Shamma Biny Sied
First BatchI am trilingual Law student from Sorbonne University. I'm a humanitarian and environmentalist that is very passionate about making a difference within the community by empowering the youth to become better citizens of the world. I'm passionate about sustainable development, social justice and making the world a better place.
Article Tittle:1% better
In order to support domestic workers, we launched a “1% better” initiative to promote tolerance and gratitude.
As an individual born and raised in Abu Dhabi and growing up as a student of its education system, I believe to have had many privileges. One of those privileges was receiving an invitation for a three-day Champions of Tolerance workshop hosted by the Ministry of Tolerance. This turned out to be an extraordinary experience as it got me to reflect on a lot of my experiences and made me think about my purpose in life. By day three I felt the need to spread the message of tolerance, acceptance and love that I learnt from the program. This led me to becoming a mentee at a non-profit organization called the Daughters of the Emirates E7 that empowers young women of the UAE to build social initiatives and that is how my project 1% Better was born.
1% Better is a social initiative that aims to create awareness among the youth and change their perceptions by teaching them the importance of showing gratitude, specifically towards domestic workers or, who we prefer to call, ‘Home Heroes.’ A name coined to fit the valuable role these invisible heroes play in our life by supporting us with their time and effort every single day.
Our program engages students in schools through a formal collaboration where we conduct Interactive and exciting workshops that allows children to understand the importance of gratitude and rethink the relationships with their respective Home Hero. This makes the children actively acknowledge and give their Home Heroes the tolerant and compassionate treatment they deserve through regular acts of kindness, appreciation and gratitude. Catering to the youth is important to us. With 30 students already engaged, we hope to partner with many more schools within the country and meet hundreds of more children. We hope that these workshops instill meaningful values from a young age, which they can hold on to throughout their life and hopefully pass onto their younger generation.
Now that schools are once again opening up, we look forward to getting back on track. Our future plans also include creating a support network for Home Heroes and launching a simultaneous social media awareness campaign where children talk about their understanding of tolerance and gratitude towards our Home Heroes while educating us on how to acknowledging and respect them.
The team behind 1% better is led by Maryam Tahir Abdulrashid, Salma Abdussalam, NoufAljaafari, Sachi Kumar, Safiya Ahmad Tahlak, and my self. We are a group of six passionate and empathetic women who represent the UAE society today. Even though we come from different walks of life, we all share one objective: giving back to ‘Home Heroes’ that made all our lives better while growing up.
