Almost 48 after the violent earthquake that shook the center of Morocco and caused at least 2,012 dead and 2,059 injured1,404 of them in very serious condition, the country’s inhabitants continue shocked, worried for the fate of their missing and very close relatives restless about how the earthquake will affect the country’s fragile economy. “You live a kind of social distress“, explains to EL PERIÓDICO from Tetúan Diana Martínez Carracedo, a cooperator from the Mas-Movement Association of Solidarity Actionswho highlights, however, how citizens are getting involved with some actions implemented such as blood donations for those injured in the earthquake.
In Tetouan, about 600 kilometers from Marrakesh, life develops with complete normality, oblivious to the horror of the populations most affected by the telluric movement. It’s pure facade. Almost everyone has a relative or acquaintance affected by the earthquake. “They have explained to me the case of a high school teacher from Marrakech to whom all of her students have died,” says Martínez Carracedo. One of the thousands of tragedies that take place these days with a macabre cadence.
But this aid worker values the “resilience capacity” of the Moroccan people. “It is much superior to what we have in Spain (…). They don’t get blocked like we do. Maybe it’s because they have a blind faith that God resolves and everything will be fine. And this helps them get ahead,” she adds.
NGOs organize
At the moment, the NGOs are waiting to find out what the needs of the authorities are. Now it’s time to rescue the survivors in a harrowing race against time, entrusted to it by firefighters, local authorities and the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
After these tasks, the authorities must communicate what they need and how the organizations can help. “Is very frustrating not being able to do anything, but you have to wait a couple of days,” confesses the aid worker from the Mas Association, created to support minors with disabilities or educational difficulties.
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Women in Conflict Zonean entity with a presence in the affected area, has made “all the human and material resources at its disposal and its support in every possible way” available to the rescue teams, according to a statement published on its website.
AND Doctors without bordersan organization specialized in providing a medical-humanitarian response crucial in disaster situations, it has sent teams to the affected areas to analyze the specific needs and the capacity to act. MSF has a extensive experience in earthquakes, such as those in Nicaragua (1972), El Salvador, India and Peru (all in 2001, and in Peru again in 2007), Armenia (1988), Iran (2003), Haiti (2010), Chile (2010) , Japan (2011) or Nepal (2015).