The commune of Tamesloht, falling under the Al-Haouz province, has just acquired a reception centre for disadvantaged children, financed by private funds and inaugurated recently in the presence of local authorities, the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Morocco, Ron Strikker, the Consul General of the Netherlands in Casablanca, Marc Winkel, the Consul General of France in Marrakech, Éric Gérard, and other Moroccan and foreign personalities.
Named "Fiers et Forts" (Proud and Strong) in the name of the Association that took up the challenge of building it, the centre, which also includes an educational farm, benefits street children aged 6 to 18 who are fully taken care of there: education, accommodation, medical monitoring, food, etc. Supervision is provided by five educators who take turns day and night to provide moral support to the residents and help them get out of exclusion.
This new structure, which today welcomes more than a hundred children in difficulty, including about twenty in boarding school, was born thanks to a woman of Dutch origin, Dorine Eijkman "Madou", founder of the "Fiers et Forts" Association, who invested a lot to concretise this solidarity project that was very close to her heart.
The centre includes, among other things, classrooms, a boarding school, a canteen and workshops. Many children in deep distress also benefit from training on the educational farm and the organic vegetable gardens of the centre. This newborn will also have in the near future its own shop intended for the marketing of handicrafts made by the residents, just like the oil extracted from the olives of the farm.
The realisation of this multidisciplinary educational centre was possible thanks to the support of the "Al-Baraka" Association, created in 2001 by Serge Van Gorkum and whose activities are focused in particular on support for disadvantaged children in the rural environment of the High Atlas, the Jean-René Fourtou Foundation and other major sponsors. Most of the funds were collected during an auction of art objects at "La Mamounia", sponsored by the famous Top-model and godmother of the project Adriana Karembeu.
