El rey de Marruecos lanza una iniciativa benéfica de ayuda alimentaria para 5 millones de personas en pleno Ramadán
Morocco's King Mohammed VI has launched a major food aid campaign in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan. Operation Ramadan 1444 was launched in the city of Salé on the return of the Alaouite monarch from his visit to Gabon.
Mohammed VI, accompanied by Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan, launched the "Ramadan 1444" operation in a district of the enclave of Salé, as reported by the official Moroccan news agency MAP.
The solidarity campaign has a budget of 390 million dirhams (35 million euros) and aims to provide food aid to one million needy households, mostly in rural areas. In total, the aid deployed will provide food support to 5 million people in the North African country.
In the symbolic act of launching the proposal, the Alaouite monarch offered food baskets to several families benefiting from the campaign in Salé, an enclave located next to Rabat, to the north of the Rabat capital.
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— Agence MAP (@MAP_Information) March 24, 2023
سلا.. جلالة الملك يعطي انطلاقة العملية الوطنية “رمضان 1444” لفائدة 5 ملايين شخصhttps://t.co/Ibup3X8eb5
Salé : SM le Roi lance l’opération nationale “Ramadan 1444” au profit de près de 5 millions de personneshttps://t.co/zIsrTWo0XG pic.twitter.com/Ne0zJZyEv5
This was the monarch's first public act in Morocco since 20 December, when he received the players of the national football team at the Royal Palace after their success at the World Cup in Qatar, where they reached the semi-finals. All this after his return from Gabon, the African country where he met with the Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba and where he made a donation of 2,000 tonnes of fertilisers, a remarkable fact considering that the Moroccan kingdom is a major producer of this type of product, which is important for agricultural crops. Morocco, a major producer of fertilisers, aspires to an important global position in terms of world food supply. The Moroccan kingdom has a large fertiliser industry with high production capacity and international reach and is one of the world's top four fertiliser exporters after Russia, China and Canada.
Operation Ramadan 1444 was organised by the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity together with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, which is of great importance for Muslims.
The main objective in this case is to help populations in situations of social vulnerability, and it enshrines the values of humanity, solidarity and aid during a period as special as Ramadan.
The previous edition of this proposal to help the most disadvantaged reached some 600,000 Moroccan households and this year, 2023, it will reach one million households, benefiting a total of 5 million people, the vast majority of whom live in rural areas.
On the occasion of this new edition of the aid programme, the 24th, King Mohammed VI gave instructions to improve the food composition of the aid provided by including new foods such as rice and milk.
For the smooth running of this operation, thousands of people were deployed with the participation of social workers and volunteers at the distribution points set up throughout the country. The participants in the campaign will ensure that the food aid reaches the representatives of the families benefiting from the initiative.
A local and a provincial committee are in charge of monitoring the smooth running of the food distribution. In fact, the identification of the beneficiaries is subject, as every year, to field work carried out by the local authorities to assess and confirm the living conditions of these people and their current situation according to socio-economic criteria in order to be eligible for aid.
The social services of the Royal Armed Forces, members of the National Mutual Benefit Society and local authorities also help the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity to ensure the smooth running of this solidarity operation. For its part, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and the National Office for the Health Safety of Food Products (ONSSA) ensure the quality control of the food distributed.
All of this is designed to ensure the smooth running of this campaign, which is so important and vital for many Moroccans.
