Carpets have always been woven in the villages of the High Atlas in the South of Morocco. However, there is hardly any medical care in this remote region. Together with a local carpet producer Label STEP makes regular visits of a doctor possible in these mountain villages: She is supposed to examine and help, but also inform.

The road to the villages of the Aït Ouaouzguite tribes is almost impassable and winding. The biggest part of the people who live here earns part of their living with carpet weaving – an ancient regional traditional handicraft. Thus, also in the village of Amassine with its 2'000 inhabitants a carpet production is located which is led by the Austrian professor Wilfried Stanzer and is verified by Label STEP. Because there is virtually no medical care for the carpet workers and their families in the remote mountain areas, the country representative of Label STEP together with Label STEP licensee professor Stanzer have brought to life a project. The foundation for this initiative was already laid in 2004/2005 with a pilot project.

Information helps

For cultural reasons it is especially difficult for the women of these villages to get medical help and medication. Now, however, Label STEP could engage a doctor in the nearest bigger town who visits three villages of the region once a month by car. On the one hand this is about the medical care of the local residents, on the other hand there should, however, also be time for information and consultation. Especially basic medical knowledge should be transferred, but the doctor should also talk about family planning and gynaecology with the population. Professor Stanzer provides rooms in his guest house in Amassine for the medical examinations. In the other villages the municipalities pay for the rooms. In the first year of the three-year-project medical care and consultation is free. During the subsequent years a small financial participation of the patients is required, which is also necessary to strengthen the sustainability of the project.

With this project Label STEP can look forward to the engagement of many local project partners to which the medical care of the region is a matter of the heart. Thus, for example, the Moroccan pharmaceutical company Cooper Maroc supplies medication and the Label STEP partner Stanzer also takes part financially in the acquisition of drugs. At the moment Label STEP tries to get the Moroccan government engaged in the project.