For over a decade DSH has worked in the field of Education, EDUCATION defined here in a very broad sense; some stand-alone initiatives or in cooperation with others, like Celebrating my Culture (April 2019), Photography Competition (May 2017), Everyone Wins Project (with Search for Common-Ground), RegenBox project (Battery regeneration, June 2018), in addition to targeted actions with partner associations in Agadir (Surf Rider Foundation, The Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihood Association, or the Rotary Club Oufella Renaissance, Agadir), in Ifni and region and in the countryside that we particularly hold close to our hearts.
Our roadmap is to continue unabated on this same path, with the vision of welcoming and organizing initiatives moving us closer to a more equitable world, particularly in the rural world where we work. We invite you to support us and follow us. Check our programs whose impacts are.
Water School: In October 2013 we began with some impromptu visits to the primary schools of Id Aachour and Id Soussan, pilot villages drinking fog-water. The local Delegation for the Ministry of Education encouraged our engagement at the schools by signing a partnership agreement with us, and slowly a curriculum started emerging thanks to the contributions of professional volunteers and our fundraising campaigns. Classes started timidly this first year, but since 2014, the Water School has taken on the dimension of a full-fledged program as more beneficiary primary schools were added. With lunch on site, teaching and hands-on, excursions and discovery, the water school started receiving external funding and became more ambitious given the positive impact on children and the very encouraging return from the families. In 2017, we started to work on the school gardens, and from here sprung the idea of the oasis, the schools gardens to become spaces for growth for the children who embraced the initiative wholeheartedly. Check our publication, open source curriculum to download.
Functional literacy workshops and empowerment: Over a period of 3 years, from 2014-2017, DSH organized functional literacy workshops for the women beneficiaries of the fog collection water project. Although these women have regained the hours formerly reserved for the water chore, they continue with heavy workloads and limited access to financial improvement. At their request, we organized these workshops and invited trainers and instructors to respond to their needs. Today, these women are our first interlocutors in the villages and the question of gender is essential and omnipresent in the setting of each and every project we consider.
HIGH SCHOOL SUPPORT: Under the aegis of the Delegation of the Ministry of Education (in Agadir and in Sidi Ifni) and in partnership with selected High-Schools in rural or semi-urban region, DSH organizes and runs remedial and educational support benefitting pupils from precarious backgrounds. With tutors in Mathematics, French, English and other game-based learning tools, we help students improve their educational level and thus increase their chances of continuing their education at the post-high school level. What had started a one year support program in 2014, has become a full-fledged program benefiting some +400 students in the region and being a most engaged and engaging initiative representing the very spirit of Foundation of Dar Si Hmad.
Foundation Dar Si Hmad is fully engaged in its mission of education.
We have and continue to organize language based and ecological programs.
Check the list below:
RISE : meaning to grow, move up, arise
Since our very first pilot led in September 2013, DSH has trained some +1000 young people in civic education, in ecology-based programs, in soft and hard skills. Every year, we organize 2 terms: Autumn (from October to January) and Spring (from February to May), each proposing a rich array of topics and training opportunities for youth. To learn about and participate in the program, follow our announcements and prepare your application, admission is selective.
| Year | Funding Source | Theme |
|---|---|---|
|
2021-2022 |
FDSH |
Believe & Achieve |
|
2020-2021 |
FDSH |
Eco-AYA/ECO-MILL |
|
2019 - 2020 |
FDSH |
My Green High-School |
|
2018 |
FDSH |
Ecological Journalism |
|
2017 |
FDSH |
Green Entrepreneurship |
|
2015 et 2016 |
MEPI |
Civic Education |
Out of these programs, DSH has organized a series of initiatives to have profoundly impacted participants, determining and, at times, changing career choices as per their own acknowledgments. Check our pictures from our Environmental Youth Ambassadors (2015-2017) and participation in the UN model (2018)
Program GRACE : Girls Read And Communicate in English
In the fall of 2018, DSH welcomed a young intern who had an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm and, in response to a long-standing request from high schools in Agadir, we entrusted her with tutoring young girls in conversational English. Since that date, this program has become a feature of our support work in high schools. We also organize a study fair towards the end of each year and are always available to respond to students looking for options that think outside the box.
SpeakUp English: Unlike GRACE, this English tutoring and study aid is open for Co-ed high-school students. We have run SpeakUp English in many high schools in Sidi Ifni and in Middle School in Taghazout, in the vicinity of Agadir. This program curriculum is designed to make pupils gain confidence in their ability to learn and to speak using songs, games and role-playing youth find more conducive for learning a living language. Compared to classical learning techniques, SpeakUp English distinguishes itself by the engagement of the youth and the speed of their acquisition.
Tech Camp: Launched in the summer 2016, this 2 week program of computer literacy for low-ressource high-school girls, has been a stunning success since its first edition. Financed by DSH for three subsequent years, The British Council supported the 2021 program and we have extended the number of beneficiaries and the duration of the program. During the Covid lockdown and the shift of education to digital platforms, many of these young women were unable to attend their classes and maintain their school-engagement. The Tech Camp taught them how to benefit from online education, how to use the digital world to their own advantage while being aware of its pitfalls and dangers. This program is extremely popular with our young-base and the highlight of the 15-18 year old high-schoolers in Sidi Ifni. Check our social media for the best-of 2021 edition!
Green Fridays: Launched in 2020 with the pandemic lockdown, every last Friday of the month, a video is published showcasing either a visit to an ecological innovator or we open the doors of our center to the public who come to listen, learn, and debate with a professional from some action broadly defined as ecological. This initiative has quickly emerged as a place of exchange and reflection for all participants, a space for awareness but also for the creation of a new collective ecological dynamic in Agadir. Follow our news on Twitter and on Facebook.
NGO Capacity Building: Launched in September 2018 for a period of 12 months, this initiative was designed to help small NGOs, all registered and active in the Southwest region where we work, become stronger and more efficient. Thanks to external funding, we made a call for tenders and recruited a dozen associations and, with the support of local, competent and committed supervisors, everyone learned how to master the mechanisms of optimal NGO management. Overall and following the final evaluation, the end result is a more united and active civil society. Consult and download our guide out of this project found in the “Our Publications” section and check our blogs for NGO participants.
In partnership with Fikr Association and since September 2019, our Cultural Center Si Hmad Derhem welcomes children and young people looking for vocational training, for artistic expression, but also a sense of belonging and participation in missions bearing a sense of purpose.
Since 1999, the date of the inauguration of the Cultural Center Si Hmad Derhem and until 2011, for over a decade, this Cultural Center assisted students in learning, hosted all sorts of extra-curricular and cultural activities which benefited all of those young people from Sidi Ifni in search for ways to improve their knowledge and their lives. Theatrical plays, concerts, performances of songs and music, meetings and training took place in this Center and marked the recent history of this city.
App B4 Imm Hamria, Avenue Al Moukaouama
Agadir 80020 - Morocco
Avenue Hassan 1er Sidi Ifni - Morocco
PO Box 20686 Agadir Principale Agadir 80000 Morocco
(+212) 528 84 30 65
info@darsihmad.org
App B4 Imm Hamria, Avenue Al Moukaouama
Agadir 80020 - Morocco
Avenue Hassan 1er Sidi Ifni
Tiznit - Morocco
(+212) 528 84 30 65
info@darsihmad.org
