Hassan Ali Al Ansari giving a presentation at the final ceremony of the 4th edition of Retirees Entrepreneurship Program “Khutwa” by Qatar Development Bank and General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority at the Bin Jelmood House, Msheireb Downtown D
Aisha Mohammed Al Hamar retired from her job in Doha five years ago after working for 24 years. She was a planning performance coordinator for a telecom company here. However, it was not long before she found out that lounging at home for the rest of her life was just not meant for her.
On Thursday, Al Hamar was among the three Qataris who have won entrepreneurship grants worth QR100,000 and consultations worth over QR100,000 each from the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) as part of the 4th edition of ‘Khutwa’ retirees entrepreneurship training program in Doha.
The program which was organized in collaboration with the General Retirement & Social Insurance Authority saw 25 retired Qataris aged between 40 and 70 years old, undergo an intensive three-week-long workshop where they learned new knowledge and skills needed to start a business in Qatar’s growing entrepreneurship scene.
During the closing ceremony, as many as 15 trainees presented their business proposals to a panel of judges led by Ibrahim Al Mannai, acting executive director of advisory at QDB, After much thought and deliberation, the judges awarded the three Qatari women as winners of the grants and presented certificates to all the remaining participants.
With new-found enthusiasm for her professional comeback, Al-Hamar said, “I need to return back to work, to life. It’s not nice to sit like that with kids and not doing anything in the morning. I took my rest and now khalas. We need to go back”.
Al Hamar’s business project will provide training for housemaids entering the workforce in Qatar. She’s planning to tie up with maid agencies and families hiring a housemaid here.
“We have families returning their housemaids to the agencies because the nanny doesn’t have any information about our culture and she’s not fully trained on how to care for the children. Both sides lose money and the maid ends up with no job. At the centre, we will train the housemaids before they work with the families. This way, all the parties will benefit,” added Al Hamar, who also conducted a market survey to complement her business idea.
Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Al Mannai said all the retired Qataris have a distinct potential to become successful entrepreneurs. He added, “I think the edge is their experience and their expertise in the fields they’ve been working on. We see school principals who have been in education for more than 25 years. We’ve seen an engineer who has been with the QP for over 20 years. So we have a variety of experience. I think it is time to give back. There’s still more to give. Their experience can be capitalized on supporting others and I think this is the right platform to do so”.
Hassan Ali Al Ansari, a retired electronic engineer who has taught at the Qatar University and has worked at the Doha Port, was also one of the participants at the event. Although he did not win a grant, he said he’s still determined to pursue his air filter project.
He said, “Before, I thought it was difficult to start a business. As an engineer, I only knew about technical engineering skills. I didn’t really know much about financing and marketing, and all these things which are very important for starting a business. Now that I have this knowledge, I can start again”.
Even though it was 10 years ago since Al Ansari retired from his job, he did not stop conceptualising different business ideas. He doesn’t see himself stopping anytime soon. “Maybe the business or the money is not important for others.
But the important thing is to help the people. If you help people, you feel happy. And I’m sure you’ll feel healthy. Because your life, there’s meaning for it,” he added.
Abdulrahman Alyafei, one of the trainers for the programme, also said, “They are all educated Qataris. The challenge was only in changing the mindset because entrepreneurship culture is still generally new in Qatar. They learned a comprehensive view of entrepreneurship models and start-ups. How they can develop a business idea, test it, and take it to the customers and the market; and see whether there’s a need for it. So I think they’re now on the right track and hopefully we will see many of them soon as full-fledged entrepreneurs”.
