As promised, we will be posting updates from Mike and the team in Asni where the earthquake struck in Morocco.

Mike and Lucy from local sailing charter company Sailnplay drove their minibus down to Asni in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco this week with relief supplies for the recent earthquake victims.

Although they hadn’t bargained on the customs officers at the Moroccan port of Tangier Med confiscating some of the contents of the 500kg, after three hours of “negotiations,” most of the donated clothing for the local Moroccan population faced with a cold mountain winter under canvas, was loaded back onboard for the 600km drive south.

Amongst the donors over the last few weeks were The British School of Almeria, Almuñecar International Ladies Club, the ex-pat inhabitants of Viñuela, as well as the many Sailnplay customers along the Costa Tropical.

Waiting in Asni at the foot of the High-Atlas range, and directly above the epicentre on the night of September 8/9th, were members of TWIZI and The Kindred Project, with teachers and pupils from Sotogrande International School, who are heavily involved in helping the local population to rebuild both their destroyed or badly damaged homes, as well as their lives.

The earthquake left over 3,500 dead and many thousand more injured and still receiving hospital treatment.

Their traditional Berber houses didn’t fare well, with many destroyed outright, and more modern structures (like schools and mosques) so badly damaged that they need to be demolished and rebuilt. In many places this work has already begun.

With winter fast approaching though there is a crucial and immediate requirement for warm winter clothing, particularly for the children.

This is the requirement that Mike and Lucy, as well as all the others mentioned above, have moved quickly to help to fulfil.

(News/Noticias: Asni, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco)