“Basma Center” cares for abandoned children in Ouarzazate

In the center of the city of Ouarzazate, there is a center for abandoned children “Basma”, which annually receives a large number of these children (whose identity is unknown or whose biological mother is known), and is considered a safe place to look after these children born out of wedlock.

The “Basma” center was founded as an alternative family and hopes that this group will reintegrate into society and enable them to acquire the necessary academic and even professional skills. This project has a high humanitarian and solidarity value, and would contribute to improving the position of this social group.

The center for the reception of abandoned children Basma, which was completed with the support of the National Initiative for Human Development, reflects the importance that the National Initiative for Human Development attaches to people in a situation of danger, the improvement of their living conditions and the protection of basic rights, especially the right to a decent life.

In the same city there is a center for chromosomal and intellectual children “Smile”, which was also realized with the support of the National Initiative for Human Development, and aims to integrate children with “trisomy 21” in the province of Ouarzazate. It is a center that provides support and medical care to these children, especially those from socially disadvantaged families, through therapeutic rehabilitation services with the aim of easier integration into society.

This “socio-educational” community center aims to provide health, educational and social care for these children through classes to strengthen speech and motor skills, sports activities such as motor and psychological rehabilitation and other activities.

The electronic newspaper Hespress visited the two mentioned centers and met with many female directors, as well as pigmented children and abandoned children. As soon as he sees them, his heart cries before his eyes, because they are children of a young age who were left by their merciless mothers to escape from the hell of “folk words”, forgetting the fate of these souls who suffer in silence.

official statistics

In a statement to Hespress, Hanan Al-Saidi, director of the Center for Abandoned Children “Basma” in Ouarzazate, revealed that the abandoned children who arrived at the center in the period from 2017 to 2022 numbered 100 children, including 22 boys and girls in 2017, 23 in 2018 and 23 in 2019, 17 in 2020 and 9 children in 2021, compared to receiving only 6 children in 2022.

According to the same official, the number of sponsorship beneficiaries in Morocco (adoption) reached 54 children, including 12 children in 2017, 8 children in 2018, 13 children in 2019, 3 children in 2020, 11 children in 2021 and 7 children Year 2022.

While the number of sponsorship beneficiaries outside Morocco reached 14 children, including two children in 2017, eight children in 2018, 13 children in 2019 and 3 children in 2020, while no adoption outside the country was registered during the years 2021 and 2022.

According to the same data, the return of children to their biological mother in the period from 2017 to 2022 is 11 children, because one child was returned to their biological mother in 2017, and one child in 2018, compared to the reported return of seven children to their biological mothers. in 2019. And two children in 2020, without recording the return of a single child during 2021 and 2022.

The aforementioned data show that male children make up the largest percentage of godparent beneficiaries within Morocco, with 39 boys compared to 15 girls, while the number of male children who benefited from godparents outside Morocco reached 9 boys compared to 5 girls. While women made up a large percentage of referrals to the biological mother, with 8 women compared to 6 men. In the period 2019-2020 two female deaths were recorded, and 4 male children were transferred to the paramedics’ children’s villages in Ait Ourir.

Welcome to the target audience

This social center receives abandoned children from three provinces (Ouarzazate, Zagora and Tinghir), by order of the prosecutor at one of the first-instance courts of the Ouarzazate District Court of Appeal, with the child accompanied by a medical record to check his health condition.

The director of the “Basma” center explained that after an abandoned child legally enters the center, the center monitors his vaccinations as well as his health status, especially for children who need specific care, whether they are pediatric specialists, heart patients, complex disabilities, trisomies and of all kinds of disabilities. Often the city of Ouarzazate is bypassed towards Marrakech or if the child’s health care is needed.

She emphasized that the Basma Center provides a range of services for abandoned children until they are cared for or returned to their biological mothers, noting that the center receives financial and moral support from workers in the Ouarzazate region to serve this segment of society.

She added that from 2017 to 2022, the center sensitized biological mothers about the need to care for their children, which gave important results through the figures published in this article on the number of children who benefit from returning to their biological mother.

Chromosomal and mental children

On the other hand, trainers at the Center for Pigmented and Intellectual Children “Osmijeh” work to keep up with these children through a series of activities that work for their well-being, such as learning, correcting speech and movements, and group activities.

Fatima Zahraa Al-Buraiki, president of the “Smile” Association, said that the Center for the Care of Pigmented and Intellectual Children is a royal workshop that was ceremonially opened by the workers of the Ouarzazate region on the occasion of the Green March, pointing out that currently 74 children and girls attend daily, while the number of children 84 boys and girls registered in the center

She explained that the center focuses on special education, and it is available in paramedical frameworks and professional occupations, adding that the association works in these areas in order to integrate that segment into society. She pointed out that the association officially visits Skoura on Mondays and Tadol on Wednesdays, due to the geographical distance of these children, so that they can use all the services that the association provides.

Many mothers emphasized the role of the association in taking care of these children, pointing out that the center became a second home for their children, and that the employees became like their adoptive parents, and they asked the state to support the care of these children more and to encourage the managers to put more effort into in that regard. .

great efforts

A number of officials, who were informed by the electronic newspaper Hespress about the number of abandoned and colored children in the centers “Basma” and “Al-Ibtisama” in the city of Ouarzazate, agreed that these two centers are making great efforts for this. group of society, emphasizing that there is interest, especially from the labor party of the territory, for these children.

In this context, the official of the city’s national cooperation said: “The group of institutions is a key partner for these centers, but as a result of the numerous expenses that these children need, especially the abandoned ones, benefactors have to do charity work for the benefit of this segment.”

He added that the efforts of the state must be accompanied by the efforts of the private sector and even benefactors, because the goal is the same: to protect these children from all kinds of exploitation and integrate them into society, inviting associations and benefactors to visit the two centers and provide material or moral support to this children or employees in two centers.