who found a favorable echo with the company Françoise Saget. "She is willing to supply us with the equipment at very low prices, but we need to collect 3,000 euros," says Aïcha Errazani. "I want them to be new products, because the inhabitants will take care of them for years," reports Le Progrès.

Aïcha is not discouraged by the difficulties. She wants to organize friendly sports meetings, like this football match that brought together nearly 200 participants in Lyon before the lockdown. Her goal is to be able to raise enough funds to help the inhabitants of Tazarin. She also plans to create an argan oil cooperative. "The Agadir region 30 km away is the only one, along with that of Essaouira, to have argan trees. Several villagers are already involved in the creation of the premises and we have made a request to the program that supports French organizations of international solidarity from immigration Pra-Osim".

Aïcha dreams of collective support within the village, mixed and intergenerational. "I want them to get involved and for the children to stay in the country thanks to the fruit of their work".