Training & Learning

Morocco Earthquake Emergency Response

On Friday 8 September, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit central Morocco in the High Atlas Mountains.

At this time, at least 2800 people have been reported killed, and nearly 2500 have been injured by falling debris. Homes are destroyed or unsafe to return to. The historic old city of Marrakesh has been badly damaged. The full extent of the damage is as yet unknown.

RedR UK has considerable relevant knowledge, expertise, and capacity to help.

We're building upon our existing structural damage assessments programme in the Middle East, and our most recent response to the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria to strengthen localised engineering solutions in earthquake response and reconstruction in Morocco.

We are bridging the engineering and humanitarian sectors to support an effective and resilient response, including assessing building safety and damages, repair, safe demolition, and debris management.

RedR UK will expand its current activities from the Türkiye and Syria response, contextualising and adapting to the earthquake in Morocco to support on damage assessments as well as broadening into other areas that engineers play a vital role in.

Empowering engineers and other responders to provide safe, effective, and needs-based humanitarian response in Morocco.

This multiplier effect means that the humanitarian assistance to affected people will be improved on modest investment into capacity development of local actors. The force multiplier is enabled through our localised delivery model, our institutional and government level partnerships, and our relationships with engineering and corporate organisations.

Open Modules

Modules are free to attend, and offered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Click on the individual links on each date to register for the module you’d like to attend. They are all facilitated online on Zoom, and delivered in either Arabic or English.

You can also download our module guide here.

Communication & Community Engagement (2 hours)

Understand the importance of focusing on communication and community engagement in emergencies, the role of participation and dialogue in building trust and the methods that can be used to identify vulnerable people and groups to ensure their voices are taken into account when planning, implementing and monitoring activities.

Tuesday 12th December 2023, 17:00 Morocco time (UTC+1)(Arabic)

Wednesday 20th December 2023, 18:00 Morocco time (UTC+1) (English)

Conducting Needs Assessments in Emergencies (2 hours)
This module explores why it is important to conduct a needs assessment, the different types of data you can collect and provides an overview of some of the tools that you can use.

Wednesday 13th December 2023, 17:30 Morocco time (UTC+1) (Arabic)

Thursday 21st December 2023, 17:00 Morocco time (UTC+1) (English)

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) (2 hours)

Understand mental health and psychosocial well-being in the context of emergencies for humanitarian practitioners

Thursday 14th December 2023, 17:30 Morocco time (UTC+1) (Arabic)

Wednesday 10th January 2024, 16:30 Morocco time (UTC+1) (English)

Staying Effective (safety, security and wellbeing) (3 hours)

This module examines some basic components to staying effective when working in response to the Morocco earthquake humanitarian crisis. It provides a foundation for understanding basic personal security, including assessing your own behaviour and risk profile, developing situational awareness, and conducting rapid, dynamic risk assessments. It also examines basic techniques to remain effective, including techniques to manage stress and remain effective during the crisis.

Tuesday 19th December 2023, 17:00 Morocco time (UTC+1) (Arabic)

Friday 5th January 2024 15:00 Morocco time (UTC+1) (English)

Repair and seismic retrofitting techniques of vernacular houses in Morocco (3 hours)

This module explores the different retrofitting measures that can be used for earthquake-affected vernacular buildings in Morocco and helps provide an understanding of how coordination and collaboration with a range of stakeholders (eg international actors, government entities, public service providers, etc) can help to deliver effective engineering solutions in Morocco. 

Monday 5th February 2024, 17:00 Morocco time (UTC+1) (Arabic)

Training of Trainers course

This introductory Training of Trainers (ToT) course aims to develop the competencies needed to deliver training across the sector using participatory methodologies. You will apply your learning from the course to plan, prepare and deliver your own short training session, receiving feedback from experienced trainers and your peers. This online course combines theory and practice to help you understand the fundamentals of training and facilitation and develop competencies to aid you in becoming a more effective trainer.

This particular ToT is targeted towards technical responders to the earthquake in Morocco.

This course is composed of five live sessions, with individual and small group work assigned between each session. The facilitator will be available to provide support to students in between sessions via email.

Sunday 7th January - Thursday 11th January 09:00 - 11:30 Morocco time (UTC+1) each day (Arabic)

An application form will be posted here soon.

Have your say: Learning Needs Assessment

We are currently conducting a learning needs assessment of engineers and other technical specialists responding to the September 2023 earthquake.

The data will feed into a learning programme offered free of charge, designed to strengthen response capacity. The data will be shared and publicly available everyone’s use.

All answers are strictly confidential. If you have any comments or concerns, or would like to speak to RedR directly about this assessment, please email us via engineering.skills@redr.org.uk .

Take the survey here.

Give now to support earthquake-affected communities

With your generous support, we can discern where our assistance is most valuable, working with actors on the ground to bring relief to those affected. 

Your gift will ensure that vital expertise in technical and humanitarian action can help to alleviate suffering and help rebuild in Morocco. 

You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter at the bottom of this page, for updates on our response in Morocco.

Give here to the Morocco and Libya Disaster Relief Fund.