Latest news and updates

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2010-04-29T11:34:00.001+01:00

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Newsletter January 2010

2010-01-20T10:19:00.002Z

The January 2010 newsletter is now available to download.

Download the newsletter

A new house opens

2009-11-24T11:50:00.004Z

Starting a second house was always going to be a big step. We had a meeting with the Governor D’Al Haouz in June 2009 about where the second house should be, and he highlighted the need for a house in the most rural region of his province, Talaat n’Yakoub near the Mosque of Tinmal. We realised we did not have the funds to build a new property but we had enough to rent a place and refurbish it (if a suitable place could indeed be found with a secure long lease). By 1st July 2009, EFA had signed a lease, and July and August saw intense work on the renovation of the building and the house opened in September 2009 with 11 girls attending in the first year’s intake. Fund-raising efforts by Bristol Grammar School completely funded the conversion. The plan is that between 10 to 12 girls will enter each September taking the occupancy of the house to about 36 girls. So EFA now has even more responsibility to provide for these girls and your support and donations are increasingly needed.

If you would like to see some photos of the property, please visit the photo gallery section.

Newsletter September 2009

2009-08-18T12:19:00.000+01:00

The September 2009 Newsletter is now available to download and is packed full of interesting articles.

Download the newsletter

Bristol students help make a big difference in Morocco

2009-07-28T09:49:00.003+01:00

Bristol Grammar School’s recent trip to Morocco has been given a full-page spread in the Bristol Evening Post.

Fulham Cross Girls’ School raise £ 1000 for EFA

2009-06-08T11:51:00.003+01:00

In February 2009, for the second year running, Fulham Cross organised a fundraiser event to support the Collège d’Asni in Morocco. Students, parents and staff participated in the event and cooked together, tried their hand at traditional henna tattoos and Moroccan dancing. Parents cooked homemade food which was sold to staff and students and the lessons also took an international theme for example in Art where students looked at Moroccan tile designs and made their own. The week culminated in our International Dress Day which saw an array of colourful costumes light up the school. In all, we raised just under £ 1000 and hope to continue organising this yearly event.

Bristol Grammar School raise an astounding £ 11,000 for Education For All

2009-05-19T10:08:00.006+01:00

Students from Bristol Grammar School (BGS) under the excellent tutorage of Andrew Dimberline and team have managed to raise an astonishing £11,000 for Education For All.

A huge thank you from everyone at Education For All to all at BGS and particularly from the girls at Asni who will be the recipients of this hard work and generous donation.

BGS have been kind enough to document their recent trip, and links to these reports can be found on the schools page. Please do take a look and be inspired by their worthy efforts.

Dar Asni Open Day

2009-05-06T10:14:00.004+01:00

A big thank you to everyone for their support at the Dar Asni Open Day. We were glad you could come and see and meet the girls.

We are planning for this to be an annual event on the last Sunday of April and this will be followed by a mechoui lunch at the Kasbah du Toubkal.

The event was summed up in part by one of the attendees:

“The smiling faces of the girls reminded me of the famous words of Antoine de Saint Exupery, French novelist and aviator you certainly know, who talked of "The assassinated Mozarts" hinting to those chidren who didn't have the chance to go to school so that they discover and develop their talent or their creative abilities.
I am certain that the tremendous impact on these young girls coming from isolated villages of this boarding house will change very positively their lives.
It will be very interesting that someone follows in the coming years, what these girls will be in their future life. I am certain that some of them will go far in life.”

More photos can be seen in the photo gallery page.

Newsletter and Open Day

2009-03-23T12:32:00.003Z

The March 2009 Newsletter is now available to download and is packed full of interesting articles.

Download the newsletter

There is an open day at the house in Asni on April 26th, details below:

Dar Asni Open Day
Join us to celebrate the girls’ successes,
and our first anniversary!
“World change starts with educated children.”
Sunday 26th April, 2009
11.00hrs – Girls’ Boarding House, Asni
13.00hrs – Kasbah du Toubkal, Imlil
Come for coffee, meet the girls and visit Dar Asni
Afterwards an invitation to a charity Mechouie lunch at
Kasbah du Toubkal
500Dh/£40 All proceeds go to “Education for All Morocco”.
To reserve your place, go direct to:
www.justgiving.com/opendayspring09

Bristol Grammar School - Moroccan Souk 27 November 2008

2008-12-02T08:43:00.013Z

Dear all

I thought you might like to know that the total raised at the souk on Thursday (and banked already) is £3385.63

A fantastic effort—every penny of this will go to support the girls in Morocco. I have pasted below an e-mail I received yesterday from Linda—the Australian school teacher currently at the boarding house.

Thanks again for all your efforts

Andrew

“Wow!!!

This is fantastically amazing!!! (Yes, I am a qualified English teacher, but…)

This is such a great effort, and your students should be so proud of themselves.

I hope they will get to come to Asni soon to see just how valuable their contributions have been. The girls are so grateful for the opportunity to go to school, and they are so happy here in the house.

We had a visit today from an American couple who support numerous schools and boarding houses overseas, and they were overwhelmed, claiming this is the best facility they have ever seen—and it is all thanks to the hard work of sponsors like your students!

The girls appreciate every penny!

Thanks again - shukran bessef (thank you so much)

Linda, Latifa and the girls.”

A short presentation put together by the girls

2008-11-13T13:28:00.006Z

Below there are two links to a presentation the girls (with the help of Linda) have put together. Each girl designed, constructed, typed and imported images in to their own slide and remember, before coming to the house they had never used a computer.

The presentation is available as a PDF and as a zipped PowerPoint presentation:

Latest newsletter

2008-09-20T11:29:00.001+01:00

Our latest newsletter is now online. If you would like to subscribe to our newsletters, please send your details via the newsletter subscription page.

Charitable status

2008-06-19T14:24:00.002+01:00

Our sister company, Education For All Morocco Limited, has now received charitable status by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. This is what the charity has been legally set up to achieve:

“For such charitable purposes as the trustees see fit in particular but not exclusively by the provision of funding for NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) and the provision of grants and other services to enable children to attend educational establishments in Morocco”

Charity Dinner in aid of Education For All

2008-06-12T13:02:00.004+01:00

Charity dinner for Education For All will take place at 7.30 p.m. on the 27th June 2008 at The Lion, 27 Wick Road, Teddington, TW11 9DN.

Ticket price £40 (non-refundable) in aid of Education For All

To reserve a place, please contact Andy Philips,

BGS team sells Moroccan jewellery

2008-05-05T21:09:00.001+01:00

The team of 11 students from Bristol Grammar who recently visited Asni were keen to continue fundraising after they returned. An idea of a team member was to buy beads and jewellery in Morocco and then use this to make more jewellery on return to sell at a big North Bristol Fair (The Redland May Fair). We also provided a setting-up and tidying-up service for the Fair and were paid £150 and given a free stall for doing this. Before the fair officially opened we had our first customer—who spent £35! Overall we raised just over £400 on the day. The students grew more confident in their selling skills and a large number of people found out about our project. Three of the team’s parents helped out and three staff from BGS. An enjoyable day and a good fundraiser.

2008 Charity Bike Holiday

2008-04-16T11:56:00.008+01:00

Thank you to all who supported this event in raising funds for Education For All

Read Charlie Whitfield’s 2008 Bike Holiday blog

To sign up to next year’s Charity Bike Holiday, please contact Mike at

Official opening of our first girl’s boarding house in Asni

2008-04-15T11:35:00.000+01:00

The Governor D’Al Haouz Province opens the new boarding house in Asni.
To see pictures of the event as well as photos of the students, please visit the photos page.

Morocco and India fundraiser week

2008-03-25T15:00:00.004Z

Fulham Cross Girls’ School is partnered with several schools across the world, two of which are in India and Morocco. As a way of raising funds for theses two schools and to celebrate our global and diverse community, we put together a whole week of events in and out of lessons. All across the school, teachers and pupils worked together to make this a very special week. Arabic was taught in Language lessons instead of the traditional French and Spanish, in the Geography lessons students compared life and education in India, Morocco and the UK, and they also studied foreign poetry in their English lessons. During break and lunchtime, we sold food prepared by students, parents and staff to raise money. We also held a catwalk at lunchtime were students showed off traditional clothes from their countries of origin. After school, several activities took place. We learned how to make samosas in an Indian cooking lesson, some former pupils came back to teach us how to cook the traditional Moroccan dish called Zalook and we also watched a lively and charming demonstration of Bollywood dancing. Pupils and parents showed off their artistic skills by doing henna tattoos while the queuing “customers” were enjoying a display of Moroccan dancing. The week culminated in a celebratory non-uniform day when staff and pupils came dressed in traditional clothing celebrating our diversity of origins. It was a fabulous week all round and certainly an experience enjoyed by all that will be repeated next year!

Inaugural newsletter

2007-12-17T12:27:00.000Z

Our first newsletter is now online. If you would like to subscribe to our newsletters, please send your details via the newsletter subscription page.

Supermarket bag packing

2007-11-15T12:28:00.000Z

On Saturday 10th November, 11 Lower 6th students from Bristol Grammar School spent 5 hours packing bags at the Clifton branch of Sainsbury’s. This raised £550 for Education for all and also raised awareness - we produced a leaflet on what we were doing and popped one into each carrier bag. As a fund-raiser, this seems to have lots going for it. The supermarket gains from a group of students assisting packing bags and chatting to shoppers. The students benefit as it needs planning, organisation and commitment. The School benefits from the PR and raised public awareness. Supermarkets vary in their willingness to allow students to bag-pack but we have always found Sainsbury’s particularly helpful.

Foundations laid

2007-10-22T20:25:00.000+01:00

Twelve students from Bristol Grammar School raised nearly £5000 for Education For All and helped lay the foundations for our first boarding house in Asni.

Andrew Dimberline, Head of Leadership Development at Bristol Grammar School, first planned the 8-day trip back in September 2006 having been inspired by the Education For All project. He asked students to apply for a place on the trip and in their application to state how they would raise £200 for the project. A place on the trip was conditional on the students being able to raise these funds, not through a ‘parental donation’, but by fund-raising events.

Charity Auction

2007-07-13T14:48:00.000+01:00

A Charity Gala Dinner and Auction in aid of Education For All was held at the beautiful Jnane Tamsna, Marrakech Palmeraie on the 6th July 2007 and succeeded in raising over €11,000. There were some fabulous items up for grabs in the auction including holidays in Morocco and beyond. For more details and pictures of the event, please visit the Charity auction event mini-site.