Winner Name:
HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah, a Kuwaiti philanthropist, entrepreneur, author, film producer, and columnist.
Winner Title:
Founder and Chairwoman of Intisar Foundation
Winning Organization:
Intisar Foundation is a UK-registered humanitarian organisation and the first charitable organisation to provide psychological support programmes of drama therapy to Arab women affected by the brutality of war and violence.
Winning Category:
GOLD STEVIE® WINNER – Innovative Growth Achievement Award
GOLD STEVIE® WINNER – Innovative Management in a Non-Profit Organization
Brief Biography about the Winner:
HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, author, film producer, and columnist, and a princess of the AlSabah family, the ruling family of Kuwait.
In line with her vision – to bring Peace to the Arab world – HH Sheikha Intisar has used her philanthropic, entrepreneurial, and creative talent to build businesses, start non-profit and philanthropic organisations, and initiate projects and campaigns that provide solutions for causes and promote change in the Arab world and beyond.
As the founder of social entreprises (Intisars and Ebbarra), non-profits (Alnowair and Bareec), and charitable organisation (Intisar Foundation), HH Sheikha Intisar today serves as an inspirational example of proactive local leaders who address complex social issues by developing innovative grassroots initiatives.
In a nutshell, HH Sheikha Intisar’s Alnowair, Bareec, and Intisar Foundation adjust the Western concepts of positive psychology and drama therapy to the needs and nuances of Arab culture, deliver their programmes in Arabic and by people close to the Arab communities whom they are intended to serve.
All HH Sheikha Intisar’s work is aligned with and contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In line with that, Intisar Foundation has been hailed for developing and introducing an innovative approach to Peacebuilding in the Arab world based on enabling the psychological recovery and self-empowerment of women traumatised by war and violence through the use of drama therapy.
The foundation’s One Million Arab Women For Peace initiative stems from HH Sheikha Intisar’s belief that ending a cycle of violence in war/violence-affected families by enabling women to achieve the state of self-empowerment will have a ripple effect of creating Peace in their communities, cities, regions, enabling it to reach all of humankind.
Furthermore, in celebration of the UN International Day of Education in January 2020, HH Sheikha Intisar was invited by the President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, to present an overview of the impact of Alnowair’s Boomerang and Bareec programmes in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. In this manner, Alnowair and Bareec became the first and only two NGOs from Kuwait to have presented their work to the United Nations.
HH Sheikha Intisar’s insistence that media and art are particularly effective in influencing behaviour and attitudes has resulted in her producing four award-winning films that promote Kuwaiti talent and Heritage. She has also published high-quality art publications that honour and celebrate Kuwait (“The Alchemy of Wisdom” and “Kuwait In 400 Years”) and the triumphs of Arab and all the women of the world (“Women in War” and “Circle of Love”).
Furthermore, Intisar Foundation’s short documentary about the positive impact of providing psychological support to Arab women affected by war and violence – “I Will Be Fine” – has been selected by three prestigious international film festivals in 2021: Lebanese Short Film Competition in the category of the Beirut International Women Film Festival (BWFF), Around International Film Festival (ARFF) x SDGS Online Festival in the International Awards In The Best Short Film Category, and the Feature-Length Films in the Narrative, Documentary, Animation Category at the ARTS x SDGS Online Festival.
HH Sheikha Intisar serves across several boards, advises committees on a local, regional, and multinational level, and undoubtedly brings an unprecedented wealth of knowledge, experience, and expertise also to the many notable international conferences at which she is regularly invited to speak. These include events by the UN General Assembly, the UN Office in Kuwait, the UNHCR in Kuwait, UNICEF, World Humanitarian Forum, The Call To Unite, Milken Institute, and other global and regional organisations.
Stevie Award-winning Case Study:
HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah is committed to philanthropic excellence when advancing psychological resilience of Arab women traumatised by war and violence.
Intisar Foundation’s mission – psychologically healing Arab women suffering from war and violent trauma through the use of drama therapy – is directly linked to HH Sheikha Intisar’s vision of fostering Peace in the Arab world. HH Sheikha Intisar is convinced that empowering Arab women traumatised by war and violence can transform them into the Arab world’s most impactful Peacemakers.
Developing an innovative, bottom-up approach to Peacebuilding in the Arab world
In 2017, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), HH Sheikha Intisar organised a roundtable and art exhibition entitled “Women in War”, to highlight the challenges faced by women in war-torn areas. The roundtable inspired 24 artists to collaborate on a book “Women in War”, but it was also then that HH Sheikha Intisar learned, to her dismay, that no mental health support was being offered to Arab women affected by war and violence.
Officially registered as a humanitarian organisation with the Charity Commission for England and Wales on March 8, 2019, marking International Women’s Day, Intisar Foundation is a private initiative born from HH Sheikha Intisar’s determination to find and implement the most effective psychological approach for alleviating trauma in these Arab women.
Namely, HH Sheikha Intisar’s choice of drama therapy as the culturally competent psychological intervention to be used by Intisar Foundation demonstrates her thoughtful, data-driven, and results-oriented approach to change because drama therapy … :
(1) is the only psychological intervention that addresses body, emotions, and the mind (neuroscience- based approach),
(2) permits the flexible utilisation of various activities (from dance to storytelling), allowing women to overcome their individual traumas at their own pace,
(3) is delivered by Arab drama therapists, in Arabic, and within the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, allowing these women to overcome any personal fears from ‘the unknown’ and to circumvent mental health social stigma (because they are attending ‘creative group sessions’ and not ‘going to a psychiatrist’),
(4) is done in a group setting (20 women) over 12-16 weekly sessions, plus monthly sessions for a prolonged year, which creates a support group and instills a sense of belonging to one another. In addition, it is inclusive of all nationalities, including both refugee women and women from the host community, which makes it one of the few settings where Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese women work together in a cultural setting.
All of the above are the reasons why the Foundation’s drama therapy support programmes have proved to be very effective among its beneficiaries.
The findings of the Foundation’s survey carried out after its drama therapy programme in the Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon, have revealed that 68.75% of participants experienced reduction in PTSD, 93.75% in depression, 75% in anxiety, while 78% experienced increased self-esteem, 43.75% increased satisfaction in life, and 75% stated experiencing increasing positive emotional experiences and decreasing negative emotional experiences.
Even more importantly, Intisar Foundation’s work has proved capable of changing deeply entrenched cultural narratives, such as Arab women ending the practice of child marriages due to a newly adopted belief that they can protect their daughters by encouraging them to gain education that will lead to their future economic empowerment and advancement.
The Intisar Foundation team also reports the cases of female victims of domestic violence standing up to their abusers. Or the cases of female victims of domestic violence whose unresolved and unhealed trauma resulted in them becoming prone to physical violence towards their children now displaying composure and mental and emotional control. Or its beneficiaries regaining their economic liberty by finding employment or starting up businesses.
All this work is done under the umbrella of the Foundation’s One Million Arab Women For Peace initiative, HH Sheikha Intisar’s 30-year plan to alleviate psychological trauma in one million Arab women affected by war and violence through the use of drama therapy.
To support these goals, HH Sheikha Intisar published “Circle of Love” book, illustrated by Max Vadukul, a world-renowned British photographer noted for his portrait photography. The book features deeply personal stories of resilience of 87 magnanimous women from around the world, encouraging them to be heard and seen through vocal and visual expressions of their own merited stories. All proceeds of the book purchase go to Intisar Foundation. Intisars and Ebbarra Jewellery also support HH Sheikha Intisar’s philanthropic goals by donating as much as half of the proceeds from their sales to the Intisar Foundation.
Long-term vision
In order to ensure this long-lasting change in Arab societies, HH Sheikha Intisar and Intisar Foundation’s work also includes:
- R&D Department
Intisar Foundation’s team of drama therapists and researchers works on research projects that explore the qualitative and quantitative impact of drama therapy on vulnerable populations.
The foundation recently published its first research paper “The Power of Theater Expression and Communication: A Psychological Theraputical Intervention in a Refugee Camp: An IPA Study Into the Narratives of Women Refugees’ Experience With Drama Therapy” by David Publishing Company which presented the significance of drama therapy intervention (DTI) in treating and empowering trauma impacted refugee women.
In addition, the foundation recently announced a grant for research studies from University of California, Irvine Medical Humanities Center, that is expected to further analyse, strengthen, and improve its work.
Educational support to new female Arab drama therapists
Having noticed the lack of drama therapists who could deliver the Intisar Foundation programmes in Arabic, HH Sheikha Intisar pledged to expand the pool of knowledgeable and qualified drama therapists in the Middle East.
Intisar Foundation signed an MoU with the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in 2020 to provide scholarships for 15 female Arab students into USEK’s master’s curriculum in drama therapy in Arabic language in the fall of 2020.
Agility
In 2020, Intisar Foundation quickly pivoted to providing online drama therapy sessions in order to support its beneficiaries during national lockdowns.
Furthermore, following the massive explosions at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, Intisar Foundation partnered with Stand For Women, a Beirut-based non-profit organisation, to offer a psychological support programme based on drama therapy to women in business affected by the 2020 Beirut blast. This intensive 12-week drama therapy programme is designed to improve women’s emotional awareness, create a sense of belonging, and help resolve their trauma, focusing largely on providing a structured and sequential mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) intervention. To support this project, please go to our GoFundMe page HERE.
Impact in numbers
To date, Intisar Foundation has reached more than 353 beneficiaries in refugee camps across Lebanon and Jordan and 2118 indirect beneficiaries, with our team completing more than 3160 hours of fieldwork so far. The foundation has also fundraised 5 events and 6 theatre plays.
Final Quote
HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah would like to encourage all philanthropists and entrepreneurs to be brave to tackle big social issues by developing science/evidence-based and data-driven approaches.
“Sometimes we continue doing things even though we know that they have no impact, but our ego is preventing us from quitting because we have gone so far in that particular direction already. That is not the way that we, as philanthropists, should be going forward. If you cannot measure the impact of any intervention, initiative, or anything else, then you should not be working on it and funding it. At Intisar Foundation, we do a few research papers per year in order to measure the impact of our work, because everything has to be measured. I want to make sure that we produce results.”
THANK YOU