NoMad Men

Morocco, November 2008. A trip to meet with potential partnering agencies to support an aid mission to Berbers of the Sahara in the region of Erg Chegaga. After a desert-trekking tour of the Sahara in 2007, Lisa Delsante coordinated an effort to enlist myself, another trekker (Victoria Monchuk, from the World Bank in Washington DC), and touring company founder (Liz Williams, from Authentic Moroccoin London) to form a new non-profit NGO, Children of the Sahara Foundation.

In the capital city of Rabat we visited with the High Atlas Foundation, the Cross-Cultural Institute, David Brownstein at the US Embassy, and the Moroccan Peace Corps (M'hamed El Kadi and Mohssine Tadlaoui-Cherki) to define our strategies and mission.

Concluding in 2018, our ten-year effort has supported schools, medical treks, and missions to the desert regions and outlying areas. Two final projects supported an orphanage called Village of the Children, as well as funding the Hannan School in the Berber village of El Borj located in the Middle Atlas Mountains.

The images here are a basic documentation on the trail from Marrakech through the High Atlas, into Ouarzazate, Tagounite, M’Hamid, and into the desert.

In Marrakech, the locals make Saturday night an affordable feast in Djemaa el Fna; in Casablanca congregants flock to one of the world's largest mosques for evening prayers. In the souks of the inner city of Marrakech, poverty and strife become apparent. And as one travels toward the desert to Tagounite, children are in desperate need of healthcare and hygienic aid. The nomads of the Sahara mainly choose to live freely in the desert, but often lack the resources needed to ensure safety, education, and wellness.