Leah Williams in Morocco - 1997
My first placement was in the centre for children with physical
disabilities in Khemisset — a small town between Rabat and
Meknes in the north of Morocco. The centre was set up in 1971 as
part of a programme run by Save The Children, and is now one of
3 centres for physically disabled children run by "Entraide
Nationale" in Morocco, the others being in Casablanca and Laayoune.
There are about 112 children at the centre, all of whom are residential,
ranging in age from 6 to 16.
I was one of four British volunteers at the centre. We lived upstairs
in a building on site; with about ten of the older lads sleeping
downstairs, who shared our shower (cold) and toilet (decent) facilities.
The centre contains: dormitories for the children, a physiotherapy
room (complete with Japanese physiotherapist), dining room, television
room, hammam (shower room), laundry, an orthopaedics workshop, a
playground/garden area, an art/games room, football pitch, school,
forest and a swimming pool. The pool is not in use at the moment
due to a faulty motor in the filtration system and also due to problems
of water supply, although it was used over the summer, enabling
18 children to learn to swim.
Leah and Kate with Kacem, the "Responsable" for the Trust
in Morocco and other friends. Our days started at 6am, when we had to get up and help the children
to wash and dress. It was difficult to know what the children wanted
at first, but once we had learned the Arabic for shoes and jumper
and wheelchair (and worked out which wheelchair belonged to which
child) there were no real problems. I usually helped the younger
boys, and being greeted by their cheerful grinning faces and cheery
calls of "sbaH Ikhir, Leila" (we were all given Arabic
names) made the early starts worthwhile, although attempts to discuss
religious conversion were less welcome at that point of the day!
They mainly needed help with lacing up their shoes and callipers,
putting on coats or jumpers, being placed in their wheelchairs,
being taken to the toilet and bathroom, making their beds and finally
being taken to the dining room for breakfast.
At breakfast time our duties consisted of cutting numerous loaves
of bread, serving jam and butter, and giving out something vaguely
resembling sweet, milky coffee. The latter was something of a juggling
act, since there were never enough cups for all the children. After
we had cleared away the debris and seen the children off to school,
we finally sat down to eat our own breakfast. Usually the children
were in school for two hours, until 10am, so we had some free time,
either to go back to bed or to go into Khemisset (4km away) in the
minibus, or to do some painting or gardening.
After school, the children had half an hour's break to relax and
chat and play with us, and then had to return to school for one
and a half hours of homework, supervised by us. We were each in
charge of one class of about 13 students. I was responsible for
the Sixieme, which is the most advanced class. They took very little
looking after, since some of them actually wanted to work, and therefore
helped keep control of the class (unlike the Cinquieme, whom Andrew
had the dubious pleasure of supervising — they were absolute
nightmares!) generally the plan was to keep them quiet so those
who wanted to work were able to do so, and occasionally I was able
to help them with their work. This was really only possible when
they were doing French homework, since Classical Arabic and Koranic
studies are not my strong points!
The British Ambassador joins the party for the annual "English
Speaking Day" arranged by visiting Trust Volunteers. When the study session was over (usually signalled by all the kids
deciding to pack their books away and leave the room), we had to
go into the kitchen to help prepare lunch. This involved laying
the tables, cutting yet more bread, and serving the meal (often
harira, beetroot, bread and apples), dealing with complaints about
rotten apples and clearing the tables afterwards. After the children
had left the dining room, we washed some plates for ourselves and
sat down to eat with the monitrices. Conversation between us and
the monitrices was strained or non-existent at first, due to shyness
and the language barrier — our Arabic was not really up to
holding a proper conversation and many of them did not speak French
— but they soon expressed their friendly intentions by tripping
us up on the way to the kitchen or practising Tae-Kwondo moves on
us.
From 2pm to 5pm the children were in school again. The centre places
great emphasis on academic achievement. From 5.30 to 7pm there was
another supervised homework session (except for the youngest children),
and then it was time to help prepare dinner. After dinner they had
a little free time, but as it was dark by this time, most of them
went straight to their rooms, where they played and talked and got
ready for bed. I spent many a pleasant evening on the older girls'
room: gossiping, laughing, and applying nail polish. There were
seven girls in the room, aged between 12 and 16, and there was such
a friendly atmosphere, especially when the monitrices came in and
joined in the chatter. When the conversation was not directed at
me, it was all in Arabic, so I had to rely on gestures, expressions,
intonation and a few familiar words to get the gist of it. One evening
we had a tape player in the main girls' room, and we all danced
to Moroccan music. My attempts were met with great hilarity, but
because my dancing was so terrible, I was able to persuade some
of the shyer girls to dance — after all, they couldn't look
sillier than I did!
The times when we were most busy keeping the children entertained
(although they are very resourceful and quite capable of entertaining
themselves) were Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday,
when the children had no school. One Sunday morning there were organised
games in the salon, for prizes of toys, which we had brought with
us. Other times we played football, volleyball, listened to music,
watched television or videos ("Mr Bean" went down a treat),
or sang songs. One afternoon we took about 30 children for a walk
in the surrounding countryside, which was a great opportunity for
the children to escape from the grounds of the centre for a bit.
Other times we went for walks in the forest, which is part of the
centre, or took the older girls into town for music lessons.
On Wednesday afternoons the girls are given their weekly hammam
(hot shower). The first week I just helped undress the girls before
their wash, dry them afterwards and generally keep them entertained
while they were waiting (the actual washing area is only large enough
for a few children at a time). By my final Wednesday, I had plucked
up the courage to actually enter the washroom, and therefore ended
up shampooing and combing about 30 heads of hair, as well as scrubbing
about 30 backs with the help of some of the older girls and one
monitrice. When all the younger girls had been dried, dressed and
fortified with mint tea, I had a hammam with the older girls and
Hanan, the monitrice. It was great fun — really girlish and
giggly, scrubbing each other's backs, combing each other's hair
and chucking water everywhere!
Hard at work painting the pool at Khemisset . . .
. . . and some rest! There is a donkey at the centre, called "Princess", who
was donated to the centre earlier this year by SPANA (a British
animal charity that operates in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan
and Syria). The idea is to train her and the new donkey, "Prince",
to be able to be ridden by the children, to give them the experience
of a different form of mobility. At the present time, Princess is
too young to work, but the children enjoy having her around. There
are also two dogs — one older "guard" dog, and one
puppy ("Rex"), which the children of course alternately
shower with affection and tease mercilessly.
Some of our free time and donations went into doing some work around
the centre. Andrew and I fixed the swings in the playground so that
they would stay at a suitable height, and the children would therefore
need less help to get on and off the swings. We all (including a
couple of monitrices) painted the benches outside and in the salon,
which had been a fetching grey, and Andrew and Kacem painted the
goalposts. We also helped to clear an area of rubble and rubbish,
where a couple of buildings had recently been knocked down, so another
garden area could be created. Our group's final donation to the
centre was a second tape player, since at the present their only
tape player is in constant use and bad condition. Our future plan
is to create a typical Moroccan salon, to be run in a similar way
to a youth centre, with seating and computers, where the kids can
go to relax and to learn a new skill.
The atmosphere at the centre is extremely lively and friendly,
with a real spirit of co-operation. The children are encouraged
to help each other, for example those who can walk help to push
those in wheelchairs, they all help each other move their schoolbags
between classrooms, push each other on the swings and help in the
hammam. The children are generally very positive, but among the
older ones in particular, there are concerns about what the future
will hold when they leave the centre. They made us feel very welcome
from the moment we arrived and I was extremely sad to have to bid
them farewell at the end of the month.
Most of the time when we were not at the centre or visiting towns
like Rabat and Meknes, were spent with Kacem's family in Khemisset,
who were all incredibly hospitable. Christian, who had worked at
the SPANA refuge and was living with Kacem's family had his 21st
birthday while we were there, so Khadija (Kacem's sister) arranged
a little party for him, complete with birthday cake, balloons and
compulsory Moroccan dancing. On our last evening in Khemisset we
were all adorned with henna, and fed pancakes and mint tea, before
being sent on our way with hugs and kisses and promises to return
soon (which I did a month later).
Leah Williams
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