Following her deeply inspirational presentation at #50BestTalks as part of the 2023 edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, held in Valencia in June, Amal’s founding president and this year’s Champions of Change Award recipient Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen shares her thoughts on the importance of visibility and how it can change lives
Looking for somewhere less materialistic, more meaningful and grounded in a spiritual way of living, Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen’s parents moved to Morocco from California in the 1970s. Though Fitzgerald Belahcen was born in Morocco, she grew up straddling two worlds and searching for acceptance. “Belonging is an important theme in my life because I can't legitimately say I'm just Moroccan and I can't say I’m American either,” she says.
“So belonging versus being marginalised is one of the themes that informs my work. In our programme, I want women to come away feeling that they deserve to be there, they deserve to take up space, they deserve resources and time.”
Founded in 2013 in Marrakech's Gueliz neighbourhood, Amal is a culinary training institution and restaurant that empowers marginalised women by giving them the skills needed to support themselves and their families..jpg)
Fitzgerald Belahcen spoke passionately about Amal at the #50BestTalks event as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023
One small step
Speaking about the moment that she was inspired to set up Amal, Fitzgerald Belahcen recalls meeting a woman and her two children living in extreme poverty, on less than US$2 a day. “Hearing her story made poverty real to me, rather than an abstract notion,” she says. “We know that there are poor people out there, but we don't always interact with them. In that moment of heartbreak, I felt like something was revealed to me. Not doing something wasn't an option. That set me on the path.”
Fitzgerald Belahcen started to write emails to see what could be done for this one person, then began helping people on an individual basis. After about five years, emotionally exhausted, she looked into the work of the late Moroccan humanitarian icon, Aïcha Chenna, who started working with single mothers in the 1980s. Chenna created a space in Casablanca where women and their children could stay together and went on to build an organisation that included a restaurant.
Fitzgerald Belahcen says: “I was sitting in her restaurant one day with my sister and I said: ‘Oh, I wish someone would open something like this in Marrakech.’ And she said: ‘It's going to be you.’ That was the moment, that’s how it started.”
Fitzgerald Belahcen was convinced that a food-based initiative was the way to go because not only would her students be fed, they would also have the chance to build community and connection. Still, she had to be cognisant of the fact that the majority of those she was working with had never eaten in a restaurant, and that for many in Morocco, eating out is seen as a privilege.
The Amal culinary programme trains 30 women every eight months
“Going to a restaurant is an indulgence and it’s something that a lot of us take for granted,” she says. “Once we got the programme started, we were also able to see our students interact with foreigners, often for the first time in their lives, because a lot of the people who come to eat at the restaurant are tourists.” Along with cooking, the 30 students who graduate from Amal’s two locations every eight months also learn French, a skill that makes them attractive to employers in the hospitality sector.
The keys to success
Having marked its 10th anniversary this year, hundreds of students have passed through Amal’s doors. But graduating is just the beginning. “I'm so proud and relieved when somebody finds a stable job because it's so hard to get to that point. There's just so much other support that is needed,” she continues. “We have situations where somebody might have an urgent medical need, or the roof of their house fell in, or they live two hours away by bus. Amal helps them, but when someone does succeed, despite all odds, it's because they did it themselves.”
Speaking about success stories, Fitzgerald Belahcen mentions a woman named Samira who joined the programme in 2018. She had escaped an abusive marriage but had no way of supporting herself and her two children. A friend told her about Amal, saying: “You like to cook, go to Amal and they'll help you.” A star student and a natural leader, after graduating Samira got a job as a chef in a boutique hotel and was earning a good salary. When the restaurant closed due to Covid, she started a business from her home. 
The students at Amal receive both cooking and French classes
Fitzgerald Belahcen says: “I met with her and I was teasing her, saying: ‘Are you driving the bus now?’ And she said: ‘Yes, you gave me the keys.’ If this transformation happened in even just one person's life, that's worth it.”
Flipping the script
Though it’s true that the majority of the women who join the programme have faced adversity, Fitzgerald Belahcen is adamant that they are not to be referred to as victims. She explains: “Sometimes when we think about the conditions that these women live in, or that they're emerging from, it's natural to feel sorry for them. That's a human response. They are victims, that is a reality.
“But that's not the dominant part of their pursuit. That's not what defines them. What defines them is that they're experts at living in scarcity and experts at living in adversity. I respect this expertise. I respect the skillset that this person has. They're taking up less, so that other people can take up more. We should recognise that.”
Champion of Change: Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen in a nutshell
Cause: Creating a physical space to honour and nurture people who are marginalised or largely invisible members of society
Effect: Providing Moroccan women with the skills to support themselves and their families through gastronomy
Achievement: Producing 30 graduates across two Amal locations every eight months, some of whom have gone on to work in prestigious establishments or start their own businesses
What’s next: Launching a full-scale Sign Language Café and setting Amal up with an endowment to open more centres and reach more communities
Final word: “We believe in the power of food to nourish the body, to ease the heart, to bring people together and to change lives. There's something very sacred in both the cooking and the receiving.”
Fitzgerald Belahcen also wants to highlight the palpable element of joy in the kitchen. When the staff and students are having a particularly tough day, they’ll start singing, drumming, dancing and clapping. “They shake it off, they have these songs that they sing and they get themselves through. I see that all the time. Joy doesn't cost anything and they seize it.”
Not content with two centres, Fitzgerald Belahcen also founded a small Sign Language Café in 2018, inspired by one of Amal’s directors. “We started with eight deaf students and our staff picked up enough sign language from them to communicate about cooking and about the kitchen,” she says.
“When they graduated, we couldn't find anybody who would take a chance on them, so we created this small venue inside a language centre. We have a total of four deaf women and two hearing women who work together in shifts. As far as I know, it’s the first venture of its kind in Morocco.”
Fitzgerald Belahcen recognises the skills of her students and their ability to overcome scarcity
Paying it forward
Speaking about future plans, Fitzgerald Belahcen would love to open more centres across the country. “There's this community engagement strategy called ‘snowflake model’ where you support new leaders to expand your concept. We have enough graduates who have been in the food industry for a number of years and who are at the maturity level where they could lead their own venues. That's an amazing way of scaling. A lot of the graduates say their biggest hope is to be able to open their own place and employ Amal graduates or other women in similar situations,” she says.
In an ideal world, Fitzgerald Belahcen would want to set Amal up with an endowment [a legal structure to manage and perpetuate an investment] and is also looking forward to launching a full-scale Sign Language Café, where both hearing and non-hearing guests and staff are catered to.
Describing the experience of receiving the Champions of Change Award at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 ceremony in Valencia, Fitzgerald Belahcen says: “It was surreal. It was crazy to be in the presence of the best of their craft. I was in the room with the most amazing culinary artists and even though that's not really the world that I occupy, it was fascinating to drop into it for a minute and see that the people who make it are the ones who have humility and the ones who want everyone else to succeed”.
Fitzgerald Belahcen was honoured as a Champion of Change at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 awards ceremony in Valencia
“This is a big platform for me. Recently I received an email from a female chef in New York who’s starting a similar project, a restaurant school for women who are coming out of incarceration. She asked if she could come and spend time with us and this is just the kind of connection that I hoped would come from this.”
On advice for people who are struggling to take the first step towards a purpose-driven project, she says: “There will never be a convenient time. Just be brave and jump in. It's never going to fit into your life. It's going to take over your life, but it's the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Get involved: Visit the Amal Centre (Rue Allal Ben Ahmed et Rue Ibn Sina Gueliz, Marrakech, Morocco) or make a donation via www.amalnonprofit.org
Watch the livestream of #50BestTalks: Refresh! in Valencia and enjoy Fitzgerald Belahcen’s inspirational address:
The list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2023, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, was announced on Tuesday 20th June at a live awards ceremony in Valencia. To stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and sign up to our newsletter.
