In October 2014, the MCT London office received a spontaneous phone call from a man in Ireland offering a generous, but unusual gift: a newly fitted ambulance to be delivered to our team in Morocco. Despite the MCT and FAPE decision to not accept the generous gift for use at Centre Amane in Taroudannt, this commenced a 6-month long collaborative project and the ambulance was indeed delivered to Taroudannt province on 30 April.
Our team at Centre Amane do a lot of work in health advocacy, first aid and family empowerment to access local health services and information on health and hygiene. However, the MCT and FAPE team decided that the use and maintenance of an ambulance just wasn’t practical and there were higher needs elsewhere in the local community. Our in-country team worked to facilitate a handover of the ambulance to a local commune in Taroudannt province that had the highest need for a third ambulance – the other two being overused and even the commune president resorting to using his personal vehicle in urgent cases.
On 30 April, Philip Murphy joined our in-country team to deliver the ambulance in Taroudannt after having driven from near Dublin. Philip and his team at PD Two Film Productions Ltd. and Ardmore Studios had fundraised and filled the vehicle (previously a Jeep) with children’s clothes, toys and medical supplies. All of the donations were unloaded at Centre Amane and the ambulance dropped off for use by the local commune. Upon watching the president and his team play with their new toy, Philip commented that it was a relief to see this project come to realisation after six long months – an act of goodwill that once simply started as an idea between Philip and his friends who had spent considerable time working in Morocco.
It is truly a wonderful gift that will benefit the wider Taroudannt community for a long time to come. MCT is honoured to have had the privilege to work alongside Philip and his team and wish them to remain in touch with Morocco.