Inspirator @Afrika is Rising Day, 27 Oct: Session Two

Co-founder of Dar Si Hmad, largest fog harvesting project globally

Jamila Bargach is an activist and scholar who has dedicated her life to serving under-resourced communities in Southwest Morocco, creating sustainable initiatives through education and scientific innovation. She is the co-founder of Dar Si Hmad, which operates the largest functioning fog collection project in the world, a system which fosters the independence of Amazigh women in Ait Baamrane, a Berber region, by delivering potable water to their households. Bargach, an anthropologist by training with a PhD from Rice University, has taught at University Mohamed V in Rabat. She spent decades as a human rights activist helping residents in slums and informal communities in Morocco. In 2006, Bargach founded a shelter for women in Casablanca, which she directed till 2016. Bargach has published several articles on adoption practices, unwed mothers, gender and development, as well as the book Orphans of Islam: Family, Abandonment, and Secret Adoption in Morocco (2002). Bargach was awarded the Oak Fellowship for Human Rights, The Vera Campbell Fellowship for Women Scholar-Practitioners from Developing Nations at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, which allowed her to lay the foundation for the fog-harvesting project with Dar Si Hmad. She has been a research fellow at the Ford Foundation, at the American Institute for Maghrebi Studies, and at the Transregional Institute, Princeton University. She is currently working on setting up an environmental education program for underserved school children from the fog collection villages. Website Social Media – @darsihmad