The Moroccan Ministry of Education has officially recognised the Centre Afaq for its sterling work on securing national identity papers for unregistered children in Taroudant.

The Ministry has issued a directive to all schools and educational establishments in Taroudant province inviting them to seek help from the Centre Afaq immediately in order to register all children under their care without formal documentation. The Centre Afaq has been building its ID paper program since Autumn 2011 when it began with just a few individual cases of children attending the centre.

Since the directive was published in January all the schools in Taroudant City have responded as well as most of those in the wider province. The number of individual cases now under the care of Centre Afaq’s is more than two hundred and continues to grow every day.

Needless to say this is a feather in our cap and a huge step towards solving the identity papers crisis in Taroudant. Without formal documentation, Moroccans are not guaranteed access to basic social services such as healthcare or public education and have no way of proving their identity in cases of law. Those without papers are, for all intents and purposes, invisible.

So, well done to the Centre Afaq team!