Holy smokes!" a fellow diner exclaimed as my son’s couscous was delivered to the table. The large earthenware dish was loaded with fluffy grains, topped with tender beef and vegetables. The flavour was quite outstanding, but the best thing about it was that my son had made it himself. My family had spent the morning at Amal Centre, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the empowerment of disadvantaged women, learning to make tagine and couscous. In Marrakech cooking classes are a popular tourist activity, but this course enables visitors to the Red City to spend their dirhams supporting social action. The classes help fund the activities of Amal. Night after night in Marrakech we had seen women begging on the streets. Crowds pushed by on their way to the Jemaa el Fna square, where drums beat incessantly and tarot readers tell fortunes. Life had not been kind to these women who, often with no family to fall back on, had become destitute.
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