Qatar resident and social entrepreneur Amanat Solanki.
Doha: Amanat Solanki had and is doing it all from a teenage dream of providing affordable education, healthcare, equality, and spreading awareness on important issues.
Now 28, the social entrepreneur who had his primary and higher education in Qatar, Solanki, had seen his youth organization Mission20, established when he was 14 with his friends, grow into a force to reach out to vulnerable people in society. Solanki is also an alumnus of Herriot-Watt University in Scotland.
From raising money to help typhoon victims in the Philippines and donating to Nepal’s earthquake victims, Mission20 has participated in several social projects in partnership with charity organizations in Qatar. The organization was rebranded in 2017 as Mission20 Foundation – a social responsibility arm under the Solanki Mission Group.
Speaking to The Peninsula, Solanki, from a business-oriented background through his father (Abdulbasid Solanki), said his social responsibility vision was inspired by his mentor and a former Qatar-based teacher Shakil Ahmed.
Travelling with reach Out to Asia (ROTA) across the continent also inspired Solanki, lighting a fire in his already growing vision.
“I went into social responsibility and made it part of my life mainly because of one person, Shakeel Sir (Shakeel Ahmed). He was my teacher and is the founder of Kainat Foundation who runs the same school (Kainat International School). He gave us an opportunity to visit his village, and the school was the only concrete building. It was more than a school to the villagers.
“I visited eight years after my first visit and saw many changes, and then I heard people speaking English. That was an eye-opener for me,” Solanki said.
Connecting sports with social responsibility through the Missions Trophy since 2009 is another project that helps drive his vision. Through that, they have managed to build a hall called Mission20 Hall in Bihar State in India (which happens to be what he calls his most significant achievement). The Hall is used as classrooms during the day and into a community centre at night.
“We got the funding for this project through our football competition. We did that in the school days though it took us some time to finish it. It’s a school in the village, and it’s the only private school in the area, and it makes a difference in that part of the world.
“We have the vision to set up a healthcare system for the needy by 2027 in India. We have some properties in India that can be remodeled into a school, but that’s another project,” Solanki told The Peninsula.
Solanki aims to do more philanthropic ventures, but he knows building a business to fund his vision is the best option. According to him, understanding this helped shaped his knowledge of social entrepreneurship.
He began as a business executive in the trading division under his father’s company Solanki Trading & Contracting. A graduate of marketing and business management, but an IT lover at heart, Solanki formed his own IT Company (M20Zero) after graduating college.
His company also developed its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). ERP is a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations.
Solanki’s company also provides free lectures on the latest trends in IT to school kids in Qatar.
“I am very passionate about IT. ERP’s are costly software, and we have managed to develop ours. We help companies develop their software to run their entire operation. We do web designs, mobile applications, and more. We support small companies to help their business grow through Mission20 knowledge.”
He also formed a new business, Berries and More, with a friend, which he said aims to push sustainability awareness and promote healthy living.
“We aim to push eating healthy. This idea was born in the pandemic, and we have two branches so far. Our model is to grow into a franchise in Qatar. All are part of the Mission20 family. We want to make sure we can earn well and provide jobs for people. That’s the service!”
In his fight for equal education rights and women empowerment, Solanki believes parents, especially in impoverished parts of the world, need to be educated as to the importance of educating their kids.
“Sometimes, parents don’t understand the need to educate their kids because they feel the child being in school blocks a stream of income. We need more affordable institutions and relevant authorities to promote the importance of education and let kids show the difference education makes in their lives. Though some parents value education, they need to be in the right environment to thrive. After education, employment is the next big need. It’s not about giving money we need to empower people,” he noted.
With so many milestones to accomplish, the social entrepreneur wants to continue investing and hopes to see his IT Company grow and run independently. But most importantly, his life’s mission is to reach out to vulnerable people and create dialogues to solve society’s immediate problems.
