At first, his heavy heart did not allow him to react. When Morocco suffered the most powerful earthquake in its history on Friday night, Catalan nurse Sheimah El Bejjaji was caught by the horror of the images that came to her cell phone from her parents' home country. . But what was initially paralysis turned into a run. “I spent a day in shock looking at photos and videos of the destruction, then I told myself: I must go help,” she explains.
He kept his word quickly. Sheimah, born 31 years ago in Ribes de Freser and with Moroccan roots in the city of Larache, speaks sheltered from the midday sun under a white tent in the place where she wanted to be: Amizmiz, a small town in the heart of the Moroccan Atlas that It has become one of the main coordination points for aid to victims.
On the sides of the road, colorful tents have been erected where food is distributed or rescue teams sleep. Some bruised people walk among the tents in search of someone to cure or console them, excuse the redundancy. A woman in a yellow cap approaches Sheimah, shakes her hand and repeats “shukran, shukran.” Thank you. Thank you.
Sheimah, who teaches at the Terrassa University School of Nursing, does not stand still. He wears a white Moroccan national team shirt with red and green lines on the shoulders and spreads on a lilac sheet more than 50 kilos of medicines and medical supplies that he has purchased thanks to 1,300 euros in donations from people around him or who responded to his request. SOS on social networks. Beneath her long curly hair, Sheimah conveys drive and persuasiveness.
At her side, nurse Beatriz Gutiérrez also confirms that her friend is convincing. They flew together from Barcelona on their own, without support from any NGO. “We already knew each other and Sheimah told me that she wanted to come and lend a hand; I studied nursing to put my hands and knowledge at the service of the people. So the opportunity arose and here we are,” explains Beatriz, who to be in Morocco will spend vacation days accumulated at her job at the Raval Primary Care Emergency Center.
Although Beatriz, 33, does not have an Arab family, her connection to the Maghreb is strong. At her job in the Catalan capital she sees many Moroccan and Algerian patients and she is studying Darija, Moroccan Arabic, because the country caught her when she visited it for the first time nine years ago.
Searching for his motives, it takes Sheimah two seconds to become emotional. “Thank God, my whole family is fine, but when I saw the destroyed houses and the desperate people I thought it could have been my town or my house or my family… I couldn't not come.”
The intention of both nurses, in addition to coordinating a care center in Amizmiz, is to travel to isolated villages – several roads remain blocked by falling stones – to care for those who have not yet received help.
The two nurses look at each other uncomfortably when asked if they believe that the Spanish have been supportive of their African neighbors in the face of the devastation. Sheimah answers with surnames. Before leaving, she says, she joined a WhatsApp group of more than two hundred people eager to do something quickly. “There everyone was like me, born in France or Catalonia but their parents were Moroccan, I would say there were no Jean Paul Dupont-type French people, do I understand?”
Sheimah prefers not to dwell too much on the unpleasantness. “Let's see, Spain is a racist country, I don't discover anything, and it did surprise me that instead of sending condolences, some people wrote messages on networks without values, ethics or humanity, but I prefer to keep the good, there were also many people who “He cared and helped.”
Mohamed El Amrani, president of the Catalan NGO Azahara, an organization of children of migration in Catalonia that promotes the rapprochement of cultures and coordinates cooperation projects, also moves in this uncomfortable balance. “Racism is a problem, but solidarity wins,” says El Amrani. A few hours after the earthquake hit Morocco, this 30-year-old opened an aid account in the hope of reaching 10,000 euros. In less than three days, the figure reached 25,000 euros.
Born in Chauen and from the age of three living in Roses and Girona, El Amrani believes he has noticed the empathy of his Catalan compatriots. “The other day a lady stopped me on the street and she hugged me because, she said, with that hug she wanted to send her love to all the Moroccans affected.”
Amrani does hesitate in the comparison. “If you look at what happened in other catastrophes, and yes, I am thinking about the war in Ukraine, perhaps the social mobilization with Morocco has been slower or there has not been as much expressiveness in doing so. “All misfortunes are important and there is a war in Ukraine, but I do believe that there has been a difference.”
Since there is still so much to do in Morocco – the number of people affected is already 2,901 dead and 5,530 injured – El Amrani prefers to focus on the victims. From the Azahara organization, he says, they know how. The knowledge of the terrain and the language of many members of the organization makes it easier for them to aim better. “Now the aid is concentrated mainly in the areas closest to the epicenter, so we have decided to bring aid to other more peripheral places such as Ouazarzate, also affected by the earthquake. Some members of the organization are there and, as we work with local collaborators, they have told us that, in addition to food or water, sustainable help is needed over time, with the reconstruction of schools. And we are in it.”
In the villages devastated by the earthquake, there have been signs of that solidarity. As Spain has been one of the few countries whose rescue teams have been accepted by the Moroccan authorities, along with the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, it was common to hear the Spanish language among the firefighters or soldiers searching for survivors in the rubble.
On the outskirts of Amizmiz, in front of Sheimah and Beatriz's tent, the young Hajar Sabah, 25, does not think that Spain has reacted with the handbrake to the misfortune. The other way around. “I feel that you have been a generous and kind neighbor to Morocco. You are a good neighbor,” she says. Although maybe not so much. When asked if she would like to visit Barcelona one day, her response is as sincere as it is bitter. “I have never been to Spain and I would really like to but, you know, it is difficult. "They don't give us a visa as easily as they give you."
