What do you know about the Middle East?
In the Glavin office, we work closely with students who are eager to expand their global mindset. This group of students are passionate about raising awareness about the possibilities for creating social and economic value in the Middle East. Read about their organization and look out for their activities on campus!
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We are starting a student organization here at Babson called “Al-Tareeq”. This is Arabic for “The Path”. Our mission is to empower Middle Eastern entrepreneurs whose ventures advocate for gender equality and education for children in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
Our reason for targeting these countries is varied; however, we as board members all share close ties to the Middle East that have inspired us to make a difference. We are not a political organization by any means: our passion is to provide younger generations with the same basic necessities we were granted throughout our lives.
The figures regarding quality of life in many of these areas are staggering: There are 2 million people currently living in the Gaza Strip, 38% of whom live below the poverty line and 55% of whom are unemployed. Additionally, according to UNICEF, 123,000 children in Gaza were forced to drop out of school as a result of nearby violent conflict.
In light of these facts, we strongly feel that an environment encouraging sustainable and responsible job creation will be most conducive to initiating change in the everyday social, economic, and academic spheres of these people’s lives.
We have a desire to make a tangible difference by leveraging resources available to us through Babson College and other institutions across the country. The grants we hope to receive will go towards entrepreneurs who are responsible and able to present concrete evidence of the development of their sustainable businesses in the Middle East. Through the guidance of these entrepreneurs, we hope to ensure that all generations of Arabs are empowered to make differences in their own communities by taking advantage of the resources that will enable them to grow socially, academically and professionally.
Our current team is made up of 6 students. The President, Aboudi Al-Qattan, is a Palestinian junior at Babson who has always wanted to improve the situation in the Middle East. With help from Co-Founder and Director of Strategy Fredrick Rading, his passion became a reality as they spent large parts of the summer developing a plan of action. Fredrik is a senior at Babson and attended high school with Aboudi in London. Director of Research, Blaise Cohen also attended the American School of London, and is currently at Boston College with Director of Marketing Waleed Snobar. Our last two members both attend Babson, as Sophomore Tala Malas is our Director of Events and Hamza Bilbeisi is our Director of Communications.
This blog will provide a forum to keep our followers informed about everything we do. Additionally, we will also be holding events to raise awareness at Babson College in order to create a connection between students, faculty, donors, and the entrepreneurs we choose to fund. It is our belief that the process of choosing entrepreneurs must be transparent and straightforward in order to ensure no funding is misdirected.
For more information, visit Al-Tareeq’s website (link) or contact Aboudi Al-Qattan at aalqattan1@babson.edu
We look forward to seeing you all at our events!
Al-Tareeq- The Path