At first, the shrunken heart did not let him react. When Morocco suffered the most powerful earthquake in its history on Friday night, the Catalan nurse Sheimah el-Bejjaji was gripped by the horror of the images that reached her mobile phone from her parents' native country. But what was initially paralysis turned into a race. "I spent a day in shock seeing photos and videos of the wreck, then I said to myself: I have to go there to help", he explains.
He was quick to keep his word. Sheimah, born 31 years ago in Ribes de Freser and with Moroccan roots in the city of Larraix, speaks under 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 which has become one of the main points of coordination of aid to victims.
Colorful tents have been erected on the sides of the road where food is distributed or the rescue teams sleep. Some people with macaduras walk among the tents in search of someone to heal or comfort them, regardless of the redundancy. A woman in a yellow cap approaches Sheimah, shakes her hand and repeats “shukran, shukran”. Thanks. Thanks.
Sheimah, who teaches at the Terrassa University School of Nursing, does not stand still. He wears a white shirt of the Moroccan national team with red and green lines on the shoulders and spreads on a purple sheet more than 50 kilos of medicines and medical equipment that he has bought thanks to 1,300 euros of donations from people around him or who responded to the its SOS on social networks. Beneath her long curly hair, Sheimah exudes drive and persuasiveness.
Next to her, fellow nurse Beatriz Gutiérrez notes that her friend is convincing. They flew together from Barcelona for free, without the support of any oenagé. "We already knew each other and Sheimah told me 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 will spend accrued vacation days at her job at the Raval primary care emergency center to be in Morocco.
Although 33-year-old Beatriz has no Arab family, her bond with the Maghreb is strong. At her job in the Catalan capital, she treats many Moroccan and Algerian patients and also studies Darija, Moroccan Arabic, because the country caught her when she first visited it nine years ago.
When she thinks about her reasons, it only takes two seconds for Sheimah to get excited. "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 the two nurses, in addition to coordinating a care center in Amizmiz, is to travel to isolated villages - several roads are still blocked by falling stones - to attend to those who have not yet received help.
The two nurses look at each other awkwardly when I ask them if they think the Spanish have been in solidarity with their African neighbors in the face of devastation. Sheimah answers with surnames. Before leaving, he explains, he joined a WhatsApp group of more than two hundred people anxious to do something, and fast. "There they were all like me, born in France or Catalonia but with Moroccan parents, I would say that there was no Frenchman like Jean Paul Dupont, explain myself?".
Sheimah prefers not to dwell too much on bitterness. "Let's see, Spain is a racist country, I don't discover anything, and I was surprised that instead of sending condolences, some people wrote messages on the networks without values, ethics or humanity, but I prefer to stay on the side well, there were also many people who cared and helped".
Mohamed El Amrani, president of the Catalan oenagé Azahara, is also moving in this uncomfortable balance, an organization of children of migration in Catalonia that promotes the rapprochement of cultures and coordinates cooperation projects. "Racism is a problem, but solidarity wins", assures El Amrani. A few hours after the earthquake shook 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 Xauen and settled in Roses and Girona since the age of three, El Amrani believes he has noticed the empathy of his Catalan compatriots. "The other day a lady stopped me in the street and hugged me because, she said, with that hug she wanted to send her affection to all the affected Moroccans".
Amrani does hesitate in the comparison. "If you look at what happened in other catastrophes, and yes, I am thinking of the war in Ukraine, perhaps the social mobilization with Morocco has been slower or there has not been as much expressiveness. All misfortunes are important, and there is a war in Ukraine, but I do think 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 mainly concentrated in the areas closest to the epicenter, so we have decided to take the aid to other more peripheral places such as Ouarzazate, 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 this".
In the villages devastated by the earthquake, there were indeed signs of this solidarity. Since Spain has been one of the few countries whose rescue teams have been accepted by the Moroccan authorities, along with the United Kingdom, Qatar or the Arab Emirates, it was common to hear the Spanish language among the firefighters or soldiers trying to find survivors among the rubble.
On the outskirts of Amizmiz, right in front of Sheimah and Beatriz's tent, 25-year-old Hajar Sabah doesn't think that Spain has reacted with the handbrake to the misfortune. On the contrary "I feel that you have been a generous and kind neighbor to Morocco. You are a good neighbor", he says. Although maybe not that much. When I ask him if he would like to visit Barcelona one day, his answer is both sincere and 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 you do."
