Malika Obelkhair is a model for the associative Amazigh woman
She is motivated by a strong desire to make the economic empowerment of women and strengthen their inclusion a daily battle for the advancement of the status of women. She is Mrs. Malika Obelkhair, a model of a professional woman with a collective experience, who has worked to find a foothold in the development field, armed with her passion and desire to help others.
This woman, a mother of two girls, who hails from the Sahel region around the city of Tiznit, chose 15 years ago to settle in the capital of silver and to engage in associative work in order to contribute to efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of women, especially village women, and empowering them economically.
She was not deterred by leaving the classrooms after passing the primary stage, as she stormed the world of volunteering with great determination and was able to be the head of an agricultural cooperative specialized in the pillars, while she was still 18 years old, without that discouraging her determination or limiting the prospect of the future with optimism, armed with determination and desire to self realization.
Since 2010, she has strengthened her associative path after assuming the presidency of the “Tisi n Toure” cooperative in the Aklo region, as a structure that contributes to the strengthening of the social and solidarity economy, as a tool to confront fragility and exclusion, and provides guarantees to facilitate the take-off and success of women’s entrepreneurship, as well as achieving financial independence for the women involved in her town. whose number increases year after year.
Backed by a diversified career, Mrs. Obelkhair accumulated a rich social and professional experience, and continued her perseverance and diligence in seeking to enhance opportunities for women to have equal access to decent and free work, provide opportunities for professional advancement for them, and empower women with the means of production, allowing them to secure a decent living in the face of the burdens of life that increase day after day. .
With spontaneity and pride evident in her countenance, Mrs. Obelkhair narrates some of the details of her brilliant path, which was achieved after years of patience and struggle, as she calls it. This was a motive for investing her experience in empowering women economically and socially, without forgetting her role as a housewife, intermarriage between them.
Mrs. Oblkhair did not hesitate to research and benefit from the trainings, as well as to participate in the exhibitions and forums that are organized in this field, which enabled her, along with her colleagues, to exchange experiences with other cooperatives, whether at the national or international level.
Within the headquarters of the cooperative, Mrs. Obelkhir is highly respected by the cooperating women, who engage as a beehive in preparing products derived from argan oil, and before that in collecting and bringing the fruits, and the subsequent frying, roasting, and extraction of the oil and its derivatives, in an atmosphere dominated by manifestations of cooperation and love, and mixing in it The sounds of smashing the dried fruits of the pillars, while chanting the songs and chants of the local heritage, and from time to time jokes and challenges between them at work.
By the way, Ms. Obelkhair, who is also active as a associative actor in a number of civil organizations, noted the important role played by cooperatives in general, and the “Tizine Toure” cooperative, in particular, in the economic empowerment of women and the encouragement of profitable production chains by transforming the pillars To a livelihood that fills the stomach, prevents begging, provides sustenance, and improves money.
In this context, she says, among the objectives of the cooperative is to organize women, improve their working conditions as well as produce argan oil, as well as support the marketing of natural products derived from this substance, promote a spirit of cooperation and synergy, and instill a culture of teamwork among them in order to devise alternative ways to obtain livelihood resources, not to mention activating the role of women in serving society and the environment, and activating their role in comprehensive and sustainable development.
Obelkhair also expressed her happiness with the success she achieved in the collective work, noting that she and her colleagues were able to market the products they created with their own hands, especially argan oils, in the national and foreign markets such as Europe, the United States of America and the Gulf states.
Mrs. Malika spares no effort in ensuring that the rest of the women involved in the cooperative share and benefit from vocational trainings to develop their capabilities, as well as seeking to obtain national certificates and marks, with the support of the guardianship ministry and the regional authorities.
And she recalled that the choice to establish a cooperative to value the argan stemmed from the village and Amazigh women's keenness to preserve the heritage and legacy of the ancestors, noting that in addition to the nutritional value and cosmetic benefits of argan oils, women's association with the argan tree is a link to identity and a source of livelihood.
On International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 of each year, she affirms that it is an occasion to highlight the sacrifices of Moroccan women in various fields, praising the efforts made in this context to empower women.
Source : websites