Food Aid Sustains Quake-Hit Villages in Morocco, for Now

After years of drought, water lastly got here to 1 parched area of the Atlas Mountains in northern Morocco final month, free of the bottom by the earthquake that killed 1000’s and devastated entire villages.

Within the days following the catastrophe, it bubbled up by way of cracks within the earth and flowed down arid stream beds to long-desiccated fields.

Within the mountain village of Douar Tighitcht, the looks of the water was seen as one thing of a miracle. Villagers hurried to their fields, plowing the damp earth and planting crops — peppers, eggplants, potatoes and carrots — that they hoped would assist enhance the dire meals state of affairs within the quake-hit area.

Mohamed Tamim, a university professor based mostly within the capital metropolis of Rabat who’s a local of the village, had combined emotions in regards to the water rising in Tighitcht’s reservoir, aware that the laborious earth and sudden move might end in undesirable flooding.

“Everyone is plowing to reap the benefits of this God-sent water,” he mentioned. “It’s good however on the identical time it’s scary.”

The earthquake that struck Morocco on Sept. 8 killed about 3,000 folks and left 1000’s homeless and in want of assist in areas which have lengthy been topic to the vagaries of fickle seasons.

In response, folks from faraway cities have emptied grocery store cabinets to convey meals to remoted villages. Cooks from world wide have traveled to distant areas to feed those that misplaced every part. And native girls have organized cooking shifts utilizing no matter gear they may recuperate from their destroyed kitchens.

That has helped complement the federal government assist that will get by way of. However the individuals who inhabit the distant mountain areas are nonetheless aware of their precarious state of affairs.

Kebira Aznag, a 50-year-old mom of six who has been tenting outdoors her rickety two-story home in Tighitcht, too scared to remain inside for the reason that earthquake, mentioned folks from distant cities had introduced her household bread, sardines, milk and water, amongst different provisions. It was sufficient to outlive on till some sense of normality returned, she mentioned.

“With out assist, we’d have died,” Ms. Aznag mentioned. She didn’t really feel it was secure to prepare dinner with fuel underneath the tent the place she had been dwelling together with her household, she mentioned, and it took a while earlier than she dared enterprise into the home to make use of her kitchen once more.

On a latest afternoon, she was feeding a small group of individuals, together with Mr. Tamim, the school professor and her distant cousin. She had cobbled collectively a lunch of tagine — a stew with meat, potatoes, carrots and zucchini.

Dwelling outdoors, Ms. Aznag mentioned she was petrified of the canine she hears barking at night time, and needed to work up the power wanted to stroll as much as one other village to get meals for the 30 chickens, six sheep and three goats that represent her household’s livelihood.

She mentioned the land her household owns had been dry for years, and that manufacturing from the olive and almond timber they tried to domesticate had dwindled to almost nothing. As an alternative, they’d invested within the livestock now penned up close to her home.

Mr. Tamim was within the village when the earthquake struck, and was now doing sociological analysis on its aftermath. Meals was so essential for the victims of the catastrophe, past the necessity for survival, he mentioned.

“It’s therapeutic for folks to eat,” Mr. Tamim, 70, mentioned as he ate his tagine at a small desk inside Ms. Aznag’s house, sporting his bike helmet for cover in case elements of the home collapsed on him. “It retains their minds off what they’re going by way of.”

In a city lower than two hours’ drive away, Oulad Berhil, the odor of couscous wafted by way of the air on a scorching morning. Cooks and volunteers from Morocco and the world over — Peru, Spain, Poland, the USA and Australia — have been laborious at work getting ready 1000’s of meals to dispatch to villages the place folks had no means of reaching a market or have been with out working kitchens.

“I felt it was essential to contribute,” mentioned Taki Kabbaj, 42, a local of Marrakesh who skilled on the elite Paul Bocuse culinary faculty in France and now works as a chef on the upscale restaurant Cabestan in Casablanca. “We despatched cash to organizations however I actually needed to assist with my fingers,” mentioned Mr. Kabbaj, who spent the primary days after the quake cooking up giant vats of meat and vegetable stews. “It was essential for me to make use of my experience.”

The cooking operation, arrange in a processing plant for olives in Oulad Berhil and one other location within the city of Asni, is run by the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which was created by the Spanish-American chef José Andrés within the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It introduced collectively about 20 reduction employees from overseas and dozens from round Morocco to prepare dinner 1000’s of meals. On a latest Friday, 12,000 meals have been cooked in Oulad Berhil and 30,000 in Asni, the group mentioned.

The primary volunteer cooks dispatched by World Central Kitchen arrived in Marrakesh, about 50 miles northeast of the epicenter, the day after the catastrophe. They labored with native eating places to distribute sandwiches to folks tenting outdoors within the metropolis middle. They then scouted for a base increased up within the mountains the place they may park their rented refrigerated vehicles, and arrange a cooking station utilizing giant pots introduced in from Spain. Working with a community of native drivers, and even renting private helicopters or utilizing mules, they’ve been delivering meals to essentially the most distant elements of the Atlas Mountains.

On the kitchen in Oulad Berhil, two Moroccan cooks from Agadir helped the opposite volunteer cooks make couscous, a staple of Moroccan delicacies that’s nearly all the time served on Fridays, typically eaten throughout household gatherings and at occasions like funerals.

“They’ve their tips and now we have our personal,” mentioned Olivier de Belleroche, a chef from Madrid who additionally labored with World Central Kitchen in Ukraine this yr, as he gave instructions to group members cooking the meal. “You give lots however you get much more again.”

The Moroccans helped the opposite cooks adapt the meals for native tastes, including bouillon and regionally produced saffron (their “little secret,” they mentioned) to the stew, earlier than packing every part in containers for supply. One smaller truck carried kitchen kits with pots, small stoves and different gear up a steep, slim and sinuous street, not too long ago cleared of rubble by the folks of Tizirt, a village increased up, with their very own fingers.

The concept is to equip villages with the fundamentals earlier than pulling out, aiming to provide folks sufficient hope and energy to proceed rebuilding.

“It’s powerful right here. In some areas, we have been the primary folks they noticed,” mentioned Jason Collis, the chief reduction officer on the World Central Kitchen, who traveled from California. He mentioned the group would keep in Morocco till it was not wanted.

Even when their rapid meals wants are met, the folks of the Atlas Mountains nonetheless face long-term challenges.

Extended droughts have dried up water sources, exacerbating meals shortage within the area, mentioned Najib Akesbi, a Moroccan economist who focuses on agriculture and meals safety.

“These areas previously engaged in subsistence agriculture,” he mentioned. “There was a time when these areas might dwell in self-sufficiency, however agriculture not supplies a dwelling for farmers.” He added that some water sources had run dry 30 years earlier than the earthquake.

Soufiane Ait Ben Ahmed, 44, a volunteer with the Youth of the Atlas, a Moroccan nonprofit, who additionally helped take all types of assist to villagers, mentioned folks have been operating out of the help they obtained within the first days after the catastrophe.

“Now individuals are simply realizing how folks have been dwelling for years,” he mentioned. “As if the earthquake occurred to indicate the fact. You possibly can’t look away anymore.”