Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen is a "champion of change". The entrepreneur, who uses food to empower disadvantaged women in Morocco, was awarded as such by the World's 50 Best Restaurants group.
Belahcen is the founder of Amal, a restaurant-turned-social enterprise in Marrakech, which provides free culinary training to Arab women, often single mothers, bereft of financial opportunities for themselves and their families.
In 2013, Belahcen opened Amal in the neighbourhood of Gueliz, where students would work alongside staff to learn cooking and hospitality skills first-hand. The aim was to train them for a few months and help them secure jobs in the food industry.
The restaurant could only take up to 15 students at a time, but Belahcen wanted to scale it up. In 2016, she opened the company's catering unit at another location in the city, allowing her to accept more female students.
Since its inception, Amal has helped 320 underprivileged women in the city, with about 30 graduating each month.
When ssked why she decided to make this her life purpose, Belahcen tells The National: “Out of love. It's just been a labour of love since the beginning. It's also about being aware of the privileges I may have that a lot of people don't.”
Belahcen adds it's been rewarding to see former students succeed after their training. “It's lovely to visit some restaurants in Marrakesh and find our former students working there. To see them in all of their strengths and power, that's amazing. I remember, one of our first graduates back in 2014 came back after she got her first paycheck and donated kitchen equipment.
“I'm blown away every day by them and their stories. It's just so rewarding.”
The impact of Belahcen's passion does not end within the kitchen walls. A lot of times, she says, staff provide other kinds of support to their students, such as housing or medical attention.
I'm blown away every day by them and their stories. It's just so rewarding
Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen,
founder of Amal
“You cannot ignore these things. We want our students to succeed, and sometimes it takes something extra to help them do that,” she says.
Ultimately, the goal is to “help women undergo a holistic transformation”, not just professional but personal, so they are comfortable “taking up space in society”.
Amal's latest project is a cafe in Marrakech staffed by women who are hearing-impaired. The Sign Language Cafe is at the Centre for Language and Culture, which has about 4,000 students. It acts as a prototype for deaf-run businesses.
The idea of the cafe came about in 2018 when Belahcen encountered a cohort of Amal students with eight deaf women.
“A lot of our hearing staff members had to learn sign language, and to see them interact with one another was a beautiful experience,” she says. “When they graduated, we couldn't find any employers who would give them a chance, so we decided to create a small cafe so we could hire them ourselves.”
Belahcen, who was born to American parents who moved to Morocco in the 1970s, has come a long way. Amal's three locations are self-sustaining, with the profits being used to pay rent and salaries, while giving students living allowances during their training.
Belahcen hopes the Champions of Change award will allow her to galvanise more support and continue helping women in Morocco.
Champions in Los Angeles
She shares the accolade with Othon Nolasco and Damian Diaz, who run No Us Without You LA, Los Angeles, which provides food relief to undocumented restaurant and bar workers in California.
Aside from relief packages, the organisation also offers advisory services to their families who cannot seek government assistance due to their status.
“Undocumented back-of-house workers are the heart and soul of the restaurant and bar industry, but are often treated as dispensable,” say the pair.
“No Us Without You LA offers food relief packages as a way to show that they are not forgotten. They are seen, heard and respected. We are proud to feed those who have fed us for years.”
The organisation started with a community of 30 undocumented workers and their dependents in early 2020, using the founders' money. Now, it supports about 700 families per month across Los Angeles County with 85 volunteers. Nolasco and Diaz transformed an abandoned space in the city into an organic garden for their food packages.
The Champions of Change award was first launched by The World's 50 Best group in 2021 to recognise the unsung heroes of the food and hospitality sectors – those who are engaged in positive work that uplifts and empowers underprivileged groups in society.
The winners receive financial donations from The World's 50 Best to support their projects. They will also be honoured at a ceremony in Valencia, Spain, on June 20.
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Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD
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Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
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Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
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Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
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- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
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Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
