AIT MESSOUD SCHOOL, MOROCCO
Location:
https://goo.gl/maps/1U7gFy9QB98pFusc6
How Things Are
Standing at the top of a steep earth bank, Ait Messoud School consists of three simple concrete classrooms, one of which is too unstable to be used – since a major earthquake hit in September 2023. The lack of facilities means that only 74 children from the nearby village can be taught. They range in age from 5 to 13 years, and are both girls and boys.
Ait Messoud is a small government-built school in rural Morocco, which lies about 50 kms east of Marrakech. Exceptionally dry, the region is characterized by rocky patches of land, each one bordered by cactus fences, the Amazigh Berber community rearing sheep and goats. A few hundred yards south-west of the school is a spectacular damned lake, known as 'Barrage Moulay Youssef'.
The school has almost no facilities of any kind, except for a number of dilapidated or broken chairs and tables. There are no working toilets or running water, no working electricity, and the entire structure is in a truly terrible and unsafe state. Children are often injured by falling, while making their way up the steep earth bank to the school buildings.
Fortunately, the teacher, Tahar, who has been teaching at the school for 2 years, speaks English, as well as French, Arabic, and the local Berber dialect, Tashelhit. He is young, enthusiastic, and is passionate about turning the school around.
He dreams of a day when there will be internet, and proper facilities Beyond that, the teacher dreams of a time when there’s no more danger of the third classroom from collapsing. The architect says the foundations are compromised, and that the classroom was liable to collapse within the next year.
Another plus point is that living right opposite the school is a wonderful American teacher friend of ours, who is married to an equally wonderful Moroccan man. They are almost done constructing a house of their own, and have a local contractor who can do work.
What Needs To be Done
The first thing that needs doing is to consolidate the area on which the school stands, as the children currently have to reach the buildings up a steep earth bank. We arranged for an architect to review the current situation. His suggestion was to begin with the following steps:
1. Providing running water to the school.
2. Providing electricity to the school.
3. Constructing toilets.
4. Levelling the earth bank, so as to make a recreation area for the children, thereby mitigating the current danger, and making a set of good concrete steps up to the school.
5. The architect suggests constructing a wall around the school for added security. As things are, the school has no guardian, no locks, and no wall, and so is broken into.
A second phase, includes the following:
1. Shoring up the roofs and guttering of the two functional classrooms.
2. Painting the two functional classrooms, and equipping them with new chairs and
desks, as well as other basic classroom facilities.
3. Providing books shelves, books, a globe, and proper white boards etc..
Ideally, an additional phase would include the following:
1. Demolishing the unsafe third classroom, then rebuilding it.
2. Constructing swings and other simple playground facilities, as well as a basketball
hoop.
