The lost girls: How Morocco’s earthquake left a community in limbo | World News

In the bustling town of Asni, the rooftops were once full of activity. Especially in the boarding houses of a girls’ education charity where groups would read, chatter, work or sing.

Now the rooftops are silent. If they are even there at all.

It’s been just over two weeks since a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, killing over 3,000 people, tearing buildings apart and exposing inhabitants to the cold nighttime air of the High Atlas mountains.

Some of the house mothers of Education For All (EFA) were in their boarding houses, ready for the girls to start of term, when the walls cracked and the bricks fell.

The UK charity has been operating a network of six residences in the High Atlas region since 2007, housing young women from poor, remote villages. During the week they live in the accommodation – meals and resources provided – and go to local schools, then return home to their villages and families at the weekend.

Years of hard work have gone into building trust with the local communities.

In the charity’s early days, a respected local elder and member of the committee went from door to door to convince mothers and fathers that their daughter would be well cared for by the house mothers.

In more recent years, the houses have had to turn away more girls than they could accept, with numbers reaching around 250 across the six houses. 

I can personally attest to the care and amazing bonds within the boarding houses, having visited three in Asni for a journalism project in October 2022.

The sheer warmth and generosity of everyone I met – and the taste of countless mint teas – has stayed with me since. As have the hopes and dreams of the girls I encountered; future doctors, nurses, teachers, business owners, tourism guides.

And while removed from the situation, the wait for news of the girls was still painful. Waking up to the news of an earthquake in Morocco made my stomach drop, finding out Asni was one of the worst hit places broke my heart.

The boarding houses are like family to these young women. The girls are sisters.

‘The house mothers call the girls their daughters. These houses are their homes,’ CEO Sonia Omar tells Metro. It’s why the wait for news of the girls’ safety was ‘extremely distressing’ for everyone involved. Some villages are so remote that there is no signal and others were cut off by dangerous roads and rockfalls.

‘So despite having a team working around the clock to mark each person safe, it took over one agonising week for a final list. Unfortunately, one girl did not survive.’

After witnessing the dynamics of the houses first hand, it’s not surprising that even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake – having lost homes and family members of their own – the house mothers were there for EFA.

Omar says one slept outside of a boarding house for two nights to ensure no one would enter via the now gaping holes in the walls. Such is the loyalty the organisation elicits; ‘but of course, we said for her safety, she just shouldn’t stay there.’ 

Cruelly, the six houses that EFA run are in the locations surrounding the epicentre of the earthquake. The damage is extensive. It’s currently thought that four of the six houses will need to be demolished and rebuilt in their entirety.

After 17 years of work, it’s not something the charity can afford – monetarily, or in terms of progress. Omar credits EFA with ‘transforming entire communities by obstructing cycles of illiteracy.’

In the mountainous region, poor infrastructure means some villages are only reachable by foot and schools are too difficult to access. It’s even tougher for girls who face pressure to marry and stay at home. Omar believes that ensuring girls receive an education can transform their lives and that of their families, as they become educated mothers. 

But despite being in those remote villages, surrounded by the ruins of their homes and having lost family members, every effort is being made to get them back to school. EFA’s crisis appeal has already amassed just over £200,000, but this is just a fraction of what the charity needs to achieve both short and long term goals.

They estimate they will need £1 million to rebuild the houses and even more for short term care, psychological support and lodgings.

The Moroccan government has now indicated that while all schools in High Atlas remain closed, students will be relocated to near Marrakech.

In an Instagram update, Omar said the charity is on to the ‘next phase’ of finding temporary accommodation for the girls. But she adds: ‘the government proposed accommodation is not suitable for many reasons and we want to honour the trust of the families who want the girls under our supervision’. 

For Omar, a worry bigger than that of temporary accommodation is the fear that the progress made in the ‘sustainable solution’ of education will slide. She acknowledges that ‘it’s always been harder, but this is going to escalate the difficulties and, potentially, young people might not even prioritise education. Now they’ve got so much to do in their communities. Helping their families. Grieving.’

Losing momentum on the progress they’ve made is a tangible fear.

Despite the sheer level of rebuilding work facing not just the charity, but the entire region, Omar has found glimmers of hope. And, she says, proof of their project’s success, rattling off a list of former EFA students now leading relief efforts in their own villages.

Asma Ait Taleb, who boarded with EFA for four years before attending university in Marrakech, was in her village of Ouigrane when the earthquake struck.

While her family house was mercifully undamaged, the rest of her village didn’t fare as well and many lost their lives. She credits the skills she had the opportunity to learn because of EFA – namely becoming proficient in English and French – for helping to bring aid.

She says she was able to ‘reach out to a bigger community because it’s not like when you just speak Arabic’. Asma describes the situation in her village as ‘good’ and she is hopeful of rebuilding her life there.

EFA is also full of hope. They say they need to ‘start again’ and are realistic that their operations might have to change.

In a video update on their Instagram page, founder Mike McHugo said ‘some of the girls have become orphans, and what are we going to do about that? I said we would have to make one of the houses an orphanage.’

However, with changes and rebuilding comes cost. It’s why Omar describes the fund as ‘critical’, but adds she is certain they ‘are not going to wait a year before we are supporting the girls with education.’

MORE : Morocco’s worst earthquake in 120 years has left thousands dead – map shows where it hit and how far it spread

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