Responding to Earthquake in Morocco

In response to the Friday, Sept 8, 2023 earthquake in Morocco, several Channel grantee partners have created campaigns to gather funds for locally-led efforts and affected communities. The 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Marrakesh, a city in central Morocco, and its surrounding areas, resulting in more than 2,800 deaths, thousands injured, and widespread devastation in the country.

According to Global Fund for Women (GFW), “globally, only 1.2 percent of humanitarian assistance goes directly to local organizations.” This emphasizes a need for a feminist approach to crisis response, that “puts flexible resources directly in the hands of grassroots leaders who know what their community needs, and who are focused on immediate response, medium-term rebuilding, and long-term resilience.” GFW upholds this approach through its three rules for feminist crisis response: listen, stick around, and keep it flexible.

The Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR) is supporting its local grantees with an emergency fundraising campaign, of which 100% of donations will go directly to Fund grantees and staff in Morocco. These funds will not only help provide vital food, water, clothing, and shelter but protection to those affected by the crisis.

Purposeful’s Global Resilience Fund(GRF) seeks to send resources to girls and young activists directly affected by and responding to crisis. GRF acknowledges that in crises such as this one, “critical efforts to organize and respond to communities will be led by girls, young women, and LGBTQI youth” and, as such, seeks to prioritize these groups.  They have created a fundraising campaign for Morocco and Libya.

In many cases, existing organizations add humanitarian response to their advocacy efforts. Funds like those from Purposeful and FGHR seek to address crisis at a local level by aiding communities directly impacted and working to remedy crises.

Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) has a longtime Moroccan partner, L’Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc/Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM) who released a statement discussing their contribution to the earthquake response. They stated that “ADFM employees right now are helping out with relief efforts individually while the organization considers how they might help since there are some restrictions in Morocco in terms of what types of support ADFM can offer.” They, alongside WLP, have signed on to a statement that WLP will be circulating.

OutRight, an organization dedicated to supporting LGBTQI people, has committed to providing humanitarian grants to LGBTQI-led groups in Morocco to ensure these communities receive critical support.