HH Sheikha Intisar Speaks At Milken Institute Summit

ABU DHABI: Thought leaders, government officials, philanthropists, and world decision-makers gathered together on 11^th of February, 2020 to discuss, develop, and deploy solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges such as health and wellness, financial markets, regional economic crisis, public health, and philanthropy work.

HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah was devotedly among the top-notch decision-makers in the summit sharing different topics on 3 different panels for discussion. The first panel holds the healing trauma through creative expression which covered the early years of Intisar Foundation establishment and the main goal focused on healing disenfranchised women through expressive therapy.

The panel entitled the need behind empowering women psychologically and the reason behind using Drama therapy to heal women affected by war. We use Drama Therapy as it is a multi-faceted approach that utilizes theater techniques focusing on the body movement, the voice, the emotional process, and community building. The empowerment of our 1 million Arab women is aligned parallelly with the UN sustainable goals of SDG 5 of gender equality and SDG 3 aiming to good health and wellbeing.

HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah emphasized the use of Drama Therapy in the Arab world, as it an effective approach to alleviating psychological distress and trauma because it is a non-stigmatizing approach.

“Intisar Foundation is the first and only foundation working on empowering women mentally and psychologically to spread peace in the Arab world,” shared HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah at the Milken Institute Summit.

War and poverty left women the most helpless and victimized population. “We want to change this narrative and help these women to become empowered, independent, and resilient,” said HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah. Redefining womanhood and empowerment was Sheikha’s next focus in the second panel at the Milken Institute. Empowering women within Intisar Foundation is a steadfast path towards achieving social justice and peace of SDG16 and equality of SDG5. One of the main changes we encountered with our 1 million Arab women is that violence is reduced within the household. The women tend to learn emotional regulation within the Drama Therapy sessions, which helps them reduce anger and violence towards their family members and children.

One of the objectives of the foundation is the economic empowerment to support women, which is done by opening a pathway towards economic empowerment. “The foundation aims to create job opportunities for hundreds of women in the field of Drama Therapy in the Middle East,” mentioned HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah. We believe that economic empowerment is a necessary step towards achieving gender equality of SDG 5.

“As an entrepreneur, many of my cooperative businesses directly contribute to my philanthropist work,” said HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah. The impact of collaborative philanthropy is aligned with economic growth and development in the world. HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah discussed in her third-panel dialogue about the two Jewelry brands (Ebarra and Intisars Jewelry) whose operations and missions align with the UN sustainable goals of SDG 8 of decency in work and economic growth. 50% to 100% of Intisars Jewelry profits go directly towards healing women affected by war to achieve peace in the Arab world.

The event had a diverse range of speakers, senior regional business personalities, and chief executives sharing the same global economic message of womanhood and empowerment, creative expressions with art, and strategic philanthropy work corresponding to the same synergies and mission of  HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah and Intisar Foundation goal.