DardaChat Arabia first event held today in Dubai

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, DardaChat Arabia organised today its first event at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai (Mens College). The forum was attended by a number of inspiring personalities from the Arab world.

DardaChat Arabia forum hosted a group of talented young Arabs from several areas, including Sarah Al Amiri and Ibrahim Al Qasim from the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Muath Abdullah Al Khalaf and Abdulaziz Al Jouf from Saudi Arabia, and Mouna El Haimoud, Founder of Toys with Wings initiative.

Through four sessions, the speakers highlighted their success stories and inspiring experiences in front of about 700 people from federal and local government entities in the UAE and students of a number of universities and various segments of society. The speakers described the challenges they faced in their professional and personal lives and their determination to achieve their goals to contribute to the development of their communities.

The life I was seeking
Speaking in the first session titled The life I was seeking, the media personality Mouna El Haimoud spoke about her success in bringing a smile on the faces of thousands of children in the Arab world through her Toys with Wings initiative. The initiative was launched in Dubai in 2015 to collect toys to cheer up children in refugee camps, orphanages, children's villages and childrens hospitals in the Arab world.

She said the initiative has been successful in giving away more than 20,000 toys to children in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kenya and Djibouti. During the holy month of Ramadan, "Toys with Wings" collected AED 100,000 to distribute 4,000 dresses to refugees in Jordan and orphans in the UAE on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr.

How to stand tall again
In the second session, Dr. Muath Abdullah Al Khalaf described how he obtained the highest Doctoral Dissertation Degree in software engineering in 2015 despite severe health issues that affected his work and research.

He described the challenges he faced following a severe pain in the neck muscles in 2012, after which he was no longer able to sit or stand for long periods. Following this incident, Al Khalaf could not continue his research or work in the university. He said he was undeterred, and went on to install a specially designed table to enable him to work while lying on the back, and underwent nature therapy for nine months until the completion of his doctoral thesis in 2014.

I lost a million and gained millions
In the third session, Abdulaziz Al Jouf, Founder & CEO of PayTabs, shared the lessons he learned from his failures, and narrated how he was successful in establishing five companies and changing the course of e-commerce in the Gulf with his fully integrated solution.

Abdulaziz highlighted the success of PayTabs which today has 6,000 customers around the world, and more than 120 employees working in 143 countries.

He said: One of the biggest companies offered $50 million to buy my company, but I was determined in my ambition to make my company worth AED 1 billion. He added: Today I am close to realising my dream as PayTabs has been valued at AED 500 million last year.

Mind and Ideas like Satellites

The fourth session hosted Sarah Al Amiri and Ibrahim Al Qasim who highlighted the UAEs experience in the field of space exploration, and the important role of young Emiratis to make the UAE one of the advanced countries in the field of space science in the coming years.

Ibrahim Al Qasim, Project manager of Nayif-1, the UAEs first Student-built CubeSat Mission, narrated how the project initially faced a lot of problems and challenges but three years after the project started, it signed an agreement with the American University of Sharjah, and another agreement with another partner to supply the services logistically for project. In September 2015 the project was completed and tested in the laboratories at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Al Qasim said.

Sarah Al Amiri, Deputy Project manager and Science Lead at UAE Mars Mission, said, My success story began when I started to work in DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2 as a software engineer. The management later assigned me on the task to establish a business strategy research and contribute towards creating new programs aligned to the leadership strategy to develop science and advanced technology in the UAE.

Blue Chair
After the sessions, the speakers headed to the Blue Chair to interact with the audience and answer their questions and chat with them. This offered an opportunity for the audience to meet influential and inspiring personalities face-to-face and listen to their success stories while seated in the Blue Chair.

Online Auditions
The Organising Committee of DardaChat Arabia has announced that submissions for online auditions for the initiative remain open through the official website (www.dardachatarabia.ae) to give young Arab people and promising talent from over the world an opportunity to inspire their generation and participate in the process of building a positive impact in the local and global communities.

DardaChat Arabia initiative aims to provide a unique platform to attract the most inspirational figures in the Arab world, and offers an opportunity for new talents to present their ideas and achievements. The forum will support creative ideas that contribute to advancing the process of development, and dissemination of positive thinking in the community at the local and Arab level.

The initiative will focus on a range of key themes, including creative ideas, technological development, entrepreneurship, humanitarian responsibilities, knowledge excellence, inspiring personalities and others themes.