Supported by

Tangible impact

1.248.909

trees planted in 2024

3.654

farming families supported in 2024

382

municipalities across Morocco

25

years of community-led development

High Atlas Foundation logo: mountain line beneath a blue arc with the name in English and Arabic Visit website

Villages decide for themselves

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) was founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps volunteers and has spent 25 years working with villages in the Atlas Mountains and rural Morocco. Its starting point: the community decides what it needs. Together with farmers, women and young people, HAF plants fruit trees, builds water systems and supports cooperatives, so villages can move forward on their own strength.

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Why

Tens of thousands of families in the Atlas Mountains live from small-scale farming, often without reliable access to water and with few opportunities for women and young people. After the September 2023 earthquake in Al Haouz, that vulnerability grew even further. HAF believes lasting change only works when villages are in the driver's seat: they choose their projects, and HAF helps them plan, fund and carry them out.

Impact

Mission & goals

Mission: to empower Moroccan communities to shape their own future, with sustainable livelihoods, equal opportunities and unity between cultures.

Goals:

  • Let villages decide which projects they need, and help them carry them out.
  • Give farming families a sustainable income through fruit trees and their own nurseries.
  • Give every community access to clean drinking water and irrigation.
  • Create more opportunities for women and young people through cooperatives, training and green jobs.
Actions
  • Trees and nurseries: fruit saplings are grown in community nurseries and planted, more than 1.2 million trees in 2024.
  • Clean water: new water sources, storage and pipelines for drinking water and irrigation.
  • Women's cooperatives: training, legal aid and coaching so women can run their own cooperative.
  • Rebuilding after the earthquake: food, water, shelter, livestock and seeds for the affected villages in Al Haouz.

“Community decision making for development is the primary factor that enables sustainable development.”

Yossef Ben-Meir – founder and president of the High Atlas Foundation

How your donation helps

Your contribution helps the High Atlas Foundation strengthen a women's cooperative in the Atlas Mountains: fifteen women receive training and coaching to run their cooperative themselves and build their own income from it. This grows not only their independence, but also the resilience of their whole village.

Women working together in the Tassa Ouirgane tree nursery in the Atlas Mountains (High Atlas Foundation)
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