Settat Association for Development
The Settat Association for Development is a small, local charity based in the Settat region. Rather than having a specific field of work, the association works flexibly across education, health and social development projects to meet the needs of the local people. This wider exposure, despite the limited financial resources available, is due to the fact that there are no other charities operating in that area.
Recently, BMS committee member Jalal Nasri made a visit to the Association:
“Supporting this association is particularly important to me as it operates in the village where I was born. In addition, it is nice to see that the culture of organized registered charities is spreading in this rural area and I am confident they will succeed. There is a lot of work to be done and I will personally support them by all means”.
Jalal Nasri on his visit
Below are examples of some of the projects that have been carried out recently by the association:
Educational Projects
Thanks to the support of the British Moroccan Society, the Association have managed recently to organize a successful series of events aimed to train and facilitate local youth and graduates to enter the job market. The president of the charity said that: “the unemployment rate in this area is extremely high, for instance it is particularly disappointing to see female graduates unemployed or working as cleaners and not being able to find an organization that can provide the support to succeed in what they have studied for.
In partnership with the Ministry of National Education, each year the Settat Association organises an opening ceremony at the beginning of the school year to welcome new primary school students, with cultural, artistic and fun activities. The welcome to school party aims to encourage primary school students in their studies.
At the end of the first school term, the association also organises a ceremony for the first year primary school students to encourage them to continue with motivation and enthusiasm in their studies. There is a party with different cultural and art activities, as well as a display of the students’ work which is selected with the help of school teachers.
Each year the association distributes school supplies to primary school classes at schools in the Ouled Njima region, and distributes textbooks to students in all levels of classes in the region’s schools. The association also distributed materials to students during the pandemic so that they could study remotely at home.
The Association contributed supplies, textbooks and backpacks to the Kdana Association for Development to open elementary education classes in the Kdana – Oulad Said district.
Recently, a graduation event was organised to celebrate local students who had obtained their Baccalaureate and provide help and training on entering the job market.
Cultural Projects
The Settat Association organises a range of activities to celebrate National and International festivals and promote religious and cultural tolerance.
Celebrating International Arabic Language Day and International Women’s Day.
To commemorate the anniversary of Morocco’s independence, they partnered with the public library of Bni Khellouq and schools in Ouled Njima to organise educational, cultural and fun activities in the Bni Khellouq district’s public square.
Sports Activities
The Association organized a women’s football tournament that brought together girls from Sidi Boumehdi district’s schools, in order to discover new talents and empower young girls to try new things.
They also organized a large-scale sports event (mini-football and cross-country) in partnership with the veterans of the Moroccan national team’s Sports and Friendship Association. The event targeted the youth of the Bni Mskin region, and was also marked by a ceremony honoring one of the region’s veteran players. Donations of sports equipment were also distributed to the participants.
Social Welfare projects
As part of the fight against the spread of Covid-19, the association encouraged local volunteer work on projects to slow the spread of the virus, including awareness campaigns in partnership with the Sidi Boumehdi communal district targeting residents through messages played on loudspeakers in marketplaces informing people of the risks. Volunteers organised by the Settat Association also carried out sanitation of public places.
- The Association distributed financial aid to widowed mother in the city of Meknes, a man fighting cancer, a physically disabled man living in poverty and a woman with a hip fracture.
- Food parcels were distributed to poor families in the city of Al Brouj.
- Food parcels were distributed to 82 families in need in Ouled Njima’s hospital during Ramadan.
- The Association funded sending two children from Ouled Al-Houari to be treated in Casablanca for injuries eye injuried, the first with a severe wound and the second with a malignant tumor.
- The Association helped a young disabled man from Ouled Friha to finance starting a small business.
- The Association provided crutches to people in need.
- In collaboration with other local associations, they organised a series of fundraising events to finance a young man’s liver surgery.
- With the financial help of donors and doctors from the cities of Settat and Casablanca, they were able to fund a child’s surgery on a cancerous tumor.
- Ouled Njima’s mosque and Bni Khellouq’s high school were rehabilitated.
- A blood donation campaign was organized in Bni Khellouq.
