Morocco

Medical Equipment and Assistive Devices Project (2004- present)

JDC is working with the Jewish community leadership to send 1,100 wheelchairs and other assistive devices for distribution throughout the country. JDC procured the needed equipment from the Wheelchair Foundation, and the first container of wheelchairs arrived in late September 2007. A Wheelchair Distribution Ceremony took place in Casablanca in early November 2007. The event, which was aired on prime time TV, was attended by many dignitaries including the Minister of Welfare and the Welfare Advisor to the King of Morocco. The ceremony included JDC giving a $40,000 check to the President of Amicale Marocaine des Handicapes (AMH), to help purchase vans for a mobile unit. These funds were raised by participants of the JDC-IDP Mission to Morocco in May 2007. JDC also worked with the Jewish community of Fez to purchase medical equipment for a local hospital. At a ceremony in November 2007, 50 stethoscopes and 50 sphygmomanometers were presented to the delegate from the Central Hospital of Fez, together with 30 wheelchairs from the consignment which were presented to needy, disabled people.

The Jewish community has expressed that this program helps to strengthen their status as a minority community in Morocco. This community, which dates back more than 2000 years, is the only community in the Islamic world whose members are recognized as loyal citizens with equal rights in the country, and this project helps to maintain this important status.

Learn more about the wheelchair project.

Safe Housing Project (2007 - ongoing)

Sixty elderly and indigent Jews are in dire need of being relocated to more secure and decent residences. They live in virtual squalor in apartments located in one of Casablanca's most unsafe neighborhoods. Their residing there poses a danger not only to these elderly, but also to their caregivers who provide them with needed medical and support services. To meet these needs, a four story building will be constructed on land adjacent to the community's Jewish Home for the Aged so that the needs of these Jews can be adequately met in secure surroundings. The ground floor will house a library and a common room with a TV. The upper floors will be used for residences; 16 studio apartments and 16 one-bedroom apartments, all equipped with kitchens, bathrooms and central air conditioning and heating. In November 2007, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for the Safe Housing project. JDC Board members, staff and members of the Jewish community of Morocco were in attendance. Funding for this project will be provided in part by the Jewish community of Morocco, with the remainder donated by Fred & Velva Levine of the Houston Jewish Federation. This new facility will vastly improve the lives of these elderly Jews by giving them a safer, more modern and healthier place to live.