#3. Rebuilding Hope: How One Charity Survived an Earthquake to Keep Girls in Education in Morocco's Atlas Mountain

High in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, a simple idea — safe housing for girls who live too far from secondary school — is sparking a cultural sea-change. 

In this episode, Education for All board member Juanita Folmsbee joins AmickyCarol in Marrakech’s storied La Maison Arabe to reveal how boarding houses are breaking the cycle of female illiteracy and rebuilding after a devastating 2023 earthquake.

• Grew from 10 pioneering students in 2007 to 250 girls a year before the quake destroyed five of six houses
• Tackles the root causes of an 80 % female illiteracy rate in mountain villages: distance, safety worries and limited family resources
• Shows how alumnae now hold master’s degrees, run preschools and launch women’s craft co-ops, rippling impact through their communities
• Details EFA’s rapid pivot to rented homes so learning never stopped—even while classrooms were closed
• Charts Juanita’s vision for graduates to one day lead the organisation themselves
• Shares insider tips for authentic travel in Morocco: camel treks on Saharan dunes, kasbah history walks, hammam rituals, souk bargaining and more

👉 Help get every girl back to school:
Website – https://www.efamorocco.org/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/efa_morocco/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/educationforallmorocco/

 “My biggest dream is that we get to the point where our girls are such successful women that they now are on the board of EFA and they are running EFA for the next generation.” 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to World Changers Podcast
• 0:46 Introduction to Juanita Folmsbee & Education for All Morocco
• 3:20 Earthquake Impact and Rebuilding Efforts
• 5:40 Empowering & Inspiring Women & Girls
• 6:23 Changing Attitudes Toward Girls' Education
• 7:44 Life in the Atlas Mountains
• 11:12 Juanita's Journey to Morocco
• 14:23 Must-See Morocco Travel Recommendations
• 17:33 Future Dreams for Education for All
• 19:14 Life in Traditional Moroccan Riyads

Transcript

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 0:02

Hey World Changers, welcome to your podcast. I'm Aniki Carroll and I travel the world with a sense of adventure and purpose exploring, learning, having fun and meeting remarkable individuals who are transforming their communities and beyond. Join me as we dive into the inspiring journeys of changemakers from every corner of the globe, tuning in weekly for stories that might just change your life, ignite your passion and show you how ordinary people can create extraordinary impact. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on social media at World Changes PC, and get ready to take off. Welcome, juanita, it's so lovely for you to join me today. Thank you, this place is beautiful. This is La Maison Arabe, a spa in Marrakech, and here I'd really like to explore what it is you're doing here in Morocco.

Juanita Folmsbee: 1:03

Thank you for inviting me to talk to you today. My name is Juanita Fonsby and I am on the board of directors for a charity here in Morocco called Education for All. It's a charity that was set up to help girls in the High Atlas Mountains continue their education past primary school. The challenges in the mountains are the fact that schools are located so far from home that it is impossible for children to go all the way to the town, have school and come home each day. Because of this, families are more prone to allow their sons to continue education past primary school than their daughters, because of concerns of cost, because they're poor and they tend to prioritize educating their sons over their daughters. And even the government housing is not free. They must pay for it. Also, they're concerned about security. As you know, morocco is a rather conservative society and the concern of what might happen to their daughters when they're not at home often keeps them from allowing them to go off to school. The result is is there's a very, very high illiteracy rate among women up in the mountains, and it has an effect on, as we know from global statistics, that educating a woman increases the likelihood of the children being educated, the children receiving health care that they need. All of the knock-on effects of having an educated woman is something that we would like to see improved in the communities up in the Atlas Mountains. So Education for All was started in 2007. It was started just by a handful of expatriates who wanted to give back to their home country of Morocco. They were working here, they were living here, they had businesses here and they wanted to do something to give back and they decided to start boarding houses. We do not have schools, we only provide housing, but safe, free housing for boroughs up in the Atlas Mountains so that they can finish their collège and lycée and graduate From that first 10 girls in 2007,.

Juanita Folmsbee: 3:16

As of last fall pre-earthquake, as you all know, there was a big earthquake in Morocco and it has greatly affected the communities up in the mountains, and the communities where we have houses were actually at the epicenter of it. Oh wow. So in 2023, we had six houses. We did house up to 250 girls a year from the first year of college. Through l'Elysée and, unfortunately, the earthquake, we lost five of those six houses. We are in the process now of rebuilding. Of course, the schools still are not open. It's been one year now, the schools in the mountains still are open, because their buildings were badly affected as well.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 4:00

Really.

Juanita Folmsbee: 4:01

Yes, were any of the girls hurt in the earthquake? Fortunately, none of our girls were injured or killed in the earthquake. We of course we have numbers of girls former students or current students who've lost family members brothers, fathers, mothers, others but we did a really large canvassing trying to find all of our former girls, because over the years now we have almost 600 girls that have gone through BFA. It is a big impact. So we're in the process of rebuilding. The schools are rebuilding. They are hopeful that some of the colleges up in the mountains will open in the fall, but most of the lises still will not be open.

Juanita Folmsbee: 4:50

The government did move most of the students down to the out of the mountains to try to get them in schools, but it was a mixed result because they also had a teacher strike this last year and so there was a lot of time where there were no classes and so the kids would go back up to the mountains and just not come back, and so that has really been a big impact. So we are very we're pushing really hard to keep our girls. We did rent houses down in the towns where they were moved to and to help them, and so we have girls in the rental houses, but they unlike when they're in the mountains, where every Friday they can go home and come back on Monday. When they come down here they have to stay the whole semester.

Juanita Folmsbee: 5:37

It is a different environment, but the thing that drew me to EFA to begin with was this idea that I'm very interested in empowering women and girls, and the girls I met when I first started going up there and volunteering just inspired me, because they are so driven, they work so hard. Some of them will say I'm the first girl in my village to ever get this opportunity. I don't want to waste it. And for me, he grew up where education is given. It's something you have to do. See how excited the girls are about their chances to do better. It really inspired me and I just wanted to be a part of it. So I had been a part of EFA since 2018.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 6:23

You were telling me earlier, though, that it wasn't always the case for EFA when it started initially. When the mothers brought the girls, they weren't that keen on the education. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Juanita Folmsbee: 6:35

This is my time, but the house mothers will tell you all about this that when EFA first started and they would go up into these villages and say you know, we'll keep them safe for you.

Juanita Folmsbee: 6:46

They can continue their education and a lot of them the girls, fought to convince their parents that they should be able to go and continue their education. But when the parents would bring the girls down, they would want to not talk to the house mother, they wouldn't want to talk to the cook and the cleaner in the house and their focus was please teach my daughter to cook, Please teach my daughter to keep house, because she will need to know how to keep house and cook when she gets married. That is not the way it is anymore. That was 10, 15 years ago. Now we have more parents, more families bringing us their girls and wanting us to take them in and help them finish their education than we have spaces for, and there is this real change up there and so hopefully in the coming years the illiteracy rate in the mountains and just the overall economic opportunities in the mountains will increase. The illiteracy rate in the mountains and just the overall economic opportunities in the mountains will increase as more women are educated.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 7:41

Thank you. That's really good work that you guys are doing. Tell us a little bit more about the Atlas Mountains for context, for those who don't know about Morocco, you know.

Juanita Folmsbee: 7:50

The Atlas Mountains are a very high mountain chain that run north-south through most of Morocco. It divides the Sahara desert on the backside from the plains on this side that run down to the coast where most of the agriculture in the country is. They are very remote. There's few roads. There's villages that are Some of our girls. It takes four hours to get from their village to the town in the mountains where the school is. It can be a very remote lifestyle, mostly agricultural sheep farming, orchards, walnuts. Parents are farmers, subsistence farmers, some farm for sale, for produce for sale, or they keep sheep, things like that. So very agrarian lifestyle. I'm there and so that is where these girls come from.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 8:41

yeah, it's interesting because of course that's a huge tourist magnet. A lot of tourists go to the atlas mountains because of course it's beautiful, there's the waterfalls, you know you can visit the ber villages, but they don't realize just the challenges that you know, the people who leave their face, oh yeah, and how hard it can be, even for women and girls, you know, and especially for women, especially for women and girls. And the illiteracy rates, like you were saying a few years ago was at 80 percent, yeah, which is extraordinarily high.

Juanita Folmsbee: 9:14

Yeah, yeah, no, it is. It is quite remarkable. And so, yeah, also, there's the trend more and more girls are waiting to get married, because marriage at 15 or 16 was very, very common and is still happening, though technically the government doesn't support it. It's 18 is the minimum age to get married now, but it still happens up in the mountains, and our girls, that's. The other thing is, the girls that stay in school tend not to get married. Of course, yeah, and the amazing thing to watch is the drive of these girls. Many of them now go on to go to university, I mean EFA. We support them through Lise, but we still keep track of them. And we have a couple of girls who've now gotten master's degrees, and it is just. Their whole world is broadening, and it's not just that they leave the mountains and they do come back and do things, because we have one girl who came back to a town in the mountains and set up a preschool.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 10:21

Wow.

Juanita Folmsbee: 10:22

We have others who have gone back and helped the women in their villages set up cooperatives for their handiworks, their carpets that they make because the Berbers in the mountains are known for their carpet making and the women a lot of the women spend their winters making carpets. So they've gone back and helped set up cooperatives so they get better prices for the things. So the girls do, I mean they impact back home and some of them do actually go back home and get married, but others stay in the cities. But they are always interested in helping back in their home communities. Especially during the earthquake there was lots of them that were helping back in their communities.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 10:57

Without a doubt, women are always, you know, an asset to their communities, whether they choose to go and get married or whether they want to have a career. The good thing is, at least they have the choice and they can exercise it, and that's what's important. Okay, so, for those who've been wondering, your accent isn't exactly Moroccan, so how did you come by Morocco? Why are you here? How did you get here?

Juanita Folmsbee: 11:25

Oh, that is a bit of a story. My accent is obviously American and I was born and raised in the US. I had parents who were very concerned about making sure that you give back to others. So I grew up in a family where the idea of giving back or doing what you could to make the world a better place was just something you did. I grew up, I got married, I started an international lifestyle with a husband who had an international job. I went ahead and got a master's degree in health systems management and started international public project work. So I had three children and raised them overseas in different countries, so basically lived a very international lifestyle as an adult. So when I was thinking about retirement I was thinking, well, where would I feel at home and where would I like to retire and you know I consider places in the US and all that. But then I was working on a project.

Juanita Folmsbee: 12:25

I was the director of a project in Ukraine, in Kiev, and it was my first time to live in a place with a very cold winter and a long time, and I decided I needed to get out in the wintertime and go someplace warm. One of my sons was going to. We were going to meet up for Christmas and I wanted to go someplace warm. The place I wanted to go he felt was too far for him because he was coming from the US at the time in university, and he suggested we go to Morocco. And I had never really even considered coming here before. And we came for two weeks and literally I fell in love with the country.

Juanita Folmsbee: 13:02

In those two weeks the people were so warm, it was so diverse.

Juanita Folmsbee: 13:07

You have the Sahara, you have snow-capped mountains, there's even one ski slope, you had the ocean, you had the plains, which are dry but with fruit trees, and you have the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and I thought I would never get bored here. There's so many much variety here, and I come from the southern, southwestern part of the US, so it felt homey as well, because it's kind of that desert-y, southwest kind of feel to it. So I spent my winter looking for a house, came back the next year, bought a house in the Medina. I have an old Riyadh here in the Medina that I bought, and when I finished the project in 2018 that I was working on in Ukraine, I decided it was time to retire and I came here, and by this time I had come back and forth a number of times between 2015 and 2018 and had heard about EFA, so when I moved here, I started volunteering and then slowly became part of the management and then they asked me to be on the board, and I have every intention of staying here.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 14:13

That's wonderful. I mean, you are the OG world changer. You know we talk about world changes and you've literally come to change the world around you here. So tell us about Meraka For somebody who's thinking about visiting. What would you advise them to do? Where should they start?

Juanita Folmsbee: 14:29

I would really encourage you if you want to come. I had never thought. I'll be honest, as a single woman, I had never thought about going to a Muslim country, and because of what you hear. But I would say Morocco single woman, couples, kids, even people with kids it is a wonderful country. It's so diverse, there's so much to do. My advice, and it would be my advice to anybody traveling anywhere, is to be a little bit considerate of local customs. Try to find out a little bit about local customs and try really hard to have an opportunity to meet locals. Don't just stay in the big tourist hotels and with the big things. Really try to have an opportunity somehow to really get to know a local or two. Whether it's your driver in your car, you'd be surprised. If you make friends with them, they will show you something that you wouldn't see otherwise. Yeah, it's always worth it. No matter what country I'm in, I try to do that.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 15:37

You know, in terms of what to see, must see, must see yeah.

Juanita Folmsbee: 15:41

Before you leave. If you're here in the fall, winter or spring, I think going into the Sahara, into the dunes, is a life-changing thing and of course you cannot do that in the summertime, it's just too hot. But if you get the chance to do that, I absolutely was inspired by it the first time I was here. It's just the dunes are amazing and the camels. Riding a camel in the dunes and staying in a camp is just amazing. But equally amazing is the history here. Rock in the Casbah.

Juanita Folmsbee: 16:15

It is a fort. It is a fort with four corners and four towers and that it was what was built along the camel caravans to keep the caravans that would come across the desert with ivory and gold and all. They were going to the coast here to put them on ships. And you would have casbahs along the way, which were places where these caravans could stop, be safe, have the camels inside and so, as they passed over the Atlas Mountains, down across the plain and then to Esuera and other ports Esuera used to be one of the biggest ports along the coast here. So there's beautiful old casbahs to see, beautiful old palaces to see. There's so much history.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 16:57

Of course there's the hammam and the massager.

Juanita Folmsbee: 17:01

The massager and the good food. You can even take cooking classes. Yes, you definitely can take cooking classes here and learn how to cook, and the beaches are lovely. So, yeah, I mean it's just got something for everybody. There's just and, quite frankly, the biggest thing you have to do in Marrakesh is shop. Of course, the souk is amazing, the handicrafts are amazing. People come here. They always bring an empty suitcase because you fill it up to take it home.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 17:27

Oh, wow, okay, that sounds like something I should think about doing. So, looking into the future, what are your hopes and dreams? My hopes?

Juanita Folmsbee: 17:37

and dreams, especially for EFA, is that we will quickly get back to where we were before the earthquake. I mean, I know it is challenging. Nothing is easy. Nothing ever goes as quickly as you would hope in anywhere, especially up in the mountains, where it's hard to rebuild and do things and then to continue to grow. And I guess my biggest I mean, yes, efa grow. But I think my biggest dream is that we get to the point where our girls are such successful women that they now are on the board of EFA and they are running EFA for the next generation and those of us who have come from abroad actually step back and we no longer need to actually be a part of it, though we will still, of course, be a part of it in our hearts. But that would be, to me, the ultimate dream.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 18:33

Oh, that would be the ultimate dream. Honestly, that would be amazing, yeah, and I can see it happening.

Juanita Folmsbee: 18:40

I could see it within 20 years happening, as our girls continue to be successful and some of them start businesses and other things and then get to a point in their life where they have time to give back and want to do it. I think it is very possible.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 18:55

Yeah, what's the board composition like now?

Juanita Folmsbee: 18:59

Right now we have two Moroccans on the board and two expatriates on the board. We're a small board. We're trying to grow our board a little bit, but Four is good, but four is For. Right now we have four. So we have two Moroccans and two expatriates.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 19:12

Nice. Okay, we've had a really lovely time today. We've had Moroccan tea and pastries, cookies, cookies, is that what they are? Yeah, yeah, they look very sweet. I'm not great, you know, I'm not a big fan of sugar, but they look really nice. I'll take a photo. But yeah, I'm also fascinated because you said you bought a Riyadh. Yeah, tell us what's a Riyadh. And because this, where I'm staying, must be one as well. Well, it's actually a conglomerate of several. It is, isn't it?

Juanita Folmsbee: 19:46

Historically, the definition of a Riyadh is a traditional Moroccan home, is an inward facing house. The exterior walls have no windows generally in them and they're flat. There's just a door, and so all of the light in the house comes from a central courtyard in the middle of it and all rooms open to that central courtyard. And that, basically, is the definition of a dar is a house that has a central garden and all of the rooms are open into that garden. And, yeah, it's a beautiful concept and it keeps the privacy and it also you are not supposed to flash your wealth. It's not seen in good taste, and so the exterior of homes here tend to be extremely simple, you know, and, like I said, they're just walls and a door and it's once you go inside that you see the beauty of the house.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 20:44

Yeah, this one's extraordinary. I was quite impressed when I came here. Really really nice. So I noticed that you use the word dar. Is that interchangeable with riad the?

Juanita Folmsbee: 20:55

difference between a dar and a riad is that a dar is smaller and it has a central open space, but it's not a garden. Okay, it's paved, right. So this, where we are sitting now, is a riad, because you have trees growing and plants growing in it trees growing and plants growing in it. A dar would be a smaller, with a just a open to the sky square, but it would just be with a paved area in the middle or maybe a fattened.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 21:22

Okay, so that explains why there are no windows in my room. Well, external, yes, this is a traditional building, because I was thinking maybe I should get them to move me to a room with a window, but that's not going to happen.

Juanita Folmsbee: 21:35

That's not going to happen. No, you could have a window that comes into a courtyard potentially. Yeah, you're not going to have a window that goes out.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 21:41

Yes, so no sunsets or sunrises, not from here.

Juanita Folmsbee: 21:46

The roof terrace. Roof terrace is where you see your sunrises, and do they all have roof terraces? They? Do Ah, I have roof terraces, they do. Ah, I haven't explored enough. Yeah, I don't mind. Yeah, I don't know, I know how, how this hotel has their setup, but at my house I have a garden on my roof and I have, I have there's an invitation there somewhere.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 22:07

thank you, okay. Thank you so much, juanita. It's been such a pleasure to chat to you today. I've learned so much. I'm inspired, and if anyone is really thinking about what good they can do today, as you listen, please support EFA. We're going to put details of how you can do that.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 22:31

Education for all Morocco can't be that hard to find If you check on the internet. They need to get those homes rebuilt. It can't be that hard to find If you check on the internet. They need to get those homes rebuilt ASAP, because it's absolutely critical for the girls to get back into education. Everyone benefits and the society is better off for it. Yes, I agree, totally, thank you. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of World Changes Podcast. I hope you're feeling as inspired as I am by today's conversation. Remember, the power to create change is within each of us. If you were inspired by today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word and inspire even more world changers. And be sure to follow us on social media at World Changes PC for updates behind the scenes content and more inspiring stories. Until next time, keep exploring, keep making a difference and remember you can be a world changer.

Humanise Live: 23:32

The World Changers podcast is produced by Humanized Live and presented by Amiki Carroll. Visit theavocadofoundationorg to find out more about how the Avocado Foundation is tackling global inequality through education, stewardship and financial literacy.