Amazigh-Berber Survival

https://www.gofundme.com/Amazigh-Younes
This Funding Request has two main goals that are interconnected. A little background is crucial to understanding the importance of this request. The Amazigh People (pl. Imazighen), who used to be known as Berbers, are the indigenous native people of North Africa. They are not Arabs, and we have written documentation of them going back some 3,000 years, and their unique language has been found on rock carvings that pre-date recorded time. Their native land stretches across North Africa from the western desert of Egypt all the way to Morocco and the Atlantic Ocean. They number today approximately 40 million people (they are the majority of N. Africa's population). Our focus is on the Imazighen of Morocco. Amazigh people are not Arabs, although they have lived under Arab rule continuously since the beginning of the Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century CE. At that time they endured mass forced conversion to Islam. A good number of Jewish Amazighen, dating from before the Roman conquest of Judea in 70CE, have mostly moved to Israel since its founding, and some to other countries. There are also some Christians among them, many who have converted in recent years in resistance to Islamic rule. Since the 7th century, over the course of 1400 years of Muslim Arab rule, they have suffered a continuous concerted effort of Arabization by the rulers of the country. During the last generation, for example, they were prohibited from teaching their own language, and from naming their children with their own ethnic names. The majority of Imazighen live in hundreds of scattered tiny villages high up in the Atlas and Rif mountain ranges of Morocco. They are desperately poor, and have no heating in the severe cold of the mountains. They lack food, warm clothing and blankets. Many families live in caves carved in the hillside. Because of the lack of infrastructure, there are almost no jobs available with which to make a living. The sense of desperation has led to loss of life as people try to escape the country, often in small boats, towards Europe, that don't always arrive. The process of total subjugation over centuries has succeeded in marginalizing them politically, socially, and especially economically, from the central affairs of the country. The almost total lack of investment by the government in infrastructure, roads, hospitals, schools, sports facilities and factories is also the reason why you may never have heard of the AMAZIGH people in the sense of a living and breathing community. WE ARE DEDICATED TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE AMAZIGH PEOPLE. OUR FIRST GOAL is to provide life-saving support to the village of Agoudal in the mountains of southern Morocco. Unfortunately, we can't help everybody, or else we won't help anybody. A young teaching student from Agoudal village is studying to be an English teacher, and to come back to serve his people. With his help,we are able to respond directly to their needs. We have already sent several packages of warm clothing, including socks, woolly hats, gloves and more. These were so helpful and exciting for the village, that the elders came out to see the wonderful new things they had received. Of course, kids were already wearing some of the clothes, so they were there to show off. We also need to send direct funds, so that our friend there can go to the next bigger town some 30 miles away and buy, for example, several small electric heaters (what we use as foot heaters under your desk) for the primary school. It is just a series of rooms, but some have electricity. Because of this, the pregnant women tend to stay there during the day, and many of the youngest children as well. Only a few rooms in the entire village have electricity. Homes do not. No heat, no light, only simple gas burners, or "dung fires" on the floor for cooking (using animal dung as coals with a large metal dome-shaped plate above on which bread and other foods are made). OUR SECOND GOAL is to support and train a rising young leader. We have identified a young man we will call Younes, in order to maintain his safety. who has the qualities valuable for leadership at this time. With the current beginnings of rising Amazigh national awareness, we know that without intelligent and trained leadership, the Imazighen will never pull out of the pit of desperation they are in. Younes is a product of the villages, except that he has a combination of qualities that are unusual in this context, and invaluable for the purpose of leadership: * He is extremely intelligent and completely self-taught (using an old cellphone someone was "recycling"). He has had only 4 years of schooling (3rd-6th gr) after which he supported his family from age 12. He taught himself more than elementary Arabic (the official language of Morocco), then English from the Internet. He studied the history and politics of the region out of passionate interest to understand why his people live this way. When he visits Casablanca or Marrakesh, everyone seems to be eating and no one is freezing in the snow for lack of shoes and socks, coat and hat. * He is in his mid-20s, healthy, strong and tough. * He is already instinctively attracting people from all over the world on facebook to present and discuss political and societal issues of all kinds, in particular the state of Amazigh suffering. * Not long ago, as is common in the villages, he was attacked physically for making comments regarding aspects of Islam. He left Islam years ago. I am being somewhat vague in order to protect his identity, * As an avowed Amazigh activist, he has attended the peaceful protests demanding attention to their basic human rights that took place during the last few months within Morocco. Many protest leaders were arrested by the blatantly despotic government. He is clearly dedicated to the survival of his people. FUNDING FOR YOUNES will go towards supporting him (he has a room ($70/month) and food (about $50/month). We are currently researching the costs of training in advanced leadership techniques and political awareness, and of giving him the tools appropriate for his advancement. He has all the innate ability. He needs the resources to help him make it happen. Achieving this would go far towards helping this subjugated and isolated community to find its way into the light of some kind of normalcy and life with promise.
https://www.gofundme.com/Amazigh-Younes