The moving message of a boy and his village trapped by snow in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains

In a remote village in the Azilal region in central Morocco, a boy took to social media to ask for help and assistance for the inhabitants of his High Atlas village, besieged by snow. In a video he made and shared on social media, Abdeslam said, earlier this week, that he is in the Ait Abbas commune, a small village located nearly 50 km away from Azilal.

«Please help us. There is snow and it's cold. Please send us clothes, socks and shoes», he told his phone’s camera, so that the inhabitants of his douar can face the cold and the snow season.

NGOs and officials mobilized

Abdeslam’s short video, which he illustrated with images of his snow-covered village, moved Internet users, mobilized officials and triggered a wave of solidarity. The video went viral and the non-governmental charity Ataa Foundation was the first one to react.

On Thursday, the NGO announced on its Facebook page that its team was headed to Douar Ait Abbas in response to Abdeslam’s call. «A truck loaded with ten tons of food, clothes and shoes to people affected by the current cold snap has been sent», the association wrote on its Facebook page.

In a second post, Ataa Foundation recalled that to date, «37 tons of humanitarian aid have been distributed in areas affected by cold wave» and that it aspires to «distribute 100 tons of goods to help and reach as many families as possible».

Moreover, the governor of the Azilal province, Mhamed Atfaoui came to Abdeslam's home this Friday. The governor has decided to send humanitarian aid to the douar and launched an investigation into the matter.

It is worth mentioning that since December 2020, the provincial committees for vigilance and monitoring of the risks of the cold snap in several provinces of the Kingdom have been organizing meetings to study the proactive measures to be adopted to fight against the isolation of certain villages by snow and come to the populations's aid.

Several NGOs have also started, in recent weeks, campaigns to collect clothes, blankets and food for the affected populations and distribute them in remote areas of the Kingdom.