Rebuilding slow as Morocco marks one year since deadly High Atlas quake

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00:00We can now return to Sami Fakhoury who's in Rabat. He's the head of the regional delegation of the

00:05International Federation of the Red Cross. Thank you very much for speaking to us here today on

00:09France 24. Some 55,000 homes were destroyed in that quake. What has happened to the hundreds

00:16of thousands of people who were affected by the earthquake? Well thank you for having me on your

00:23show and yes the earthquake was quite dramatic and terrible. It affected many many people.

00:31Those people have been supported by many international organizations. The government

00:40was very quick to react. At the onset there was a lot of tents being distributed but then

00:49as the time moved those shelter solutions were becoming more durable with containers.

00:57We at the Federation with the Moroccan Red Crescent have been installing

01:03quality temporary shelter units. The reconstruction of course started many months ago.

01:10In some villages they're advancing well. In others maybe less well because as you mentioned earlier

01:18they're quite remote and access is not easy but it is advancing nonetheless.

01:24And it's important to say isn't it that some people frustrated with the pace of reconstruction

01:29or the speed with which solutions were being offered,

01:32some people have decided to return to their damaged and cracked homes.

01:39I think from the onset there was a lot of generosity from many people. So a lot of

01:48Moroccans living abroad of Moroccan descent came in, supported those people. The reconstruction

01:56took a bit of time but the authorities were quick to hand out cash for reconstruction to

02:02people whose homes have been destroyed either partially or totally. Some homes we realized

02:10were not destroyed enough to have a danger so they needed a little bit of reconstruction.

02:16And that is also something we're looking at as a program with some partners to see if we can

02:22repair some of those homes so people can return to them. And you mentioned just then those government

02:27stipends distributed to households, additional funds to help people reconstruct, ideally

02:34seismically safe reconstruction. How successfully have those funds been distributed? Has everyone

02:41who's entitled to money received that money yet? From what we understand yes, these have been

02:48distributed now fully. There was also distribution of cash for support for the expenditure, the daily

02:57expenditure that the people had. And some of those homes now have been reconstructed and people have

03:05moved in to them. Of course not everything, there still remains some homes to be reconstructed.

03:12And what can you tell me about the impact that the quake had on things like healthcare,

03:16schooling, presumably many children's education was severely disrupted by the quake and its aftermath?

03:25What I can say from visiting some of the villages from after September onwards,

03:33there was a lot of quick reaction from authorities. So we saw some schools that were

03:40made up temporarily to finish up the last year. And then coming into this year,

03:47one of the things, for example, we did with the Moroccan Red Crescent is to discuss with the

03:54education ministry to install temporary school classrooms, I would say, and temporary shelters

04:03for the teachers. So some of them have been done, we're going to look into to do more.

04:09Same thing with the Ministry of Health, they installed many, many temporary clinics while

04:15they reconstruct the ones that were affected. On our side with the Moroccan Red Crescent,

04:20what we did is discuss with the Ministry of Health to see also if we can distribute and

04:27install some temporary facilities so they can use them as clinics while they reconstruct.

04:37Sami Fakhoury in Rabat, head of the regional delegation of the International Federation

04:43of the Red Cross. Thank you very much for speaking to us here today on Around the World.

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