View from a Trustee: A visit to SOS Children's Villages Morocco

By David Stranack, SOS UK Trustee

Let's go to Morocco!

It is a few years now since I made my first visit to an SOS Children’s Village. It was at Bakoteh in The Gambia. I had been working as a volunteer for SOS Children in the UK and felt the time had come to gain first hand experience of the charity’s work on the ground. I can only say that it was, honestly, a life changing experience. When you see for yourself the loving care, and the close family environment in which our children are being brought up, you can not help but be impressed – and moved.

Having risen from the rank of volunteer to become a trustee of the charity, I was surprised to find that some of my fellow board members had never visited one of our Villages. So, with not a great deal of persuasion, but with quite a lot of organisation, we arranged for the trustees to visit two of the five Villages SOS has now established in Morocco. One was at Agadir, the town devastated by an earthquake in 1960, and the other was at Ait Ourir, a few miles outside Marrakech.

SOS Children's Village Agadir

Nearly 50 years on from the disastrous earthquake, the town of Agadir has been completely rebuilt, and is now a sprawling urban complex with beautiful beaches and a rapidly developing tourist industry.The SOS Village in the town is the charity’s most recent venture in Morocco. Building commenced in 2006, and although it has now been in use for some time, our party arrived to find contractors still busily putting the finishing touches to the project before final completion and handover.

The Village is located in the heart of the city, and its facilities have been specifically designed to take into account its location and surroundings. Rather than the separate houses found in many traditional SOS Villages, Agadir consists of 14 family apartments housed in four three storey buildings grouped together around a central courtyard. The architectural style is modern, bright and simple, and well in keeping with the surrounding neighbourhood.

The location of the Village in the heart of an already established community has had a significant influence on the design of the Village itself. The focus here has been on providing excellent family accommodation, and then working with other established local organisations to meet the broader educational and social needs of the children.The Village is fortunate in having as its director Fouzia Lahlimi, who is a tower of strength in the world of local charities – a dynamic lady who successfully combines the role of efficient business woman with that of much loved leader of the village. Mme Lahlimi has forged a strong link with Semlali School, only a few paces away from the Village, and where the majority of the children attend classes. This arrangement means there is no need for the Village to run its own school.

Similarly, the Village works in close conjunction with the Tazanin Association which is a first ‘port of call’ for orphaned and abandoned babies, some only a few weeks old. These little ones are taken in and cared for by Tazanin while decisions are made about each child’s future. Many move on into the long term care of the SOS Village where, of course, they are assured of a secure and loving family environment until they reach adulthood.

Agadir, with its town centre location and its modern apartment blocks, is interestingly different from many of SOS’s more traditional Villages. But this 21st century version of the charity’s original mission is clearly a great success, as the children themselves demonstrate. They are smart, polite and laugh easily. They are always healthily interested in visitors, and keen to make new friends. At the end of our visit we gathered together with the Village for an informal tea party – a boisterous and happy occasion The strong bonding of  SOS families, between mums and their children, and between the siblings themselves, creates a heart warming environment. And so the UK party said its farewells and set off on the five hour drive to Ait Ourir.

SOS Children's Village Ait Ourir

The contrast with the Agadir Village, in terms of style and surroundings, could not be more marked. The Ait Ourir Village lies just outside the small town in a quiet rural setting of olive groves and open fields. It was SOS Children's first venture in Morocco, and opened in 1985. Each family has a house of its own, built in typically Moroccan style from the local red sandstone, and with a comfortably fitted out interior.

After our long journey the splendid lunch that had been laid on for us at the house of the most senior mother was most welcome. This mum is shortly to retire, having worked in the village since it’s opening, and having cared for many children in her SOS family over the last 24 years. She was particular happy because a former member of her family, now a married man of 30, had just become a father himself, and she was delighted at having become a grandmother for the first time. It was a marvellous demonstration of the depth and longevity that SOS family relationships can generate.

The Ait Ourir Village has expanded over the years, and now consists of 14 family houses which can accommodate up to 140 children. A Nursery was incorporated into the village from the start, and a primary school added in 1999. Both of these are attended by a large number of children from the community that surrounds the village, as well as the village children themselves. We were taken on a tour of the classrooms and facilities by the headmaster, and everywhere we went we were greeted politely with beaming smiles, which every so often collapsed into uncontrollable mirth. It was interesting that all the children – even the little ones – were being taught in both Arabic and French.

In addition to the Village, SOS runs two separate youth facilities nearby, one in Marrakech and one in Mohammedia, to which both boys and girls move on in their early teens. Here they begin their adult lives in a ‘lightly supervised’ environment.

A permanent home

As our party was about to leave the Village, the school day was just ending at 5 o’clock, and it was lovely to see the children wending their way back to their houses, tired but still smiling and giggling, and with elder brothers and sisters helping the little ones along.

Our Moroccan excursion was at an end. It had proved a point that I have made on so many occasions before – you can only fully appreciate what SOS Children is doing for 78,000 orphaned and abandoned children, and also for many more in surrounding communities, by going and experiencing it yourself. You may or may not find it emotional – but you will certainly be impressed.