Category: RECORDS IN ME & AFRICA*

EGYPT: UK, Egypt Celebrate 7 years of Science Partnership under Newton-Mosharafa Fund

British and Egyptian government officials celebrated on Monday seven years of cooperation between the two countries under the Newton-Mosharafa Fund, which supports research and innovation programmes to advance economic development and social welfare, tackle global challenges and develop talent and careers.

Participating in the celebration were the British Embassy in Cairo, the British Council, together with the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) and the Central Department of Missions (CDM).

The fund is named after British mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists in history, and the Egyptian theoretical physicist Doctor Ali Mustafa Mosharafa, who contributed to the development of quantum theory.

It is the largest science and innovation partnership between Egypt and the UK in history.

The ceremony started with speeches by the British Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley, British Council Country Director Elizabeth White, and Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Yasser Refaat

It was followed by a panel discussion on the role of international collaboration in science and research.

The discussion involved professor Guy Daly, provost and senior vice-president of the British University in Egypt; Shaimaa Lazem, international collaboration programme manager at STDF; Dr Marco Zaki, lecturer of biochemistry and cell biology and founder of the NILE CAN research laboratory at Minia University; and Irene Gabriel, director of the Smart Engineering Systems Research Centre at Nile University.

At the ceremony, the British ambassador expressed his pride in celebrating the alumni from the joint British-Egyptian programme.

“These outstanding scientists are the leaders of tomorrow, and today’s event pays tribute to them and to the legacy of the Newton Mosharafa Fund, one of the largest science and innovation partnerships between Egypt and any country,” he said.

He went on to note that the alumni are working to make the world a better place everyday through their research into curing cancer, achieving food and water security and “making the earth a safer, healthier and more sustainable place to live in.”

During her speech, British Council Egypt Director Elizabeth White observed that the fund has supported her country’s long-term approach by “building the next generation of scientists”

“For seven years, we have worked with our partners to enable the exchange of learning and ideas between scientists in the UK and Egypt,” she added.

She concluded by saying that the British Council will remain committed to opening up access to science and research to support UK-Egypt priorities.

Funding Egypt’s long-term sustainable development

The fund is valued at £55 million over seven years; the cost is shared between the UK and Egyptian governments.

It focuses on five main areas identified by the Egyptian government as priorities for their long-term sustainable development: water management, renewable energy, food production, archaeological and cultural heritage and affordable and inclusive healthcare.

These priorities are closely related to Egypt’s Vision 2030 sustainable development strategy, as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Since its launch in 2014, the Newton-Mosharafa Fund has provided 282 scholarships to Egyptian researchers to obtain a doctoral degree, in addition to funding 69 research partnerships between Egyptian and UK universities. Research related to health care had a significant share of it, amounting to about 69 percent of doctoral scholarships and about 22 percent of research partnerships.

Notable alumni

Some of the outstanding Newton-Mosharafa alumni who attended the ceremony include: Dr Marco Zaki, winner of the Newton Prize for his research on treating liver cancer, and Dr Irene Gabriel, who is a Newton Mosharafa grant holder. She lead a research team at Nile University together with Nottingham University to turn dried shrimp shells into thin films of biodegradable plastic that can be used to make eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging.

Shaimaa Lazem, who is an associate research professor at the City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications (SRTA-City), was awarded Newton-Mosharafa grants three times. Her work focuses on designing prototypes for technologies that serve the rural communities in Egypt. She is currently working with artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups in Africa as part of a Google Research for Inclusion and Google AI Awards.

Also in attendance was Yasser Shabana, who developed adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on wheat, maize and food production in Egypt.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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BUE Provost Guy Daly with Newton-Mosharafa alumni Irene Gabriel, Marco Zaki, and Shaimaa Lazem

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EGYPT

MOROCCO’s Khadija El Mardi Crowned Boxing World Champion, Winning Gold at the Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championships, New Delhi, India

Moroccan boxer Khadija El Mardi won the gold medal on Sunday in New Delhi, India, during the Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championships.

The national champion El Mardi, who competed in the heavyweight division (Over 81kgs), won the women’s world boxing championship by defeating the Kazakh Kungeibayeva Lazzat.

El Mardi has achieved a number of victories over the years, including the title of African champion in 2022, a victory at the African Games in Rabat in 2019, a silver medal at the World Championships in 2022, and this year’s Mohammed VI Trophy gold medal.

Born in Casablanca in 1991, El Mardi’s everlasting commitment and heroic efforts to achieve success have made her name stand out.

source/content: northafricapost.com (headline edited)

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MOROCCO

SAUDI ARABIAN Ministry Introduces 3 New Fonts to Celebrate Kingdom’s Culture

The fonts, celebrating the Kingdom’s culture, will be available free of charge.

The Ministry of Culture on Monday launched an initiative creating three new Saudi fonts.

The fonts, celebrating the Kingdom’s culture, will be available free of charge to individuals and organizations wishing to use them in design, artistic, and creative works, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Masmak font has been named after the historic Masmak Fortress, characterized by its durability and strong structure. The font has been described as clear and easy to read and was developed without reference to traditional calligraphy methods, the SPA said.

The second new font, Al-Naseeb, resembles handwritten notes, and has been recommended for use in headlines, texts, literary works, poetry, and children’s stories.

Watad, the third font, was inspired by the tent peg with its letters having curved corners. Its suggested use was for text relating to festivals and sporting events.

The Ministry of Culture launched the initiative in celebration of the Arabic language. In a statement, it said: “It is introducing a unique touch that gives a Saudi identity to Arabic fonts and celebrates Saudi heritage and cultural symbols.”

The fonts can be downloaded at https://engage.moc.gov.sa/fonts.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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SAUDI ARABIA

ALGERIA: The Battle of Algiers: an iconic film whose message of hope still resonates today

Saadi Yacef, the Algerian revolutionary leader who fought for his country’s liberation from French colonial rule, died on 10 September 2021. Yacef is perhaps one of the better known of Algeria’s resistance fighters because of the role he played in the creation of the film The Battle of Algiers , directed by the renowned Italian film maker Gillo Pontecorvo.

The Battle of Algiers was filmed in 1965 as a co-production between an Italian creative team and the new Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) government, whose representative Yacef produced the film and stars as the character of Jaffar.

One of the most extraordinary films ever made, The Battle of Algiers is an emotionally devastating account of the anticolonial struggle of the Algerian people and a brutally candid exposé of the French colonial mindset. Many French people were unhappy with the representation of their army and country in the film. It was not officially censored in France , but the general public and all cinemas boycotted it. It was seen as anti-French propaganda.

In later years, the film was screened to groups classed as revolutionaries and terrorists, apparently becoming a “documentary guidebook” in the Palestinian struggle, and for organisations such as the Irish Republican Army and the Black Panthers, who examined its detailed representation of guerrilla tactics.

It was also shown in the Pentagon in 2003, in the middle of the Iraq War. US Counterterrorism experts Richard Clarke and Mike Sheehan suggest that the film showed how a country can win militarily, but still lose the battle for “hearts and minds”.

What relevance does The Battle of Algiers hold today, 55 years after it was first released?

The message of the film is ultimately one of hope: the oppressed multitude will eventually triumph because their cause is just. The images of revolutionary crowds in the film recall the jerky, grainy footage that has emerged from a wave of recent protests in the last decade, from the Black Lives Matter movement to Extinction Rebellion . Pontecorvo thrillingly captures the power and possibility of large gatherings of citizens, who come together to demand rights, putting their bodies at risk to create social and political change.

Additionally, the film refuses to condemn any of the agents in this conflict. As Pontecorvo has stated

in a war, even if from a historical standpoint, one side is proven right, and the other wrong, both do horrendous things when they are in battle.

A film of contrasts

Shot in black and white, the film is difficult to classify in terms of style. Its military action sequences and tactical montages remind us of films like Zero Dark Thirty and The Eye in the Sky; indeed, it is almost impossible to film a scene of politically-motivated torture without having The Battle of Algiers as an implicit or explicit point of reference.

The collective aspect of the film’s creation, and the socialist ideals that inspired it, link it to what’s called Third Cinema. This was a kind of revolutionary cinema, a cinema of the “Third World”, that was designed to overthrow the systems of colonialism and capitalism.

The Battle of Algiers is also an example of Italian neorealism, a major film movement coming out of mid-twentieth century Italy. The neorealists made films that opposed Mussolini’s fascist regime, and they focused on the hardships of the working class in Italy. Neorealism was a moral and aesthetic system: it brought art and politics together to expose the ills of society and bring about social change.

The Battle of Algiers was shot entirely on location in Algiers, and Colonel Mathieu was the only professional on set. Pontocorvo selected the other actors from the local population based on their faces and expressions.

Other elements of the neorealist style was the use of techniques that create a documentary aesthetic such as the hand-held camera. Pontecorvo also uses extracts from real-life FLN and police communiqués, letters, and title cards. And he used newsreel stock, which was cheaper, but also added to the sense of verisimilitude in the film.

Although he believed the Algerians cause to be just, Pontecorvo wanted to create a nuanced and fair account of the war. Therefore, he sets up a series of contrasts to reflect this opposition between French and Algerian. This is present in the original musical score by Ennio Morricone: while groups of French soldiers rampage through the Casbah to the sound of jaunty military drums and horns, a haunting flute theme accompanies sequences which feature Algerian civilians.

Contrast is also evident in the use of light and shadow: there are strong chiaroscuro effects, perhaps reflecting the themes of right and wrong in the film. Pontecorvo also uses shadow to highlight the covert operations of the Algerians: Ali La Pointe’s face is filmed with deep shadows, and the face of Colonel Mathieu is always brightly lit.

Space provides another important contrast in the film. Frantz Fanon, a famous theorist of the Algerian revolution, describes the colonial world as a world “cut in two” because of the stark divide between the coloniser and the colonised. In The Battle of Algiers, the wide boulevards of the European quarter are juxtaposed to the narrow, winding, labyrinthine alleyways of the Casbah. Space is also divided vertically and horizontally – the European quarter is flat, while the Casbah is steep and sloping.

This opposition of space highlights the gap between rich and poor, coloniser and colonised.

The question of bias

The biggest contrast in the film is of course between the French and Algerians. The embodiment of French and European values in the film is Colonel Mathieu. He is a suave figure, confident and controlled in army fatigues, stylish sunglasses and slick speech – he has more dialogue than other characters in the film. A number of critics have argued that Mathieu is far ‘too cool’, given that he is a practitioner and a proponent of torture.

Yet Colonel Mathieu is not depicted as an ogre: above all, he embodies reason. We see this in his statements about the use of torture, when he uses solid rhetorical devices to justify it. He says:

…do you think France should stay in Algeria? If you do, you have to accept the necessary consequences.

This is persuasive as a logical argument – if you want French Algeria, you have to accept the actions that result in this outcome – torture.

If Mathieu and the French have reason, what do the Algerians have?

Firstly, they have raw, visceral emotion and the power of the group. The victory at the end of the film is a victory of the masses, embodied in two figures – the martyr Ali La Pointe, the illiterate everyman who becomes a hero for the revolution, and the gyrating, anonymous Algerian women, whose gaze outwards to the future closes the film.

This takes me to the final point about what the Algerians have on their side – the power of historical right. We see this through Pontecorvo’s use of chronology – the narrative proceeds as a flashback, until we leap forward in time to the euphoria and mania of the end of the war and the triumph of the revolutionaries. Pontecorvo here glosses over the fact that the real Battle of Algiers was lost by the Algerians, and jumps into a future of eventual victory in the war.

This is how he views the process of history – the masses, with moral right on their side, will eventually win.

source/content: theconversation.com (headline edited)

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Yacef Saadi (R), military leader of the FLN National Liberation Front networks of the autonomous zone of Algiers, poses after being captured at the end of the “Battle of Algiers”. Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images

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ALGERIA

SAUDI ARABIA: Winners of King Faisal Prize 2023 Honored in Riyadh

An Emirati, a Moroccan, a South Korean, two Brits and three Americans were honored with the King Faisal Prize 2023.

They served people and enriched humanity with their pioneering work so deserve to be honored and recognized for their distinguished efforts, the King Faisal Foundation said when honoring the winners of the King Faisal Prize 2023.

A glittering award ceremony was held in Riyadh on Monday under the patronage of King Salman, and on his behalf, Prince Faisal bin Bandar, governor of Riyadh Region, attended the ceremony for handing over the King Faisal Prize to the winners this year.

The annual awards are the most prestigious in the Muslim world and recognize outstanding achievement in services to Islam, Islamic studies, Arabic language and literature, medicine and science.

This year an Emirati, a Moroccan, a South Korean, two Brits and three Americans won the prestigious prize, which in its 45th session recognized COVID-19 vaccine developers, nanotechnology scientists and eminent figures in Arabic language and literature, Islamic studies, and service to Islam.

The prize for service to Islam was awarded jointly to Shaikh Nasser bin Abdullah of the UAE and Professor Choi Young Kil-Hamed from South Korea.

The prize for Islamic studies was awarded to Professor Robert Hillenbrand from the UK.

The prize for Arabic language and literature was awarded to Professor Abdelfattah Kilito of Morocco.

The prize for medicine was awarded jointly to Professor Dan Hung Barouch from the US and Professor Sarah Catherine Gilbert from the UK.

In his acceptance speech, Barouch said, “The Ad26 vaccine for COVID-19 demonstrated robust efficacy in humans, even after a single shot, and showed continued protection against virus variants that emerged. This vaccine has been rolled out across the world by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, and over 200 million people have received this vaccine, particularly in the developing world.”

Gilbert said that she was “humbled to join the other 2023 laureates, and to follow-in the footsteps of the men and women whose work has been recognized by the foundation for more than four decades. This award is in recognition of my work to co-create a vaccine for COVID-19. A low-cost, accessible, efficacious vaccine that has now been used in more than 180 countries and is estimated to have saved more than six million lives by the start of 2022.”

The prize for science was awarded jointly to Professor Jackie Yi-Ru Ying and Professor Chad Alexander Mirkin, both from the US.

Ying’s research focuses on synthesis of advanced nano materials and systems, and their application in biomedicine, energy conversion and catalysis.

Her inventions have been used to solve challenges in different fields of medicine, chemistry and energy. Her development of stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles led to a technology that can autoregulate the release of insulin, depending on the blood glucose levels in diabetic patients, without the need for external blood glucose monitoring.

“I am deeply honored to be receiving the King Faisal prize in science, especially as the first female recipient of this award,” she said in her acceptance speech.

This year two women scientists have been honored as winners of the King Faisal Prize for medicine and science categories.

The woman behind the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Professor Sarah Gilbert, the Saïd chair of vaccinology in the Nuffield department of Medicine at Oxford University, was honored with the medicine award.

The other woman scientist honored with the King Faisal Prize in science is Professor Jackie Yi-Ru Ying; the A-star senior fellow and director at NanoBio Lab, Agency for Science, Technology and Research. She is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was chosen for her work on the synthesis of advanced nanomaterials and systems, and their applications in catalysis, energy conversion and biomedicine.

The King Faisal Prize was established in 1977. The prize was granted for the first time in 1979 in three categories: Service to Islam, Islamic studies and Arabic language and literature. Two additional categories were introduced in 1981: Medicine and science. The first medicine prize was awarded in 1982, and in science two years later.

Since 1979, the King Faisal Prize in its different categories has awarded 290 laureates who have made distinguished contributions to different sciences and causes.

Each prize laureate is given $200,000 (SR750,000); a 24-carat gold medal weighing 200 grams, a certificate inscribed with the laureate’s name and a summary of their work that qualified them for the prize, and the certificate signed by chairman of the prize board, Prince Khalid Al-Faisal.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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MOROCCO / U.A.E. / SAUDI ARABIA

MOROCCO Outperforms US to Become 4th Largest Blueberry Exporter Worldwide

Morocco’s berry production is one of the country’s key contributors to the agricultural sector.

Morocco has outperformed the US becoming the fourth largest blueberry exporter in the world.

Data from East Fruit said that Morocco exported 53,000 tonnes of blueberries in 2022. Peru was the largest exporter of fresh blueberries last year, with 277,000 tonnes, followed by Chile (105,000 tonnes) and Spain (87,000).

Despite Morocco’s leading position in blueberry exports, the Netherlands exported more blueberries than the North African country in  11 months of last year, the same source said.

“It should be noted that the exports from the Netherlands in 11 months of last year were higher than that of Morocco, having amounted to 104 000 tonnes,” East Fruit reported.

Elaborating on the data, the news outlet said: “However, if we take into account the volume of re-exports, the real result of the Netherlands will be much lower since it imported 130 000 tonnes of fresh blueberries during this period.”

East Fruit also recalled that Morocco ranked seventh place among the largest exporters of cultivated blueberries in 2017.

Berry production in Morocco has contributed to the country’s agricultural sector significantly.

Morocco’s revenues from strawberry exports to the international market are estimated between $40 and $70 million annually.

According to previous data from East Fruit strawberry products are one of the top 10 most exported goods from Morocco.

According to estimates,  Morocco exported 22,400 tonnes of fresh strawberries globally in 2022, representing an increase of 17% compared to a year earlier.

Countries like the UAE, Qatar were key buyers of Moroccan goods. In Europe, the US is one of Morocco’s strawberry importers. In 2022, the US imported almost half of Morocco’s strawberry export supply.

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (headline edited)

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MOROCCO

EGYPT: Anwar Ibrahim First Arab to Receive Dostoyevsky Medal

Russian ambassador to Egypt Georgiy Borisenko has awarded the Dostoyevsky Medal to Anwar Ibrahim – the under-secretary of the Ministry of Culture and former head of the ministry’s Foreign Cultural Relations Department – for his work in translating Russian literature into Arabic.

The honouring ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Russian Embassy in Cairo on 6 March. It was attended by a delegation from the Egyptian Association of Graduates of Russian and Soviet Universities headed by Sherif Gad.

Ambassador Borisenko expressed appreciation for Ibrahim’s efforts in translating classic and contemporary Russian literature into Arabic, thereby promoting Russian culture.

“The Arab reader is lucky when he reads translated Russian literature through creative translators like Anwar Ibrahim,” Borisenko said.

Borisenko wished Ibrahim continued success in his literary career, which he described as part of the soft power between Russia and the Arab peoples.

The Dostoyevsky Medal was established by the Russian Writers Union to be awarded to translators on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is one of the most iconic writers of the Russian literary canon.

For his part, Ibrahim said that “this honour is a new birth for me, and I am extremely proud of receiving the Dostoyevsky Medal.”

Toghan, Secretary-General of the Association of Graduates, affirmed that the award for Ibrahim is a tribute to all graduates of the association, especially since Anwar is the first Arab to receive the prestigious medal.

Dostoyevsky, who was born in 1821 in Moscow and died in 1881 in St. Petersburg, gave up an engineering career early in order to write.

In 1849, he was arrested for belonging to a radical discussion group and was sentenced to be shot. He was reprieved at the last moment and sentenced to four years of hard labour in Siberia, where he developed epilepsy and experienced a deepening of his religious faith.

Dostoyevsky’s novels are especially concerned with faith, suffering, and the meaning of life; they are famous for their psychological depth and insight and their near-prophetic treatment of issues in philosophy and politics.

By the end of his life, he was acclaimed as one of his country’s greatest writers, and his works had a profound influence on 20th-century literature.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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Marat Gatin, Sherif Gad, Professor Anwar Ibrahim receives his medal from Russian ambassador Georgiy Borisenko, Fathy Toghan

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EGYPT

ALGERIA: 5 Algerian Multi Millionaires That You Should Know About!

The only billionaire Algeria has is Issad Rebrab, he is the owner of Algeria’s biggest company, Cevital, which is a sugar refinery company that produces about 2 million tons a year, Although, he is alone in his wealth, there are other 5 multibillionaires worthy of recognition.

Abdelmadjid Kerrar

via ElWatan

He is the founder of BioPharm which is a large pharmaceutical company that manufactures and distributes drugs, BioPharm employs more than 1,500 people and gets more than $500 million revenues last year.

Ali Haddad

via Algerie Patriotique

He is the 52-year-old founder of ETRHB Haddad Group with an annual revenue of $500 million, it’s very impressive that he’d founded this company at the age of 32, he is also the controlling shareholder of the Algerian club USM Alger that plays in the Algerian Premier League.

Mohamed Laid Benamor

via DIA

He is the head of the Benamor Group, which is one of the most successful food companies in Algeria. This company makes more than $80 million as an annual revenue.

Abderrahmane Benhamadi

via Algerie Eco

This big guy owns the Condor Group which manufactures and distributes air conditioners, televisions, satellite receivers, washing machines, refrigerators, smartphones, tablets, gas cookers, microwaves, desktops and laptops, with an annual revenue of $700 million.

Djilali Mehri

via Algerie part

This 80-year-old guy owns the Mehri Group; the sole bottler of all Pepsi products, and the owner of many luxurious hotels.

source/content: scoopempire.com (headline edited) / Febronia Hanna

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pix: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers /L to R : Coast, Martyr’s Memorial , Ahmed Francis Building , Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, Central Post Office, Ketchaoua Mosque, Harbour

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ALGERIA

MENA Heritage: 3rd Int’l European Center Conference – “The Heritage of the Middle East and North Africa: Demise Challenges and Tasks of Preserving Identity”, Tunisia – February 25 to 26

The European Centre for Middle East Studies, headquartered in Germany, is organising its third international scientific conference in Tunisia on 25-26 February.

The conference will be held under the title “The Heritage of the Middle East and North Africa: Demise Challenges and Tasks of Preserving Identity.”

Representatives of UNESCO, ICESCO and ALECSO organisations are set to attend the conference.

Sattar Jabbar Rahman, founder and CEO of the European Centre for Middle East Studies and head of the conference, told Ahram Online the conference is meant to not only shed light on heritage but also to find mechanisms to protect it.

He pointed out that heritage, in its tangible and intangible forms, is suffering from neglect. The responsibility of protecting heritage lies not only on the shoulders of official institutions concerned with culture and heritage, but also on organisations concerned with protecting heritage, activists, and research centres, including the European Centre for Middle East Studies, he added.

Rahman confirmed that the heritage of the Middle East and North Africa is under threat, which is why the conference devoted five axes to discuss ways to protect it. These axes are: the impact of struggles and armed conflicts on tangible heritage; the role of civil society and cultural institutions in protecting heritage; national and international legislation to protect heritage; digitisation in the service and preservation of cultural heritage; and the impact of urban expansion on heritage.

Armed conflicts have caused some of the worst disasters on the cultural, urban and architectural fronts, said Hala Asslan, an expert with the International Council on Monuments and Sites and UNESCO and vice chairman of the Scientific Committee at the conference.

Asslan told Ahram Online that several conflicts erupted during the first two decades of the third millennium, causing unprecedented destruction in the region and harming the cultural, architectural, and environmental heritage of several Arab countries, especially those located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, most notably in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Libya. Several sites registered on the World Heritage List were damaged, such as the ancient city of Aleppo, the archaeological site of Palmyra, and the villages of Forgotten Cities in northern Syria, she added.

Chokri Essifi, a researcher in historical and civilisational studies and coordinator of the Office of Academic Relations at the European Centre for Middle East Studies in Germany, told Ahram Online that the local heritage in the Middle East is exposed to several internal and external threats. The most prominent of these is the lack of maintenance, attention, and follow up, their inappropriate use in cultural and tourism development, and the lack of awareness of the importance of this heritage in building national cultural identity.

With regard to external influences on heritage, Essifi revealed that the rapid transformations that the world has been witnessing since the 1990s included a number of influences in the heritage of the Middle East.

The first of these is the continuous attempts to own this heritage. This is in addition to the increase in theft, especially during periods of wars and conflicts that weakened protection measures on heritage and cultural sites.

He stressed that despite the positive aspects of globalisation, the unilateral view in the field of culture and the growing imperialism and one-centric tendency have hindered the trend towards promoting constructive cultural pluralism that does not differentiate between cultures and identities.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA (MENA)

MOROCCO :‘Fog Harvesting’ Organisation Also Provides Training and Study Programmes

Famous for its “fog harvesting” project in southern Morocco, the nonprofit Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture also carries out other projects to build the capacities of local populations and provide educational training projects for young people.

The fog-harvesting project, in the Sidi Ifni region of southern Morocco, uses specially designed nets to capture water droplets suspended in the fog covering mountain peaks. The fog-water drips off the nets and is channeled into a filtration system, thus providing clean water to residents of areas suffering from severe water shortages.

The project is a boon for women in the region because it frees them from having to carry water long distances, and also provides jobs and training for them.

Development Projects

Established in 2010, Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture is run by Jamila Bargach, a cultural anthropologist, and her husband, Aissa Derham , a mathematician who holds a Ph.D. from Laval University in Canada.

Bargach studied at Mohammed V University in Rabat and obtained a Ph.D. in anthropology from Rice University in the United States. She has worked for several nongovernmental organisations in Morocco and abroad.

In the region, Bargach is nicknamed “The Bride of the Fog” in reference to a local Amazigh legend of a princess named Teslet who did her best to make rain to save her village from drought.

Over the past years, the fog-harvesting project has received numerous international honours, notably an Innovation in Sustainabilty award from the GoAbroad Foundation in 2017 and a Momentum for Change award  presented at the COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakech in 2016.

Programmes for American Students

Fond of southern Morocco, Bargach believes that the region provides unique opportunities for students to learn more about the kingdom, especially in terms of how development projects are accomplished in complex and special contexts.

Many of Dar Si Hmad’s educational programmes center on the fog-harvesting project, Bargach told Al-Fanar Media. “This enables students to learn and develop their abilities through practical and field education.”

She added that the association receives students from American universities who come to southern Morocco. Over the years, it has hosted more than 54 student missions from different American universities.

The organisation provides these students with opportunities to meet with Moroccan students from Ibn Zohr University, in Agadir, and to participate in various educational programmes. These include the RISE Programme, the Ethnographic Field School and the Water School, as well as job programmes targeting women in rural areas.

Environment-Friendly Entrepreneurship

The RISE Programme aims to build capacities and promote environment-friendly entrepreneurship among students of colleges and higher schools in Agadir. The programme is a set of integrated workshops presented by experts, and meetings with employers, with the aim of exchanging experiences and creating opportunities for networking. Each participant is also required to have a project idea that benefits the local environment, besides the need to commit to attending all scheduled events.

The Ethnographic Field School  promotes cross-cultural understanding and exchange through interpersonal interaction with local communities. During their time in southern Morocco, participants learn about local issues like sustainable practices in the argan oil industry , which employs many rural Amazigh women, or languages like darija (Moroccan Arabic) and Tachelhit (the local form of Tamazight).

The Water School programme is directed to students of rural schools in the Aït Baamrane region in southern Morocco. The programme is based on lessons inspired by local reality, with openness to other horizons and cultures. The Water School brings together volunteers, environmental trainers, and other partners. Everyone is committed to building a comprehensive and ethical foundation for the benefit of environmental education, the organisation’s leaders say.

Bargach says that the success of the fog-harvesting project motivated and inspired the educational programmes’ students. She adds that they are working to transfer knowledge to young people who are passionate about more work and innovation in searching for alternative sources of water and serving the environment in southern Morocco.

Skill-Building Experiences 

Nadia El-Aissaoui, who holds a master’s degree in tourism and communication from Ibn Zohr University’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, worked in Dar Si Hmad’s Ethnographic Field School this year. She said the experience helped her develop professional skills. “I have benefited greatly from this experience,” she said. “I worked as a fixer (‘speaking partner’) for students coming from American universities to work on field research projects.”

The programme transferred her from university halls to field research, she said. “This experience enriched my professional path,” she added. “I learned a lot of things, such as focusing on tasks, time management, documentation, interpretation methods, besides exposing me to the American mentality and working ways.”

source/content: al-fanarmedia.org (headline edited)

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Aissa Derham checks a net used in the fog-harvest project. He and Jamila Bargach co-founded the nonprofit Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture, which runs several capacity-building and educational programmes in southern Morocco. (Photo courtesy of the organisation)

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MOROCCO