Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Alattar.
Sara, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My friend, Javerea Ahmed and I, wanted to come up with a creative and sustainable way to empower people who are self-sustaining, refugees, and immigrants. Rather than starting a project that just directly donated money and items, we wanted to invest time into people and provide an opportunity for them to develop their skills and create their own source of livelihood. Going by the piece of wisdom, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” we came up with Project Amal (although the name was cleverly Javerea’s idea!) which is a non-profit hijab (headscarf) company where products are made by self-sustaining people starting new lives who are employed and get to work at their own pace, while profits are donated to community development initiatives. It’s a project that, through the whole cycle of production to consumption, makes an impact. As of May, we’re putting finishing touches on the website and are coordinating with the women who will be making our scarves, and hope to be officially launched soon at projectamal.co!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We’ve been working hard on planning this for a few months now… and got to kick it off with a Kickstarter page that raised our fundraising goal within 3 days! However, school has gotten in the way more than once, delaying our planning. Something else we struggled with is the fact that we don’t have design or textile experience. I always love to fake it till I make it, so although sometimes we don’t have previous experience with something, that doesn’t necessarily stop us from going at it. There’s a first time for everything, and with the mentorship and advice from others with good experiences, we’re in for a good ride. If we don’t try, that’s our guarantee to fail.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The most important factor is that our production and our profit both are invested in the cause. We won’t be making any personal gains out of this — besides the humbling experience that comes with serving others.
Our story as is on our website: “The people are for the people, from the Beduin to the contemporary, each is for each other, and even if they don’t realize it, they serve each other.”
Project Amal is a non-profit empowerment initiative founded in 2018 that began as a simple dream to give. We dreamt of giving back in a way that brings together communities and their resources in order to empower other communities. We wanted to get the world and the skills and talents its people have to offer to begin something new.
We founded Project Amal, a company designed to empower communities through every aspect of its business model. Project Amal helps bring the talents and resources of self-sustaining peoples, refugees, and other disadvantaged people through giving the opportunity of self-sustenance. While hand-out donations are beneficial, the opportunity to work for one’s livelihood is everlasting.
While we empower people on the production end, the profit made from our sales are all donated to other initiatives that aid displaced peoples in other ways — helping them start their own businesses, learn ESL, learn to drive, and more. This is a project that begins and ends with empowerment in mind, every step of the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: Soon to be launched: projectamal.org (hopefully when you’re reading this now, the link is up!)
- Instagram: Founders: @damuskus_ and @_javerea; Project Amal: @prj.amal
- Twitter: @project_amal, Sara’s info: @damuskus_
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
