In March 2010, HAF completed projects in fruit tree agriculture and clean drinking water in southern Morocco’s Tifnoute Valley, in the Province of Taroudante. Twenty-seven villages, including 6,000 people, benefitted from the planting of 60,000 walnut, cherry, and almond trees, which were part of the Kate Jeans-Gail Tree Nursery Memorial, bringing the total number of fruit trees HAF has planted in rural Morocco to the 200,000 mark.

In addition, HAF provided six villages with clean drinking water: Talmerselt, Aguerzrane, Tasska, Missour, Iberouan, and Idguan noudin. In total, 142 households have benefited from clean water projects, including over 1,000 people. In the coming months, HAF is bringing clean drinking water to three additional villages in the Valley: Imhilen, Tissguane, and Amssouzert.

Thank you to all of our GlobalGiving donors for helping to make this project such a success! We have just less than $2,000 to raise to complete this project, and look forward to sharing new projects with you in the months to come.

We are excited to let you know that a pilot clean drinking water project was successfully implemented in the village of Agruezzene in Morocco's southern Tifnoute Valley. Based on best practices from the pilot project, we are currently working with four other villages in the valley to bring clean drinking water to a total of 1,600 people.

Thanks to generous donors like you, we are less than $3,000 away from our fundraising goal of $25,000. Thank you! Looking for a meaningful gift to give this holiday season? Why not consider giving the gift of water to a rural Moroccan family in honor of a friend or loved one? GlobalGiving will even send your gift recipient an acknowledgment of the donation, making your gift giving even easier.

From all of us at the High Atlas Foundation, best wishes this holiday season and a joyous new year. We look forward to posting more project photos and a short video in early 2010.

HAF’s project to bring clean drinking water to Moroccan villages is featured as part of GlobalGiving’s Ramadan Giving Campaign.

Thanks to generous supporters like you, we've already raised over $15,000 of the $25,000 project goal! A special gift this Ramadan will help us get that much closer to completing the project.

Please consider making a life changing gift to help 1,600 people in five villages in southern Morocco have access to safe drinking water. Just $15 provides clean drinking water for one person and $150 for an entire family.

From all of us at the High Atlas Foundation, Mabrouk Ramadan!

We are happy to report that we have successfully completed our first clean drinking water project with the village of Aguerzrane, in the Tifnoute Valley. This project will benefit 300 people. We have included a few of the early photos with this update, and will follow-up soon with photos of the completed project (water flowing out of faucets and all!). We are now working with four more villages to bring them clean drinking water, and will be sure to update you on our progress. Thank you for your important support of this project!

Water basin

Tifnoute Valley

HAF's project to bring clean drinking water to five Moroccan villages is featured as part of GlobalGiving's "Fill the Glass" fundraiser in celebration of World Water Day. Between March 10th and March 30th, HAF has the opportunity to earn an additional $1,000 in funding if the project receives at least $10,000 in donations during this time period.

Just $15 provides clean drinking water for one person - every drop counts! What small thing can you do this week to contribute to this life-saving effort? Give up your morning coffee run and brew it at home? Walk instead of taking a taxi? Bring your lunch to work instead of buying it? Let us know what you are doing to help bring clean drinking water to Moroccan families by leaving a comment on HAF’s blog: http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/blog

Thanks to the continued generosity of donors like you, HAF has already started implementation of three clean drinking water projects - benefitting approximately 1,000 people (pictures will be included in the next update!). Raising an additional $11,000 will bring clean drinking water to two more villages, drastically improving the public health conditions of a total of 1,600 people for this project. Thank you for your continued support!

Thank you to everyone who participated in GlobalGiving's Everybody Can Win! challenge. HAF surpassed the $5,000/50 donor goal with an overwhelming $10,655 from 93 donors -allowing us to secure an additional $2,500 in bonus prizes!

The funds will be used to immediately bring clean drinking water to two villages, benefiting approximately 600 people. We are currently in the field working with communities to implement the projects, and we will post another update with photos very soon.

Thank you for giving the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season - we are so grateful for your support.

We are ready to implement! HAF's field coordinator spent the past couple of months living and working with the beneficiary communities to help them create technical plans for the water projects, identify basin locations, and engage partners in the design process.

We look forward to posting another update soon with more photos of the project!

Identifying basin location

During the months of August and September, HAF is organizing meetings with the five communities benefitting from this GlobalGiving project. During these meetings we will collect important baseline information (i.e., infant mortality rates, amount of time currently spent procuring water, etc.) and also work with the partnering associations to create an action plan for project implementation.

As soon as we raise $5,000 we will be able to implement the first potable water system with one village. We hope this can happen later this fall!

We will post photos and another update in September.