My name is Robin DURAND, I am thirty years old. I chose to go volunteering for a year for several reasons. First, I already taught english and french as foreign languages in a private school for three and a half years and I wanted to teach these skills for free. I personnally wanted to get out of my comfort zone and benefit others, and as a way to experiment resilience to adress social issues. Then I was eager to travel abroad and to discover a new culture, way different than the ones I encounter in my homeland. Because France and Morroco share a common heritage, it was also a way for me to get closer to Arabic tradition. It was very beneficial for me and my hope is that it left a good impact on the people I’ve come to met and help, and the land itself which I contribute to know and transform.

Activities in the Orphanage Dar Al Atfal

For the first month of my arrival I had the opportunity to participate in urban landscaping in the orphanage with the Collective Pourquoi Pas. We undertook building benches with recycled materials like old tires, build raised bed gardens for herbal tea plants with mud bricks. Learning this ancient technique of adobe building was very fun way to create an atmosphere of joy and camaraderie amongst orphans and volunteers. We held film projections for the children and invited a music band to play for the kids. In the meantime I had started tutoring and teaching french first for young kids and then for young adults.

I also participated in a permaculture workshop in the cultural event La serre organized by L’Atelier de l’Observatoire in Parc Yasmina. In this workshop we made seedballs a technique to implement reforestation, it was a way to give flowers and seeds to people.

I was also involved in the making of the Permaculture Garden Ibn Al Awam of the association Orange Bleue Maghreb as part of my personnal project. I volunteered there at the first opening of the garden to host and accomodate participants, and on many occasions I did tree planting and implementation of the design and was happy to witness the progression of such a good venture in an urban area. The purpose of such a garden is to provide with a model for permaculture and to show and teach how such a model is sustainable and could transform the city.

I litterally fell in love with the country and its people, and overall it was a very good experience and I wish to keep the ties I’ve made strong to continue promote cooperation and environemental practice between nations. To encourage mobility between volunteers of differents backgrounds and to promote a different approach of agriculture both in rural areas and in the city. Studying and promoting biodiversity is a crucial yet underdevelopped discipline. I am dedicating myself to it in the future to invest in people. Morroco is a great country, full of ressources with poetry at every corner, I haven’t visit it entirely and wish to explore more in the future. I warmly thanks every individual that made this opportunity possible and help me during my volunteering.