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Ouaouizerth, Azilal

In 2013 a former Peace Corps volunteer contacted a Kids on Computers® volunteer to discuss establishing a computer lab in Morocco. The school that they intended to serve was a boarding school in Ouaouizerth, Morocco, a community of about 10,000 people in the Atlas Mountains.

The discussion led to a proposal to the Kids on Computers® board of directors. The proposal recommended a trip to Morocco by Kids on Computers® volunteers, close coordination with other Peace Corps volunteers working in Morocco to identify other deserving schools, and a plan to purchase computers in-country rather than transporting them from the United States. A $2500 USD grant from UnitedHealth Group to purchase computers was influential in the board’s approving the proposal. The proposal was approved and a trip was scheduled for late 2014.

  • Ouaouizerth
  • Ouled Moussa
  • Foum Jamaa

Volunteers traveled to Morocco in October 2014 to set up the labs. They took install media prepared with a custom KoC image based on Ubermix 2.1 including English, French and Arabic language packs. They also carried a Mac Mini to be used as a media server with offline Wikipedia and the offline version of Khan Academy software in English, French and Arabic.

While in Morocco, the Kids on Computers® volunteers met with other Peace Corps volunteers who recommended a school in Foum Jemaa, a town several hours distant.

Ouaouizerth​

The school, named Association Bienfaisance Ouaouizerth, is a community effort for children who do not live in Ouaouizerth. It is not funded by the government, unlike most boarding schools of that type in Morocco.

More than 120 students in late teenage years come from homes as much as 50 km distant from the school. They live at the school while class is in session and go home only for holidays.

Cyber cafés in Ouaouizerth provide access to the internet, but students at the boarding school are at a disadvantage when trying to use them. The hourly cost is often prohibitive for the boarding school students. Additionally, the local culture requires girls not to be outside after 6 PM, which is when regular classes end. Consequently the girls at the school are prevented from going to the cyber cafés after school. The students would obviously benefit from having computers and internet access at the boarding school.

At the time of the proposal, the only computer at the school was one belonging to the supervisor of students. The Peace Corps volunteer asked Kids on Computers® to provide ten computers for this school, which we were able to do. We established a lab in October 2014 with ten laptops and a Mac Mini media server.