Tunisian community members enjoying one of their cultural activities at Souq Waqif.
A large Tunisian community is living in Qatar that has grown in recent years to reach more than 26,000 with its members work in different sectors.
The Tunisian community has an elected Council - the Council of Tunisian Community in Qatar - which is composed of 11 people elected three-year tenure. The Council is responsible for the affairs of the community and organises all events either social, cultural get-togethers are sports competitions or of any other nature.
“The Council operates under the supervision of the Tunisian Embassy, and its members are elected every three years. Its task is to facilitate the community problems, providing community members support as much it can, and organise the community events,” Ibrahim Hachicha, Head of the Council of Tunisian Community in Qatar told The Peninsula.
The community with its keenness organises a number of cultural activities throughout the year, in some of such activities artistes from Tunisia are specially invited to perform.
“We hold plays at Souq Waqif Theater and we always invite the Tunisian artists to make the events memorable with their masterly performances. A large number of the Tunisian community members as well as other expatriates attend these plays along with their children. Recently, we held a play at Souq Waqif which was attended by over 1000 people from the community,” the head of Tunisian community added.
School activities for students at Tunisian School.
He pointed out that the aim of organising these sports and cultural activities is to keep the community connected with their culture, heritage, and also to bring joy to their hearts. “Every year we conduct at least two cultural activities, either a play or celebration for the National Day, which is always celebrated at the Tunisia School,” he said.
Also there are weekly cultural and sport activities at the Tunisian School as that premises has become a gathering place for all Tunisians.
“The school for us is everything where we meet every day. It houses more than 3000 students. In the school many cultural activities are offered each week, as well as many sports activities,” head of the community pointed out.
According to information shared on Tunisia School’s website, the school has many clubs such as the theater club, the chess club, the French theater club as well as the sports clubs.
“The Community Council provides assistance to the community when a problem occurs, and on occasions such as Ramadan and others, and to bring joy to everyone. It distributes 250 breakfasts among the needy community members,” Hachicha said.
Hundreds of Tunisians in Doha attend cultural activities organized by the Council of Tunisian Community in Qatar at Souq Waqif Theater a few months ago.
Regarding the community population which increased during last few years, he said, “The population of community has increased rapidly in recent years, it was only about 6000 in 2010, but now the number reaches more than 26000.”
Tunisians work in all sectors including health, education, military, engineering, marketing, banking etc.
Last year, Tunisian community participated in the Qatar National Day celebrations at Darb Al Saai through a new activity ‘Friendship Parade’ where more than 2,500 people representing 55 communities participated in the celebration to express unity, love and gratitude to the beloved host country.
In an earlier interview with The Peninsula, Tunisian ambassador Slah Salhi about Qatar and Tunisia relations, he said that the bilateral relations have grown stronger over the past years. “The volume of trade between Qatar and Tunisia has risen by more than 200 percent in the first half of 2018 compared to the second half of previous year.”
He also added that Qatar has the second largest foreign direct investment in Tunisia, accounting 16 percent of the country’s available investments.
Ibrahim Hachicha, Head of the Council of Tunisian Community in Qatar.
Speaking to some Tunisian community individuals here about their opinion of the activities they are organizing, Faisal said that Qatar was the second home for all Tunisians. “The Tunisian community in Doha is growing in numbers and this is important for us to organize our own events which represent our culture and heritage. We always try to keep in touch and communicate with one another which may be missing in some other expatriate communities. It shows that we are an organised community.”
He also said that the Tunisian Community Council used to organise events for the community, and sometimes might organize English language training courses for new job seekers.
Another Tunisian expatriate said: “We are involved in a lot of social, cultural activities which brings us joy and beats homesickness. Most important effect of these celebrating or organising such events is that it gives us a chance to develop new friendships within community.
Such events are also a platform to discuss news stories emanating from our homeland - Tunisia. For example, recently there was a call to help Tunisian people who were affected by the rain which was widely responded by the members of the community.”
