KT For Good: NGO tells residents of remote areas that they are not alone

Jalal Owaita has dedicated his life to aiding vulnerable communities in remote areas. Hailing from Morocco, the 34-year-old spent the last 13 years in humanitarian work. In 2014, he founded Ataa Foundation in Morocco to provide humanitarian services ranging from poverty alleviation, potable water support, sanitation and education to residents living in remote areas.

"In Morocco's Atlas mountains, families, especially children, find it hard to survive in the freezing winter cold," he said. "With roads cut off and no transportation means, children climb up and down mountains in the snow to go to school. Their hands crack from the frost and snow; and they have nothing to warm them to sleep."

The foundation, which relies on donations for funding, provides school supplies, blankets, warm clothes and food for people in remote areas. It provides access to clean water in remote villages. It helps dig wells and construct network systems to deliver clean drinking water to houses. Owaiti said five wells are dug every month to benefit 30,000 people in villages.

"We aim to show people in villages that they are not alone. The generosity of our donors makes it possible to move mountains," said Owaiti.

In 2018, Owaiti expanded the scope of his work by launching the foundation in Canada in collaboration with like-minded people.

The NGO provides assistance to victims of natural or man-made disasters. Currently, volunteers of the organisation are working on building an orphanage to provide shelter and education to 205 children rendered homeless after the devastating 2018 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia.

The organisation's work revolves around a project called 'feeding hope' that provides food aid to address malnutrition in villages and refugee camps around the world. A #Water4All programme helps people with no access to drinking water in African countries, starting with Mali. Further water projects will soon start in Ghana.
App for good
Last October, Owaiti announced an app called 'Yatimi (my orphan) to link foster families to orphans in Morocco. The app allows users to choose an orphan to sponsor and follow up on their progress in the academic and sports fields through a profile designed in a timeline format.

"The humanitarian sector needs digitisation to cope with the rapid-paced technological advancements," said Owaiti. "We want to shift people's use of smartphones from merely following social media notifications to serving a good cause."

He hopes to take his contribution to the humanitarian sector to a new stage. "I want to contribute to introducing new technologies and implementing artificial intelligence to efficiently utilise resources in providing aid to people in need in a shorter period of time," said Owaiti. He aims to expand the app to other countries across the world.

Owaiti recently authored a book titled 'The volunteer of Makkah' to share his insights on volunteering in relations to the religion of Islam and address the sense of fulfillment that humanitarian work brings to one's life.
Focus areas of the NGO
> Poverty alleviation

- Food

- Blankets

- Warm clothes
> Potable water support

- 30,000 people benefit from wells dug by the NGO

- Network systems to deliver clean drinking water to houses
> Orphanage
Volunteers are working on building an orphanage to provide shelter and education to 205 children rendered homeless after the devastating 2018 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia.

> Sanitation

> Education
reporters@khaleejtimes.com