Education for All was established in 2007 to provide boarding houses for schoolgirls in the Atlas Mountains so they can access secondary level education.

As the school year comes to a close, students and staff are emerging from one of the most difficult years in the association’s history following the 8 September earthquake last year.

The start of the school year was abruptly halted, compounding the disruption caused by the pandemic. The earthquake’s epicentre in the Atlas Mountains destroyed five of the six boarding houses, including the house where the photo (above) was taken during my last visit.

It has devastated the villages the students call home, with many of them – as well as staff – losing family members. As with natural disasters across the world, the displacement of infrastructure has set the region back several years. The affected communities urgently need EFAM’s support.

Our charity’s story begins high in the Atlas Mountains. Young children who were unable to cross the rivers and rocky slopes to reach classrooms struggled to access even primary school education.

Then, 17 years ago, the owners of Kasbah Du Toubkal and Riad Siwan rented a safe home for a few girls to stay nearer a school, employing a caring housemother to look after them during the school week. And thus, the EFAM charity was born.

Many students have mothers who never learnt to read or write and married as young as 12. I’m an example of just how transformative education can be. My mother was born in rural Morocco and was illiterate until she was 21 years old. She learnt to read and write when her family emigrated to the Netherlands.

The opportunities I’ve had through education are in sharp contrast to those my mother’s. It only takes one generation to break the cycle and revolutionise the lives and futures of girls and communities.

‘Light at the end of the tunnel’

The same has been the case for our graduates. After passing their exams, some of this new generation have completed their masters and qualified as science teachers. One student has started a PhD in public law.

Donations from the Intrepid Foundation and a levy on room rates at the Kasbah make all of this possible, but with so much loss in tourism, vital funds have dwindled when they are needed more than ever.

Our teams have worked tirelessly to support girls affected by the earthquake and to help the organisation recover as quickly as possible. We initiated a multi-stage recovery to address the aftermath of the earthquake.

We secured temporary housing for students near their appointed schools. Two houses have been rented in Chwitter, as well as a third property in the Ben Youssef area in Marrakech, plus the most recent rental in Asni.

We are looking for an additional house in the Tahanaout area in time for the start of term in September. We renovated our least-damaged house in Ouirgane, and it will be fully operational for the summer programme.

And we have finally received the green light from the local governments in Asni to start planning for rebuilding our lost houses in this town. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot make progress without the continued generous support of our donors.

Socio-economic uplift from tourism can be powerful in remote and rural areas. Access to education, particularly the education of girls and young women in these regions, is named in the UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development as a key way to tackle the world’s biggest challenges, including climate justice.

Before the pandemic, 130 million girls globally had no access to school. Covid increased these numbers by a disturbing amount. As we’ve seen, travel has the power to help those most in need, especially by shortening the recovery curve in the wake of a natural disaster.

We need as much support as possible to sustain this vital programme, which aims to not only bolster academic opportunities, but also to provide much-needed mental and emotional support to girls who have endured trauma.

One heartening observation from this situation is that educated girls could access emergency aid in the wake of a disaster and support their communities. Many of our alumni led emergency aid distribution efforts in affected areas.

It was a reminder that access to education is something many of us take for granted, but for the girls involved, it is truly life-changing. It doesn’t only benefit the girls, but their families and entire communities.

Samira Govers El Hachioui is a member of the Education for All Morocco board and an advocate for girls’ education.