Zakeia Al Yafei (right), and Lubna Marwan posing with their awards after winning the Al Fikra Mashroie Award for university students category, in Doha recently.
Saleem, a startup run by Qatari female students from the Qatar University, will soon launch a unique water system product which was designed to help older adults to stay hydrated.
The team which was founded by Shaikha Al Subaey, Lubna Marwan, and Zakeia Al Yafei, had recently won the Al-Fikra Mashroie Award, a national business competition organised by the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) targeting university students. All three young Qatari women are graduating students taking up their bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration.
Talking to The Peninsula, Al Subaey said the Saleem water system will help elderly people to drink more water through a systematic approach to hydration. She added: “We already started doing the prototype of the product, and we will be experimenting it with actual elderly people to see how it works and how sustainable it is. We’re aiming to launch the product by the beginning of 2020”.
Al Yafei said the whole product kit consists of an app and a set of five water bottles. It will also have an alarm system to remind an elderly person to drink little sips of water throughout the day. It is initially priced at QR650 per kit.
Al Subaey added: “It will help elderly people to have sufficient water intake of at least 1.5 litres of water each day, while taking their supplements at the right time. This will also encourage them to be more independent”.
According to studies, dehydration is a common cause of hospitalisation among elderly people. It is also the most common fluid and electrolyte problem among the elderly.
Al Subaey added: “Actually, hydration is a more serious concern among the elderly, because as we grow older in age, we tend to lose our cognitive sense which leads to the loss of the sense of thirst. Because of that, many older adults don’t drink enough liquids. We think water is really important for people in general. But when we started to see the importance of water for each age class, we found that the elderly people is the category which most needs to be reminded about drinking water”.
She added that the product will cater to the growing elderly population in Qatar, and seeks to expand in the future. “In the meantime we’re planning to launch the business in Qatar first, but in 2022 we’re planning to take the ISO9000 certificate which will enable us to expand and go globally,” Al Subaey added.
