This midweek, a sporting and humanitarian challenge, the Golf Challenge, departs from Aiguillon, the cradle of the Alliance Terres d’Ecole association, for a crossing of more than 5,750 km to Morocco with its material boxes, school supplies for schools in the Rif.
“Terres d’Ecole was created to improve the situation of certain schools in Morocco and more specifically in certain rural areas,” explains Hamid Naji, founder of the Alliance Terres d’Ecole association. “The aim of Alliance Terres d’Ecole is to support access to education by providing essential learning materials (kits, school bags, supplies, notebooks, etc.) in schools. Because the fight against illiteracy in Morocco is all too often insufficient, access to education is not guaranteed for everyone. That is why we take advantage of the organization of this challenge to provide kits for everyone to facilitate access to education for the youngest, but also to support the association in Tangier “Barrat al Bouhaz”, which welcomes about forty people. children with disabilities, including Rytaj, the goddaughter of our association of 9 years, who ‘should be welcome for many years to come in a place adapted to the disability’.
Various promotions during the year
Among the major projects carried out by the association is the continuation of work on the Yarouahdoud village school in the province of Taza (small town located at an altitude of 1600 m in the Rif Mountains). school there.” In rural areas, middle and high schools are few and far away, and only a few families allow their children to risk walking tens of kilometers alone every day for a little education. The consequences of this lack of education are increasing: poverty, child labor, marriages and pregnancies at a young age, etc.And while progress has been made in primary education, dropout rates and inequality in secondary education remain enormous. The aim is to promote the completion of the school cycle for every child in the intervention areas,” continues Hamid Naji.
As for the choice to participate in a sporting foray to take on the various humanitarian missions desired by the association, it is obvious for Hamid Naji. ” In short, the Golf Challenge comes down to Volkswagen Golfs that are cheap, easy to maintain, robust and suitable for steep slopes. We could have transported our school packs by truck, but there are places where access remains very complicated. The big plus: it is to give our school packages directly into the hands of these schoolchildren during our trip. It is a way to promote our solidarity action by associating it with a prestigious sports movement.”
Poverty and the isolation of villages in Morocco make regular school attendance difficult, if not impossible. The Terres d’école association therefore works to facilitate primary education in certain mountain areas, an essential condition for the economic, social and cultural development of a village.