Morocco raises $15.8 million in anti-poverty campaign

Morocco raised $15.8 million in in-kind and cash donations during the second national campaign of struggle against poverty, the governing board of the Mohammed V Solidarity Foundation said on Monday.

The sum does not include donations form the Moroccan expatriates and the receipts of the sale of badges which have not yet been counted, the board said at the end of a meeting.

The foundation said it will supply some 204,400 poor rural households with food during the fasting month of Ramadan, that will start by the end of this week in Morocco.

The operation will cost $2.8 million, and another budget of $1.3 million was allotted for urban poor during Ramadan, the foundation said.

For the second consecutive year, Morocco staged early last November a week-long campaign to fight poverty, which cripples 13 percent of the country's 28-million strong population.