morocco - a social mission

To be honest, I’m pretty sure I haven’t yet experienced any of the tourist Instagram spots of morocco. Haven’t bought a rug in the market, haven’t taken a sexy picture in a bathing suit in a colorful Hamam and haven’t petted a camel! But I’m pretty sure I met more locals and experienced the real Morocco through this inspiring trip, than I could have ever in any other way.

The wonderful Fatima from Essouira cooperative

FRE is a cosmetic brand, but one with a moral compass and they work very hard to make their effect on this world positive. And they succeed. Their products contain Argan Oil- Oil derived from a tree grown in Morocco and harvested and manufactured by women co-operatives.

The Argan trees look a lot like Olive trees and are super fun to climb on!

Those co-operatives are composed of uneducated poor women, who work very hard for their families and they cannot keep up with the industry. The manual labor is very hard, and many trees are required in order to produce enough oil to make a living.

Together with the High Atlas Foundation FRE supports these cooperatives by planting trees for every product sold, visiting and sharing their story, and buying their products. You can read more about this and FRE’s social mission on Kind Beauty.

We landed in Marakech and immediately drove to the prettiest hotel I’ve ever stayed at.

The next day we had a pretty long road trip to our next destination- Essouria, also known as the wind city. It definitely lived up to the name. On the way we saw that famous morroccan nature wonder- goats standing on treetops. I of course couldn’t help myself and jumped out of the car to cuddle with a baby called Mario for roughly an hour. Considered stealing him when we left, knowing what his destiny will probably be but unfortunately, I had to leave him behind.

We arrived at L’heure Blue, another gorgeous hotel, where we met the other FRE ambassadors who joined this trip; Annie Miller @anniemiller.co, Kristen Garzone @mellank, and Heba Ali @evolve.nation. Powerful motivated inspiring women I was very lucky to spend time with.

We spent the next day’s visiting two amazing women cooperatives, the first one, a very simple rural one named Argan Izouran cooperative, where we were accompanied by Dr Yossef Ben Meir, president of the High Atlas Foundation, an organization working for sustainable prosperity in Morocco, and Errachid Mountassir project manager. It was amazing to see how deeply connected they are to these women, how much heart and soul they put in to change their lives for the better.

We were very lucky to be taught by the women the hard work of the Argan process, be part of a beautiful music and dance performance put up by the local school for us and enjoy a wonderful lunch. Vegan, or even vegetarian is not big around this area but there was couscous and I couldn’t be happier! Plus even just bread dipped in Argan oil is soooo good, I had more than enough options. .

This visit was followed by a crazy photoshoot in the dunes of Essaouira. Why crazy you ask? Well the wind was going a million miles an hour causing everything, including our eyes and mouth to fill up with sand. It started off funny but at some point, it became way too much and freezing cold! I pushed my limits really hard and insisted to keep going and even shoot in the water and almost be sucked into the lake by quicksand. Trust me I will not forget this day.

We had an amazing dinner set up for us at the hotel and a beautiful spa treatment and crashed for the night after a very fulfilling day.

Had to have atleast one “ethnic” Moroccan pictures

The next cooperative we visited already felt a little more progressive, and it was nice to see how the effort put in by the High Atlas Foundation and FRE is really making a difference. They already had machinery and a strategic plan!

We had an after-lunch workout with Heba which was hilarious as the women of the cooperative quickly adapted every move into a dance.

We visited the Argan trees, some of which planted by FRE as part of their one set one tree method (read more on Kind Beauty) and took pictures of the new body line.

Another wonderful day was followed by another wonderful dinner by a private chef at his French restaurant accompanied again by a local band making everything even more incredible.

This trip was everything I couldn’t even dream to hope for. The people, the culture, the sights, and the genuine good we were able to take part in. Lucky me.