Aliza In The Field

Yesterday we had our first site visit, to SOS Village d’Enfants about an hour outside Casablanca. SOS is an Austrian NGO that operates children’s villages around the world, though in each country they have a slightly different purpose. Morocco has five villages housing 700 children, most of whom were abandoned by single mothers due to the religious stigma in this country of being an unwed mother. Many of the children arrive when they are still babies, but others come when they are older from orphanages around the country. They are allowed to stay until they are 23, or if they find a job before that they can still come home on weekends.

The villages have houses with 8-10 children of varying ages in each, plus a house mother and a few assistants. The above photos are from one of the homes, whose residents very nicely invited us in to meet some of the kids and have some tea. The village also has a kindergarten, social workers and administrators, tutors, and facilities for art, music (that’s Bada, above, showing off his drum skills) and sports.

SOS is doing some really great work, and Shonali and I had a fun visit to the site. Read more about the work SOS is doing in Morocco here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/keep-100-moroccan-children-away-from-abandonment/

Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.