Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Project Bani Hayoune Garden, Nonprofit Organization, Tagounite Ouarzazate, Tagounite.
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Desert garden | Natural building | Community | Volunteer with us | Working towards tackling desertification & creating a women & children’s space | Sahara tours
26/11/2024
We’ve seen a lot of lovely new (and old) faces during this and last month. So many helping hands, shared meals and such a beautiful diversity of energies and personalities. We feel grateful towards each of you that crossed the long distance over the high atlas and the rocky desert mountains to join our slowly evolving project 💛
More pictures following soon! 🙃
As we struggle with the difficulty of having little to no access to water, we recently launched a crowdfund for - amongst others - a water source for the whole project. You help us immensely by sharing the crowdfund [link in bio] or by donating. Thank you to everyone who helped in sharing and donating so far! ❣️
We’ve been hosting people again since just a few weeks after our usual summer pause, and so many beautiful meetings happened already!❣️Always thankful for our fluid community.
07/10/2024
Together with the help of local friends we are currently ploughing another long unused part of our land. After the large amount of rain the land has received, the soil has been wet for a while, so it is a good opportunity to work the earth while it is still soft. If all goes well, a mix of alfalfa and wheat will soon be growing!
04/10/2024
During this very long and hot summer, a lot of our plants didn’t survive and one of our older palms even died.
Now, shortly after the heavy rainfall and flood, the garden transformed entirely from dried out garden into a green fertile oasis. Almost unbelievable, isn’t it?!
We want to see this region so healthy and alive each year!
Without a stable water source, the plants will start suffering and dying again. And the palmtrees need to be watered more regularly to become healthy again. It could take over a year before new rain comes.
One year ago Said made a start in digging a well manually, but we need to reach so much deeper for freshwater. This is impossible by hand.
We are now raising money for our project: amongst others to drill the well, plant trees while the soil is still soft and setup irrigation systems for the garden.
Our land may be small, but every saved and planted native tree has a big impact and will do its work in the ecosystem. 💚
Since the unexpected rain and floods on September 8th and 9th (and currently new rainstorms are happening), it has become even more urgent for the project and our living space to secure a stable base. Although this sudden extreme rainfall is also a huge blessing for the constantly dry soil, it does not solve the ongoing problem of drought and desertification.
After 5.5 years, we are now asking for your help so that we can build a well and solid water reservoirs. Independent electricity needs to be installed: since two weeks our temporary electricity solution is no longer valid and we are living without power. We need to create irrigation systems and since the last floods the roofs and some walls of the main building need to be replaced. Several walls and all roofs of the sleeping areas and kitchen are on the verge of collapsing. The urgency of building a well has increased as the drinking water network in the region has been broken since the heavy rain.
Support our project with a donation. You can find the link in this post and our bio, or send a message for our bank details. Thank you so much for your donations so far. We are incredibly grateful for all the support!
A huge thank you to everyone who made the first donations and helped get this crowdfunding started! Thanks to your support we are one step closer to our goal! ☺️
The immediate issue that we are dealing with is water management. Last weekend we received our first rainfall in 1,5 year, but it was such an exceptional amount of rain that it caused severe floods in Tagounite and Bani Hayoune. Due to the extreme drought, the soil cannot absorb the water fast enough.
This has only emphasized the problems we have with water management, which increases the need to build concrete water reservoirs, strong irrigation systems and build a stable project wall. Issues like these will only become more and more frequent in the future as climate change makes the weather systems more volatile and unpredictable. Water is a precious resource and carefully managing the water that falls in the region and creating a space where everyone feels welcome, will help strengthen the infrastructure and community resilience in the challenges to come.
For those located in the Netherlands: upcoming Friday 13 September Cafe Bosch is hosting a music night for our project. Location: Apeldoornsestraat 4a Arnhem, Netherlands.
Time: 17.00 - 03.00.
Musicians: Marc Verhoeven, Andrade Andrade & Baobab Music! ❤️🔥
We, Said & Linde, are launching a crowdfunding for our project that we started together in January 2019 in southeastern Morocco. In collaboration with the Bani Hayoune Garden non-profit we are raising money in order to be able to conintue working on this project.
About the project:
With Bani Hayoune Garden we want to plant a food forest in an extremely dry area on the edge of the Sahara and set up a workshop space for local women and children. Workshops in art, music and permaculture will take place here.
Since the start of the project we have worked with minimal water and no to limited electricity. However, we have received almost continuous help from volunteers from all over the world and we have always continued with creative solutions, courage and motivation.
After 5.5 years, we are forced to take bigger steps due to the continuously increasing drought and heat. We want to make this project livable, for the present and for the future.
We are raising money for:
* Drilling a well for better access to water.
* Stronger water reservoirs to store water.
* Solar panels for the entire project.
* 4x4 vehicle to generate income through desert trips, so that we can finance the rest of the project.
If you are enthusiastic and would like to support our project, you can donate via the online crowdfund, or make a direct donation to our bank account.
Even though most of the time we keep faith and try to stay motivated, this is also a reality we live in: due to a huge lack of water and extremely hot (55+ degrees C) summers, the plants and young trees suffer a lot or even die. Since the beginning of summer, the government has even cut down on our drinking water supply. While in several other parts of Morocco it is pouring down, here the drought and the need for water is increasing.
Still praying for some rain to reach Tagounite these weeks 🙏
photos are from August 2024.
30/08/2024
A beautiful walk in the region 🌴
This wonderful photo was taken by previous volunteer Sebastian.
27/08/2024
And here’s part two of just a few of the many, many wonderful moments in the communal space, forever changing from dining table to boardgame-, reading- & drawingcorner to laundromat ☀️
26/08/2024
The skies and wide horizons never get boring here 😍
25/08/2024
Live, laugh, cry, run, rest, breathe and take in the enchanting dunes of south east Morocco 💛
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We are a volunteering organisation located in the South East of Morocco, in a small village under Zagora. Our idea is to share our traditions and ways of living, offer a place to sleep and give you a unique experience in a small oasis next to the desert, in exchange for the help of people from all over the world. We are interested in how different cultures meet, how we can exchange our ideas and languages, and learn from each other.
Right now we are recovering and rebuilding our family house, using mostly natural materials. We come from a big Amazigh-Tuareg family. After many years of living a nomadic life in the Sahara, our family settled down in a small village.
The house is around 200 years old and we recently started recovering the building. We are building some new rooms in the house, for which we use mud bricks made of sand, water and straw. We have plans for the future to start working more in our garden. We need to plant new palm trees and we want to grow our own organic vegetables and fruit. Our goal is to become as much self-sustainable as possible! There is also help needed with the installing of electricity. Besides that, we have a cat and donkey to take care of.
Next to all the work there is needed, there will be a lot of time and space to come at rest :) This little oasis in the desert is a perfect spot for relaxing and escaping from all the rush of your daily life. Every day we enjoy the warm sun and every night you will find yourself under the brightest stars you’ve probably ever seen!
About the accommodation: we offer a place to sleep, and prepare three meals a day. We ask for a small fee of 55 dirhams a day just to cover the costs of the food etc, because we unfortunately don’t have the possibility yet to pay for all the volunteers food. For that, we offer of course delicious and healthy meals for everyone.
Please note: we still have no running water (there is of course water, which we currently have in barrels with taps) and our situation is very primitive :)
If you are interested in visiting us, you can take direct busses from Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Agadir or Casablanca. If you come from Fes, you can travel trough Er Rachidia and get a bus transfer over there. You can always write to us to ask for any directions.
