focuses on the empowerment of the local community and on tackling desertification of Beni Hayoun and its region in south east Morocco. We aim to restore a dying oasis and create an empowering art space for the local women and children.
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introduction
Welcome and thank you for visiting our website. We are happy to share our project vision and progress with you. We are Es-Said Et-Talmoudi and Linde de Greeff, two ambitious people from Morocco and the Netherlands, living at the edge of the Sahara desert in south east Morocco. Since 2019 we have been working on a multidisciplinary project on a 1.2 hectare piece of land. With this project, we focus on the natural environment and its local community. By implementing sustainable long-term practices, we look for solutions to enable the local people and ourselves to continue living in this harsh climate.
Our project is still in its primary phase. Since the start we have been working with almost no water and little money. However, together with volunteers from allover the world we have made plenty of progress and a lot of work has been done over the last years. In a place where you quickly encounter boundaries and limitations, you also learn to be creative and work in a solution-oriented manner more quickly. With this project, we are working hard towards a larger, threefold goal and we are thrilled if you become part of our journey.
Linde and Said
sahara desert
The project where we're living and working, is located in the Daraa valley at the edge of the Sahara desert, one of the driest places on earth. This extremely dry part of Morocco covers a large part of the country. Many people still try to live here, but with the increasing heat it is becoming more challenging every year. Water is extremely scarce, wells are drying up, palm trees are dying and there is a lot of unemployment. Morocco's longest river - the oued Daraa - on which hundreds of villages depend, has dried up almost entirely since 1995. Our region only receives 2-3 days of rain a year. A lot of Saharan nomads - including Said and his family - have stopped living in the desert; many farmers and young people are moving away from the region due to the lack of possibilities and are even attempting to leave the country. Ancient villages that are thousands of years old, become more and more abandoned and palm groves lack being looked after. While this area requires extra care, it is increasingly being left to its own devices.
why this project?
Bani Hayoune Garden has an important purpose: to tackle desertification in our region through bringing back the oasis life and the sustainment of our community and future generations through a women and children's space, that will offer the women in our community social connection and a place to create and sell traditional and contemporary art. Bani Hayoune is a very small village in the Daraa Valley in the south east of Morocco, we are located on the very edge of the Sahara. Our region is seriously impacted by desertification and drought. Climate change is predicted to have increasingly negative environmental and socio-economic impacts on our region. Many people in Bani Hayoune are already living in poverty or are facing the reality of having to leave the community as a result of lack of options. Our project is working to create a community oasis space with a dedicated children’s workshop space and women's art centre that will provide education, creativity, connection, wellbeing and opportunity for women & children in our community.
communal art space for women & children
We want to build a project space for women and children from this area. We focus mainly on women (& children) because we believe that if you empower women you empower the whole community and generations to come. Bani Hayoune has no public spaces for women to gather and they are often disconnected and isolated within the home. By creating a shared, public space for women to come together, we are valuing women connecting with - and supporting each other, sharing knowledge and learning from the older generations. We are valuing our cultural knowledge and practices and empowering women to have independence outside of the home, strong and supportive social networks and access to resources.Children will be able to follow workshops in arts and crafts, gardening, music and permaculture. We believe that by working with art you automatically come into contact with creative & solution-oriented thinking. Art has the ability to free the mind, thus becoming free from the systems around us. Through gardening and discussing selfsustainability, we hope to enlarge consiousness of the worrying situation of the desertification while showing long-term solutions.
forest garden
We want to take action in the reforestation of this part of the desert and thereby set a hopeful example for the local population. We work according to permaculture principles & traditional local methods, in order to create a system that is as selfsustainable as possible and has a long shelf life. By returning as many trees and plants as possible to the region, temperatures can drop and birds and insects can return. Our plot has fertile soil and contains several precious underground water veins. A selfsustainable life is becoming the only solution. It is a long and difficult process, but by continuing working on this project and together with your help, we will be able to return life to this desert region, and grow enough organic food for us and for the community.
Even in the desert some plants manage to grow with very little water
project goals
future vision for the project
Plan for the property, designed and created by Sabrina HoiYan Young
Our home and project. The house where we currently receive volunteers from allover the world.
If you have any questions, ideas & thoughts, if you like to become a supporter or wish to collaborate with us, please write to hi@banihayounegarden.com.
