When you base your work on how people feel, you work better: When you work on building something that aims to change other people lives or at least make them feel good about themselves and the new environment they are living in, you feel that you owe them something and that you need to work harder to achieve it for them. Small details are important, something smiling to someone make them feel good so imagine building a project that support someone in their daily lives.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hiba Allate.
Hiba Allate is the Co-Founder & Social Media Project Manager at Sisterhood Abroad — an initiative for the social integration of young migrant women. Hiba is also an Account Specialist Rakuten Advertising, a UNESCO x Women@Dior Program Ambassador, and a graduate from emlyon Business School.
Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I’m Hiba Allate, 22 years old graduate from emlyon business school.
I’m living in Paris and working at Rakuten Advertising. Ambassador of the program Women@Dior and UNESCO mentorship program, I will be sharing the story behind this beautiful journey and the creation of our special project Sisterhood abroad.
I grew up in Morocco and I had the absolute chance to grew up in such a beautiful country where there is sun and beautiful weather all along the year. It’s a safe and peaceful country where people arenoted for their warm and friendly nature, I’m more than grateful to be part of it.
You are currently leading an organization that aims to make a social impact. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
One year ago, I joined the Women@Dior Mentorship Program to be part of this prestigious journey enriched by the expertise and know-how of different collaborators and inspirational personalities from around the world. We had the chance to work on a project that aims to assure a sustainable future for all the women around the world. We founded @Sisterhood Abroad a non-profit organization with a focus on migrant women’s and their social integration in France. Our goal is to support those young women within their journey in France and to assure them the best environment to achieve their dreams and to become the women leaders they dream to be. Our organization is motivating and raising awareness about the importance of helping each other and sharing experiences with others which can be so helpful for all the migrant women who needs advice and help to make the best of their experience abroad.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
From a very young age, I was always passionate about being part of associations and raising awareness about the social issues we have in our societies which motivates me to be part of such a prestigious program that aims to help women around the world from different countries and with different backgrounds to become the best of themselves. I have seen a lot of women having difficulties to integrate and to be in a safe and healthy environment where they can easily work on their dreams. Sisterhood is essential to the development of every woman in the world and our goal is to create a support system to help them achieve their goals.
Many young people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
It’s always difficult at first to know how and when to start a new organization. The things that helped me do it are:
• Networking: It’s very important to take time to meet new people, ask for advice, ask for help because this is helpful to have feedback and new ideas from people.
• Brainstorming: It’s important to have in mind the reason why you’re doing it, your goals, people you want to help, how and all the information’s you need to create the association. This is helpful and can support your first steps in building the project.
• Social media: The main element that helped me during this journey. It’s important to have the curiosity and the time to read articles, share knowledge with people. This is helpful specially if you want to start a project, the online presence is the main key and helped me a lot and my association to gain visibility.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The most interesting story that happened to me since I began leading this organization is the first event, we organized with different migrant women who just arrived in France. It was such a beautiful moment we shared with them, they shared the story, experience, background, and their dreams and how they are motivated to achieve them. This was a special experience because it made us feel that those women’s needs our help and one day spent with them made them feel comfortable and welcome in their new country which was a beautiful feeling.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
During this journey with Christian Dior Couture, we had the chance to be supported by Hasnaa Guessous and Lakziz meryem who helped us prepare ourselves for the pitch of the Global conference and not jut that, they gave us a lot of advice and made us feel comfortable with our project and motivated us during all the journey to succeed and to make the best of this project.
Also, thanks to Women@Dior Mentorship Program, we had access to different conferences and interview led by the maison Christian dior and I can say that the twos person who inspired the most was Emmanuelle Favre, SVP Human resources who first initiated the program, her speech and the way she expressed the idea behind such an amazing program was a great influence for me and Maria Grazia Chiru Artistic director of the Maison Christian Dior and her support to all the projects aiming to educate women.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
The individual that helped me with my cause would be the co-founder, Amah Ambatsago. We didn’t know each at the beginning of the program and by chance we worked together on creating the project, we share the same values and same motivation to build the sustainable future all the womens need to achieve their dreams. She’s a supportive co-founder and I can’t ask for a better team mate to build such a beautiful project with.
There is also a lot of persons who supported us by our cause such as Maria Grazia Chiuri which is the artistic director of la maison dior supported our project and chose us as the finalist so that we can concretize and develop better our project by supporting the migrant women in France and learning them le savoir faire of la maison Christian Dior Couture and Hasnaa Guessous who is our coach and main contact during the development and the preparation of our pitch.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Give the chance to the migrant women to have a voice in the society and give them special training to be able to discover the history and the background of their new country.
Schools to build special support such as psychological and administrative to be more aware of their needs and to be able to share with us associations the information’s.
We all have our role in this cause, all of us need to have the idea to support in every way possible the migrant womens and to make them feel safe in their new environment.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
If you don’t do it now, you would never know: During the global conference with the UNESCO, the thing I learned the most from the inspiring guest and the jury is that it’s important specially for us the young generation to have the courage to take risks and to create new things in the society. Failure is part of the process, and better to fail and to retry than nothing at all. At the beginning, I never thought that I would be the co-founder of an association and that I would be one of the finalists but with hard work and motivation, we succeeded to build and to develop this project.
The things you expect the less are the things that change your vision of life: During our first association event, we had the chance to meet with migrant women’s coming from different countries and each on of them had her own story. This taught me that there is a lot going on in this world and we need to take the time to meet people, listen to them and give them the best of what we can of advice, help and support. You can never know what’s going on in others lives, so be king and always support each other.
When you base your work on how people feel, you work better: When you work on building something that aims to change other people lives or at least make them feel good about themselves and the new environment they are living in, you feel that you owe them something and that you need to work harder to achieve it for them. Small details are important, something smiling to someone make them feel good so imagine building a project that support someone in their daily lives.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Our generation is the key generation not only because we are young but because we are the last generation that can make the change the future needs. We don’t have enough time and we can’t lose more time thinking about building projects in the future, we need to make this true as people are needing help more and more and the best is to start with small steps better than nothing. It becomes more and more difficult with the pandemic situation and all what’s going on in the world right now, so each one of us need to take the time to think how we can help building the future the next generation needs.
How can we follow you online?
• Linkedin : Hiba Allate –
• Instagram association account: Sisterhood.abroad
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Hiba Allate of Sisterhood Abroad Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.