I was looking for organic oil online when I was given

argan oil, unknown to me but advertised as for the kitchen

so did a new search and found a challenging story. Akhsmou

a moroccan village, suffers persistent drought with few

days of rain and many of hot sunshine, meaning that 90%

of its water supply has gone and every crop that depends

on it, which has caused village people to leave for the cities

or abroad, but Fatima Ihihi,in her twenties, thought the fittest

use of her education was to start an employment project

for women in Akhsmou, that they should make oil from the fruit

of the Argan trees, which grew nearby in plenty. It should

have failed due to the reluctance of the women who were not

expected to take decisions or work outside the home, but it caught

on when a few tried it and found it fun. And were paid wages.

That’s all it took to subvert the religious culture of ages.

Women found it asked them to do things they were good at

gathering nuts, carrying nuts, separating kernels, while sat

on rugs for hours, talking. Initially they used a big shed

shielded from the sun and the male gaze -as Fatima said

they became a team, proud of each other. And she was able

to get hold of an oil press, hand-powered at first, and so tasteful

was the oil, it earned them a loan from a large group

of cooperatives to buy the equipment they needed. Soon

they built their own workspace, with a nursery, a shop,

a pressing area, a bottling plant, establishing their co-op

which they called Toudarté, which means Life..Sometimes

they sing as they work, letting music rhythm and rhyme

express their joy in their creation of common wealth

and a future. They continue to create, Almost by stealth

they have added literacy classes, health provision teaching

family planning and a fund for going to Mecca. unleashing

the hidden riches of community, not as entrepreneurs

but fellow workers with different gifts and one shared power.