Orphanages conjure up pictures that go hand in hand with humanitarian work. This is the first one we've encountered, even though we've heard some horror stories about other Moroccan orphanages. Our friend, Sue, has begun volunteer work here and took us along with her.
This facility is funded by Swiss. The founder had a vision.
Sponsors donate money for buildings, around-the-clock caretakers bussed in from the villages, or if you desire you can give 300 Euros a month for the upkeep of a child. This school educates the children every day. A central kitchen delivers food to each separate home. A main laundry facility keeps the clothes clean. A medical team is ever at the ready.
One company even desired to put an experimental solar unit out here. Their rent goes into the pot.
State-of-the-art dental equipment brings with it a dentist on retainer.
A music room
A playground
Storerooms of clothes
and educational supplies
120 children--
Discarded due to illegitimacy--
No birth certificate, no hope of being adopted according to Sharia law--
25 a day--discarded all over Morocco
Ten to twelve children are housed in a very lovely home unit and cared for by two women who come from a nearby village. Some of these "mothers" are biological who just want to be near their child.
The children are clean and obviously very very loved.
As employment gigs go here in Morocco, I think this one is right up there! I have friends in the U.S. who would be so completely happy to work here forever.
Photographing this guy proved beyond me. He was too shifty, but I did get a good clear pole shot. I think he misses his other two penmates--they expired. Ostriches at an orphanage seemed incongruent, but then again...isn't most everything?
