The 212 Society's Jacquetta Wheeler at the site of the planned Darna Center for Girls Over the past 10 years, the houses of Darna, (run by Mounira Bouzid El Alami, a 61-year old psychotherapist specialized in child guidance) have served people in Tangier begining with the youngest: newborns, awaiting adoptive parents in the Nursery. The Shelter provides an emergency and long-term home for street boys; during the day they join the Community Center for Boys and the Pedagogical Farm, where nearly two hundred healthy, enthusiastic "Darna Boys" get literacy and professional training, take civics classes, and get a safe, clean, healthy place to live away from the streets. Girls learning to bake at the House of Women. For women at risk, the Community House of Women provides safe and stable temporary daytime communal learning environments, with an education in both practical job skills -- they produce extraordinary textiles and run the best restaurant in the area -- and their rights and duties as citizens, with a real opportunity to reintegrate into the mainstream of Moroccan society. Today Darna has no overnight Center for Girls, and without a place to go as night falls, many girls are forced into dangerous and harmful situations. As part of its ongoing work with Darna, the 212 Society has committed to fund and build the city's first Center for Girls. The interior of the planned Center for Girls with main areas indicated. The exterior of the planned building; with the ground floor, which has been granted permanently for the DARNA Center for Girls, highlighted The 212 Society supports cultural and educational projects in Morocco, with a special focus on the city of Tangier. The Society is a non-profit organization incorporated in New York State, founded by writer and actor Sean Gullette, with Simona Schneider and Maya Fineberg, and takes its name from the 212 telephone codes of its home city and adoptive country. 212 Society Board Member Jacquetta Wheeler has taken the lead in planning a fundraising campaign and gala dinner with the goal of raising US $350,000 to build, equip and staff the Darna Center for Girls. With your help, the Darna Center for Girls can be built and operating before the end of 2006. Darna is an accredited and certified Moroccan nonprofit organization, whose work has been praised by press from Time magazine to Le Monde, governments and leaders including French President Jacques Chirac and Madame Asnar of Spain, and leaders of the World Bank. The 212 Society's most recent project was with Darna. GIRLS AT RISK A girl selling gum in the streets. Poor girls in Morocco face terrible realities. Parents made desperate by poverty exploit children as a source of income, often the primary source. Sexual abuse and incest is shockingly common in poor familes. Unmarried girls who become pregnant face a harsh stigma. Girls are forced from their homes and villages by poverty, family stresses, physical and sexual abuse, and the pariah status of rape victims. Many make their way to dangerous streets of cities like Tangier. On the streets, traumatized, illiterate and uneducated, some with babies in their arms, their options are limited. Besides begging and petty theft, many girls accept emploment as domestic servants, where the cycle of exploitation and abuse often begins again. Those on the streets make easy prey for pimps and street gangs; with prostitution come the deadly hazards of drugs (glue sniffing is most common) and AIDS. Just 12 kilometers from Europe, Tangier has the largest black economy in Morocco, which presents special dangers. Smugglers and human traffickers use children as pawns in their operations. Cops brutalize them around the port. Sex tourists target the city. With the glittering coast of Spain visible day and night, the allure of illegal emigration has lead thousand of children to their deaths, inside the wheel wells of trucks on the ferries, and in the treacherous waters of the Strait of Gibraltar. Homeless boys, their sweaters filthy and noses running from sniffing glue, are an all-too common sight around the port and on the streets of Tangier. Girls, who cannot move so freely, tend to be less visible on the streets, but Darna knows they are a population in dire need. Every story is different, but they all lead to the same message: I can't go home. With your help, the doors of the Darna Center for Girls will be open to all these girls, as it has been there for hundreds of boys and women in the past decade. The Center for Girls will first of all offer emergency shelter, a hot meal, a clean bed, and a safe place off the streets. The Girls' Center, in concert with the Darna House of Women, will also provide a population of 80-100 girls of all ages with a community of learning and empowerment; emergency, transitional, and long term housing; professional and civic training; and an education in not only reading, writing and arithmetic but also in their rights and duties as citizens. Darna has 42 paid social workers -- in addition to numerous volunteers -- who will take an active role in rebuilding the girls' links with their families, and supporting them in their social and professional integration. The girls will find themselves at the heart of the citywide Darna network: taking classes and finding role models at the House of Women, the Darna Community Centers, the Pedagical Farm, the Newspaper and Little Theater, and the entire community that is Darna. A sewing workshop at the House of Women. OUR GOAL Our current goal is to build and fully equip the Center for Girls, and provide Year One operating expenses; including all staff salaries. The Center for Girls will have its permanent home in the spacious ground floor of a low income housing facility being built as a charitable enterprise by the highly respected Tangier-based firm Group El-Alami. The ground floor of the building will be granted entirely and permanently to Darna. Land, blueprints, and building permits for the building as a whole are already in place. However, Darna currently not have the funds to turn this empty raw space into a Center for Girls, and without financial support the space will remain empty. We are now actively seeking private and foundation support to a total of USD $350,000 to create the Center for Girls. THE FACILITY These 1043 square meters, or 11,000 square feet, will be open 24/7 to provide immediate and longer-term shelter and services to girls of all ages. For younger girls and recent arrivals, an open dormitory with 50 beds. For older girls, young mothers with children, and residents, 50 private rooms Open kitchen and dining area Communal living area with TV, books, and games Classroom Library/homework space/computer lab Laundry Room Showers and bathrooms Administrators' and managers' apartment Rooms will also be made available to low-income female students who otherwise couldn't afford to live near Tangier schools. This means we need to finance: Architect Interior walls Flooring Doors and windows Kitchen Fixtures and Appliances Bathroom Fixtures and Appliances Electric Plumbing and Heating System Beds, desks, tables, chairs, and other furniture Laundry Washers and Dryers STAFF The 212 Society will administer a fund to to pay salaries and fixed costs (salaries, insurance and utilities) for Year One of the Center for Girls. The Staff includes a Permanent On-Site Director and Adminstrator; two Project Managers; an Outreach Officer to seek out girls at risk and lead them to the Center; a part time Child Psychotherapist; and 2-3 overnight staff, a security guard and housekeeper. At standard Tangier wages, all of these salaries can be paid for $28,264/year. FINANCE AND LOGISTICS The Darna architect, Tangier activist Hanah Bekari, is uniquely familiar with the needs of the organization and works in an intensively hands-on style to secure best results for the organization. She will design the spaces of the Girls Center. The general contracting of the work will be undertaken with the supervision of the El Alami Group (donors of the space) whose extensive contacts and experience in construction in Tangier will ensure best prices and practices from all vendors. They will provide high quality aluminum fixtures and Jacob Delafon bathroom and kitchen at factory cost. Vendors invoices will be paid from an account requiring signature by the 212 Society. A detailed and comprehensive "Final Project Accounting" will be distributed to all donors at the end of the construction process. Donors will be invited to attend the inauguration of the center. The 212 Society is a New York State nonprofit now awaiting federal 501c3 tax-exempt status. At that time, contributions to the 212 Society will be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The costs of the New York fundraising Event will be fully covered by sponsorship so that all donations to the 212 Society Darna Girls Center Project will go directly to the program. BUDGET General Construction 97,561 Plumb., Elec., Hardware, Woodwork, etc 121,951 Private Room Furniture 3,659 Dormitory Furniture 5,854 Reading Room Furniture 6,098 3 Desktop Computers 3,049 Living Room Furniture 1,220 Audiovisual hardware 976 Kitchen Appliances and Items 8,537 Laundry Room Appliances 3,110 Year 1 Utilities 12,195 Year 2 Utilities 12,195 Director 11,707 Social Worker 10,244 Assistant to the Director 8,780 Community Workers (Stipends) 10,537 Security Guard 4,390 Housekeeper 5,854 Housekeeper 5,854 10% Contingency 32,206 TOTAL $365,974 Jacquetta at the Darna Teaching Farm. THE EVENT On December 8th in New York City, Jacquetta Wheeler and the 212 Society Event Committee will host a unique gala "Quiz Night" Moroccan-style dinner to finance the Darna Center for Girls. After Red Carpet Arrivals, a lavish cocktails reception, and brief opening remarks from the director of Darna, a special celebrity comic will host a British quiz night in the classic tradition. As the wine keeps flowing and an array of delicious Moroccan courses unfolds, each table of 8-10 guests will compete in 10 exciting rounds of quiz questions, with an extraordinary prize to be won... Later in the evening, world-class live entertainment will take the stage, followed by a world-class DJ and dancefloor until the end of the night, when we'll be able to toast the launch of the Darna Center for Girls... TABLES (8-10 guests) $10,000 and up EVENT SPONSORSHIP $200,000 and up To purchase a table, make a donation, or discuss sponsorship, please contact Pam Bristow: Pam Bristow, LLC 584 Broadway, Suite 808 New York NY 10803 Telephone: 212.625.3232 pam@pambristow.com FACTS AND FIGURES 2 average amount in US dollars paid to child prostitutes 90 percent of rural girls who are illiterate 450 number of children who live on the streets of tangier 67 percentage of women who are illiterate 89 percentage of women in rural areas who illiterate 200,147 number of calls to a sexual abuse hotline between January 2000 - September 2001 48 Number of sexual abuse investigations resulting from those calls 50 percent of girls who under the age of 10 when they are sent to the city to work domestic servants. 39.4 percent of females 15 years old and older who can read and write 19 percentage of the total population remains below the absolute poverty line (about one dollar per day). SOURCES "Situational Analysis of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Morocco" Dr. Najat M'Jid, ECPAT Interntional, 2003 National Monitoring Center for Child Rights, Morocco, 2002 "Report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Kingdom of Morocco." United Nations, 2003 CIA World Fact Book, 2005 "Child Prostition and the Spread of AIDS," AIDScience, 2005 "US State Depatment Trafficking in Persons Report," 2005 Association DARNA, Reports and Studies, 1995-Present "Morocco The Development Challenge," USAID Country Report, 2005 To support the Darna Center for Girls, contact Darna or the 212 Society.

Click here to download a printable PDF of the complete Darna Girl's Center Proposal.