All Blog Posts (11)

As some of the members are aware either via direct discussions or by consultation of the posts on this network's blog, it was an arduous task to get things started and we are still struggling to put this in the proper form.

After initial promises of funding from various patrons -  which never materialised unfortunately - and difficulties in creating a proper charity license, we are now in the process of setting up a funding system for this venture in order to be able…

Dear all,

When joining this page for the first time and asking for approval of your membership, you get an email from me asking you why you have joined, what are your qualities, your added values and what it is you wish to achieve.

If I receive no response to my email, I sometimes ask again (except when the email id is clearly a bogus email) and after a second absence of response I simply delete the request. This is not an elitist approach but simply to filter out unwanted…

Dear all,

For those of you who are closest to the project and have asked and been kept informed of all its evolutions, this will come as a very heartlifting news.

Yesterday, I met a lady, Lamia, who mentioned that she could put me in touch with one of the Sheikhas in Dubai who would then possibly help me with the project, including resolving the legal issues surrounding it.

As I mentioned to some of you earlier this month, I had to stop the project for legal…

Dear all,

With some delay due to personal issues that have kept me away, I would like to wish you all Ramadan Mubarak.

I am calling on your assistance for a matter stalling currently the sewing project.

If you know of a lady who is a good seamstress, capable of using machines that either have or not embroidery capacities, please get in touch with me soonest.

The lady who had committed to teaching women in Muhaisnah and Sharjah how…

I’m struggling to think of when, in my working life as a financial journalist here in Dubai, I’ve come across a locally-based micro finance initiative. There is a women's weaving project sponsored by the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development which sold its handicrafts at the Abu Dhabi…

The trip to Fujairah today was a little disheartening. We had a few issues on the road, reached later than expected and found out that the local charity located in Dibba, Fujairah rather than the main city of Fujairah, closed its doors at 1.30 pm without exception. We therefore could not meet the lady who was the director and it would not be possible to reschedule to meet her the same day although we were travelling from Dubai for the purpose.

Manal, Amna and myself were…

Thanks to a female banker friend, Meena Bakshi, who gathered a crowd of her friends, very positive-minded and socially-driven women (not to forget Meena's husband Yogesh, a well-wisher of the initiative), the first official presentation on MENA MicroFinance for Women was a success.

Alongside the original model, new ideas on the social project of the "take to business" Microfinance model were shared and further organisation channels were…

Hi all,

I have tried a couple of weeks ago to get some more detailed information on the possibility for MENA Microfinance to set up in the International Humanitarian City but it seems to be a very difficult exercise.

To date I have not received any response.

If any of you has tried successfully to set-up an entity in the IHC including for fundraising, please let me know how you have achieved that.

It is vital for MENA MicroFinance to be able to…

I would like to welcome all members to this forum. This website is intended to build a strong community that shares the common belief of fostering social change in the smoothest way possible.

MENA Microfinance is not a business that intends to make money and pay large wages of employees. It is intended to function as a self-sufficient social project with the help of social change luminaries who contribute their time as volunteers and philanthropists who contribute their funds…

It all started out with the thought that I needed to do more than what I was doing within my bank in helping family businesses. In most of my meetings I would be faced with the screamingly silent issue of women's role in MENA family businesses.

I realised that the issue of women in business was still something that did not receive much support locally although there were some amazing and highly educated women out there. Many arab and non-arab women living in the MENA region…