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"After 3 intense and fascinating days, thanks to all of you, we return to Tangier with the spirit ‘oxygenated’ and a full heart…completely energized! We have had some marvelous exchanges and we leave feeling like we have accomplished so much more than our original objectives. You cannot imagine just much we are now full of hope and certainty about our choices and our daily struggles".

Claire Trichot,
President 100% Oumahat

Tangier, Morocco

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Professional training for unwed mothers and shelters exchange program

Background

Pregnancy out of wedlock carries a heavy social stigma in Morocco. Despite an important reform to Morocco's family code, the unwed mother and her baby have few rights under current law. It is considered a great dishonor to the family, and the pregnant woman is often shunned or pressured to abandon her baby. Most of these abandoned babies are institutionalized and face life-long discrimination.

Our Local Partner
100% Oumahat ('100% Mothers') shelters single pregnant women during pregnancy, the birth of their babies and until the mothers secure employment. The shelter offers emergency accommodation and a comprehensive support program: psychological, social, health-related, legal and logistical. The goals are to encourage a safe and healthy pregnancy, a positive mother-child relationship and to promote the mothers’ self-sufficiency. 100% Oumahat also raises awareness to improve the social integration of the mothers, and advocates for legal recognition of the status of single mothers and their children. It is the only shelter of its kind in the north of the country.

Our Project
Our support for 100% Oumahat falls under two initiatives:

© Claire Trichot
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS. The Mothers at Risk Fund is sponsoring the professional training of 15 single mothers. Most are illiterate or have had limited education or training, and hold only intermittent jobs in the informal sector. This puts them and their babies in a situation of severe social and economic vulnerability. This two-and-a-half month-long professional training program in hotel services is aimed at helping mothers gain legal and stable employment and thereby be able to support themselves and their children.
One Mother's Story >>
SHELTERS EXCHANGE PROGRAM. Mothers at Risk is coordinating an exchange program between 100% Oumahat and the Belgian shelter for mothers Chevrefeuille. 100% Oumahat is a young organization with no relevant models in its immediate environment. Chevrefeuille has 40 years of experience and currently shelters a large immigrant Moroccan population. A meeting in May 2010 was sponsored by the Mothers at Risk Fund to provide an opportunity for the two shelters to exchange best practices, knowledge and information.

Click here to read a New York Times article about 100% Oumahat.

For additional information about these projects, click here.