Leila Meziane Benjelloun died on Saturday July 13, 2024, in Casablanca. After a battle of several months against illness, the one who spent her entire life treating the wounds of others, in the broadest sense of the term, passed the weapon to the left, with dignity. Born in Valencia, Spain, in 1938, Leila Meziane is the daughter of Mohamed Meziane, a great soldier, the only marshal in the history of the Moroccan army. She continued her medical studies in Madrid before obtaining her specialty diploma in ophthalmology in Barcelona. Returning to Morocco at the end of the 1950s, she married in the early 1960s to Othman Benjelloun, president of the BMCE and the GPBM. Her marriage did not distract her from her vocation: being at the bedside of the sick. She first worked in the public hospitals of Casablanca at a time when eye diseases, particularly trachoma, were legion, mainly due to hygiene problems. Human character Leila Meziane devoted herself to it without counting: days and nights. She contributed with dedication, notably by ensuring that the standards of an ophthalmology department were established within the Moroccan public hospital. Her travels in remote douars marked her forever. Decades later, it will make the upgrading of rural areas one of its reasons for existing. After a few years of work in the public hospital, Leila Meziane opted for the private sector. She created her own ophthalmology structure. A structure whose objective was to align with the most advanced technological standards in the field while preserving the human character of the profession. With the same passion and dedication, Leila Meziane made a place for herself within the corporation and a name among patients from all sides who came to ask for her. In recognition of her action, she was appointed President of the Alaouite Organization for the Protection of the Blind (OAPAM) in Casablanca, as well as of the Moroccan Red Crescent. Just as she held the position of vice-president of the Association of Doctors of Morocco for a certain time.
