Munfarid in Arabic language means unique and this is what Dr. Sana Farid is bringing to the region. She started her career as a start-up and soon became a successful entrepreneur. Dr. Sana is a pioneer AR/VR strategist, ranked top 10 women in AR/VR in the Middle East, and top 101+ women leading the VR industry. She is also the co-founder of a leading education consultancy consortium Munfarid Consulting which is based in Bahrain. Being Munfarid, being unique, and this is what we have in store for your today!
You may wonder, what is the story behind Munfarid Consulting and how was it created? The idea crossed Dr. Sana’s mind when she was a medical surgery practitioner. She was aware that the healthcare field required a lot of practice, training, care, and attention to details. So, she decided to bring stimulating changes through technology and amongst all current trends, Virtual Reality (VR) lured her the most! “I was fascinated by the way it could automate manual procedures and promote the idea of steering national progress,” said Dr. Sana.
She met like-minded individuals who wanted to stir the imagination of people and take all segments of the society together in progress, this led her to establish Munfarid.
Munfarid Consulting was launched with a vision to develop a knowledge-driven and innovation-focused workforce. “We embarked on this journey to explore the future growth prospects using the technological know-how, to transmute into an economy that is competitive and resilient, developing progressive and futuristic tech solutions that benefit the society,” told us Dr. Sana.
However, it wasn’t all easy, as she had to face many roadblocks and challenges, especially when it came to spreading knowledge. She says “When we invest in futuristic technologies, we are bound to reap good results in the form of accelerated all-round development of the nation. One of the major problems faced was duplicating cheap hardware in the market at lower cost. Some clients were discouraged to pay for them. So, it was challenging at times to spread awareness on identifying how genuine is the products and to convince such clients about the advantages of the kits over the unduly low-priced equipment in the market.” They took bold steps to spread awareness.
At StartUp Bahrain it is always refreshing to see businesses focus on education in this digital age and embed technology into the classroom! Which is why we find it important to highlight that Munfarid isn’t only looking at healthcare as it is also expanding into the education field and has goals to disrupt the learning and development sector in the Kingdom. They are working to revolutionize the existing learning methods and make the learners proactive and ready for global exposure.
Dr. Sana mentioned “Munfarid Consulting does not intend to disrupt the market, but to make VR a supporting hand in the classrooms. VR reinforces the ‘talk and chalk methods’ through which the classrooms in Bahrain could adopt a new look in the near future. The theory classes could be succeeded by VR sessions as visuals help intrigue children’s curiosity and the VRXOne kit by Munfarid has the potential of becoming a permanent classroom tool which is affordable and can also be passed over the years because the software and content upgradations are very pragmatic.”
Moreover, they have partnered with Google too. Since Google has always been a pioneer in inventing technologies that support human progress, this aligned with Munfarid’s vision. “The collaboration was a win-win situation for both the parties where Munfarid would take Google VR expeditions to schools in the Middle East.”
Among the various verticals of Bahrain Vision 2030, education gets a privileged spot stated Dr. Sana. Schools need to be future-ready at all levels of education and high-tech science is a prerequisite, “Fostering the region’s motto, we are promoting Google expeditions at the primary and secondary level schools in the ME.” Today, Munfarid is running the region’s biggest program for virtual reality in education by using Google Expeditions and other VR solutions to the classrooms. Where the program aims to deliver 1 million expeditions all over the Middle East in 2018
In addition to that, Munfarid has recently signed a partnership with BTECH and participated in The World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum (WEIF), as UNIDO ITPO and Bahrain came together to propel entrepreneurship and industrial development in the Kingdom.
Munfarid’s mission statement and ideology resonate with the forum’s theme “Achieving the SDGs through Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. Also, this was a good exposure to Munfarid, as the attendees had the chance to witness and experience the innovative Virtual Reality technology through Munfarid’s VRXOne and its application in real life.
Dr. Sana is a member of Women Techmakers, AR/VR Association and was listed in the 100 Bahraini notable women who transformed the Kingdom, which is clearly seen through Munfarid’s efforts! Munfarid has been successfully hosting trade shows, technology exhibitions, conducting talk shows and holding chat sessions. “Through these activities, we bring the responsible world leaders together so they can contribute their views in shaping a sustainable future. To support rapid technological developments and diffusion, we partnered with global leaders and have innovative projects in the pipeline. These pipeline projects comprise partnerships with reputed firms that thrive to get the highest level of productive abilities, technological excellence, and human effort,” she says.
Munfarid is here to change the Kingdom and the region through groundbreaking innovation! Make sure you visit their website to learn more about them and head over to StartUp Bahrain to discover more inspiring startups.