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A Hope Specialist |
How Rana Al-Omani Rejected the Daytime Job and Seized the Present
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Who doesn't remember when most Kuwaiti parents wanted their children to become either doctors or engineers? Even with today's growing private sector, it seems that the traditional approach to offspring careers is to prefer a safe, risk-free solution. Go to school. Get a degree. Then get a steady-paying job, preferably by the government. The apogee of this development: marriage. Why? To resume the process with your children and children's children and children’s children’s children. Rana Al-Omani grew up in this environment, where people viewed life unilaterally—where people spent the first half of the day in school, learning about subjects that did not interest them, and the second half...
with friends and family, doing the same things they had done the previous week. When asked about her favorite books, movies, or school subjects, Rana smiles cheekily. She admits that she wasn't the studious type and nothing particularly phenomenal or personal triggers her memory. Like most Kuwaitis, Rana simply lived the prevalent lifestyle of the time. However, her frequent trips to Europe and the United States exposed her to alternative options. She saw men and women, from various nationalities and backgrounds, taking risks, and living outside the norm. Gradually, Rana's redefinition of "Life" began.
In her final year of high school, Rana was introduced to the Kuwaiti Women's Cultural & Social Society (WCSS). The WCSS was the first women’s society to be established in Kuwait in 1963, with the goal of empowering women in both the public and private spheres, increasing awareness of their rights and duties to encourage their participation in society. Rana was approached by the WCSS to help organize an annual carnival for Madrisat Khalifa, a school for students with special needs. This carnival was open to the public in the hopes of attracting more awareness towards its mission statement. The WCSS wanted to cultivate tolerance and acceptance of the students; it was through the experience of having fun, and actively participating in the creation of joy, that they achieved their goal. They prepared games, set up traditional, Arabian tents to serve tea and coffee, and held an annual lottery. They gave all the proceeds to the school. Rana was beginning to notice joy's ability to heal. She continued to work with the WCSS, organizing two to three carnivals a year, always with the intention of contributing to various charities across Kuwait.
When she graduated from high school, Rana enrolled in Kuwait University's College of Engineering. Not the bookish type, Rana dedicated most of her energy to electoral campaigns rather than to her education. She affiliated herself with Handasiya, an electoral unit that prioritized secularism in government, tolerance of faith, and equality among genders. While campaigning for this unit, Rana continued to engage in projects of the WCSS. Rana bemoaned the quantity of volunteers who said, "Although the participation for the Women's Cultural & Social Society is voluntary, I don't consider it volunteering. I see it as a job. I don't participate when I'm free. I make time to assist them whenever I can because it is my obligation to do so." Rana confronted the same problem most activists experience in this country, namely, the lack of enthusiasm to do volunteer work. Though her classmates were actively forging campaigns that advocated democracy and tolerance, even to the detriment of their own grades, they failed to take on a hands-on role in bettering society by participating in social initiatives. When Rana reached the position of Vice President of Handasiya, she attempted to generate greater enthusiasm for volunteering among the students by breaking their routines and coordinating joyful diversions.
Although she created joy in various ventures, Rana felt that her life in Kuwait restricted her ability to improve herself. She decided to take a risk and travel to the United States to continue her college degree in engineering. The trip served as a process of self-discovery. In the States, Rana opted to broaden her horizons; she experimented with all her optional courses, and enrolled in extracurricular activities that ranged from diving and the arts to languages. Rana oscillated from one option to another until she evaluated her progress towards the end of her sojourn. She discovered that among all the classes she had taken over the years, two stood out the most: cooking and exercising. Rana seized the moment to prolong her stay another year and attain professional certifications in both.
Rana eventually returned to Kuwait with a degree in engineering, wondering how she might avoid using it. Her parents urged her to apply in the government sector, but Rana only applied to one private company—omitting her contact number from her documents. Confident that a regular office-job would not suddenly creep up on her, Rana approached her parents and suggested she take a part-time job while she waited for the callback. That was when she began to pursue cooking and exercising professionally, eventually starting up her own restaurant, Buongiorno Sandwich Bar & Café in Sharq, as well as her own fitness studio on the premises of the Women’s Cultural and Social Society.
Since her return to the country, Rana had also resumed her volunteering work at the WCSS. At the time, so little was publicized about breast cancer. Women in Kuwait didn’t know its causes or the ways to avoid it. In October 2004, Rana helped organize a Breast Cancer awareness campaign across the country, distributing pamphlets and holding workshops and seminars with the WCSS. They repeated the endeavor again the following year, making October officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month. After a few years, the WCSS joined forces with another Kuwaiti organization which had begun specializing in breast cancer awareness as well: Breast Care Kuwait, a team of women professionally and clinically involved with breast cancer patients. Today, their pink ribbon, symbolizing breast cancer awareness, is both a familiar and ubiquitous icon. These valiant women successfully changed the culture in terms of this disease and helped educate and prevent it in scores of women.
As part of the Health Committee of the Women's Cultural & Social Society, Rana also became involved in another heartbreaking project. Nadi Al-Amal, a club established by the WCSS to provide care for male, female and particularly children cancer patients. The club has an appointed psychological specialist that cares for the pa¬tients, and organizes and follows-up on their doctor appointments. It also covers therapy costs for needy patients and for those who are not covered by health insurance programs. Moreover, members of the WCSS designed an entertainment center, full of books, movies, games, and comfortable seating arrangements, and they visit this center regularly, getting to know the patients on a deeper level, instilling them with hope and strength.
Rana also spends a lot of her time volunteering in the WCSS’ Nadi Al Asdiqaa (Friends Club). This club was inaugurated in 1999 to improve the daily living conditions of the female residents of the Psychiatric Hospital, and particularly of the chronic patients in permanent care. The club provides these women with various forms of entertainment, such as reading material, movies, sports activities and parties in the Club’s garden. Moreover, they work on building up their skills by providing training in sewing, craft-making and cooking. Rana says, “I help out at the psychiatric ward whenever I am needed, whenever the women at the society require assistance. My colleagues there always need assistance, but it’s not for the weak-hearted. Dealing with sick women and children is heartbreaking. You have to remember that your job is to make their lives easier so you need to be strong to make them strong.”
In 2005, Rana was nominated to represent Kuwait at the “Arab Youths Workshop” organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to discuss issues faced by young people in the MENA region. Rana spoke about breast cancer, because it was prevalent at the time, but she also exposed all the other problems that Kuwaiti traditionalists had hoped to conceal. For instance, Rana spoke about the importance of sexual awareness. To be clear, she did not advocate promiscuity; rather, she explained that women’s rights were under excessive abuse and that the social norm of prohibiting discussion robbed them of their right to talk about any of their experiences, including any assaults. Rana also discussed education, unemployment, and freedom of speech, always asking for more tolerance, more inclusion, and a more lenient government, one which would prioritize love, joy, and hope, instead of subjugation and prejudice.
Rana has grown and matured over the years, leaving the little girl who was oblivious to the suffering of others behind. She spent years revising her views on “life” without the heaviness of existentialism. In fact, anyone who encountered Rana would be swept away with a vernal energy full of vigor and gaiety. She exudes a life-force that prefers action to scholasticism; she chooses mirth over sadness. Rana continues to work with the WCSS. Apart from her socially active work in the Health Committee, she organizes carnivals and events during Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days, ever expanding her campaigns for hope and happiness and national unity. When asked who played the biggest role in her life, Rana replies, “Lulu Al-Qatami. She founded the Women's Cultural & Social Society in 1963, and though she is so educated, and so accomplished, she is the most humble and modest person I have come across. She was the first Kuwaiti woman to study abroad and she freed us from the abaya, but at the same time, she embraces conservative values. She inspires me to improve myself every day.”
Rana, an engineer by qualification, but a chef, businesswoman, and fitness instructor by trade, currently works on her restaurant and health club, as well as at the WCSS. She travels to international conferences on improvements in healthcare and fitness twice a year. For Rana, life is not a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, which is why she stresses the importance of maintaining one’s health. Her two hobbies—cooking and exercising—contribute to her views on life, allowing Rana Al-Omani to redefine her goals and inspirations. Life is not about prestige or safety-nets; at the same time, it is not a self-absorbed pursuit of joy. Life, for Rana, entails risk-taking, experimentation, and going against the grain, but most importantly, it demands a deeper awareness of the suffering of others. She relieves suffering, one healthy smile at a time.
Website: www.ranafit.com
Twitter: @RanaFitness
Facebook: Rana’s Fitness Studio, & Buongiorno Sandwich Bar & Café
By Nada Faris
Voice for Success is a program initiated by en.v in collaboration with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) to promote Kuwaiti civil society by giving greater visibility to local social activists. Learn more about Voice for Success on www.voiceforsuccess.com.
To participate in our program, email us at info@envearth.com or visit www.voiceforsuccess.com
This project is funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI is a unique program designed to engage directly with and invest in the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). MEPI works to create vibrant partnerships with citizens to foster the development of pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies throughout the MENA region. MEPI partners with local, regional and international non-governmental organizations, the private sector, academic institutions, and governments. More information about MEPI can be found at: www.mepi.state.gov.
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