ABU DHABI // As the chief programmes officer for the Emirates Foundation, Maytha Al Habsi plays a direct role in empowering and guiding thousands of young Emiratis towards their potential.
After growing up abroad, the Emirati returned to her home country, fluent in German, English and Arabic, holding a degree from the American University in Washington and eager to help a generation forward.
She helped launch the Emirates Foundation in 2005, when the philanthropic organisation had just three employees to carry out the ambitious vision laid out by the Government of Abu Dhabi.
“We were asked whether we are interested in starting a project that would affect the society of the UAE and concentrate on really innovating the services in the social sector,” said Ms Al Habsi. “So, I jumped in right away. It was a great challenge that I wanted to really explore.”
In its early days, the Emirates Foundation was mainly concerned with giving out grants to help qualified applicants develop scientific research, launch projects or associations. While this was a good start for fostering social entrepreneurship and philanthropy, the foundation aimed for a higher return on its investment.
“Three or four years ago we decided that it would be much more effective if we concentrate on a specific type of audience, number one, and that we focus on a certain number of projects that we can monitor, assess, start our own key performance indicators and can report on their impacts on an yearly basis and in the long term,” said Ms Al Habsi.
So, instead of individuals, the organisation began creating initiatives that affected a large number of young Emiratis.
Ms Al Habsi now runs all of those flagship projects – the Takatof volunteer, Sanid emergency response, Kafa’at career development, Think Science, the Esref Sah financial literacy and the Kayani teacher assistants programmes.
She is also a busy mother of two-year-old twin girls.
Ms Al Habsi, 35, said her career would not be possible without the support of her husband and parents.
“My husband continues to be as supportive as my family and I think it was very important for me to find the person that I can continue my life with,” said Ms Al Habsi. “So I was lucky.”
Last year, more than 40,000 youths and young adults between the ages of 15 and 35 took part in one of the foundation’s programmes.
Ms Al Habsi expects more Emiratis to participate this year. “It’s really something that I am very passionate in seeing, more champions and more Emiratis being involved, engaged and understanding their own people and providing solutions to their own country’s challenges,” said Ms Al Habsi.
She encourages young Emiratis to start businesses that will solve social issues they are passionate about.
“Be efficient, be transparent, be specific, be professional, report on your impacts – not events, not PR, not how many press releases you’ve issued, but really how many people you’ve affected, how many lives you’ve changed,” said Ms Al Habsi.
“I am still as passionate about my job as much as I was on day one because I think there is such a huge potential in this area to create a lot of change, elevate the level of services and attract and create social champions.
“That’s my passion and I’ll stay here as long as I can to see this happen.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
