June 12th, 2016: The Canadian University Dubai (CUD) students behind Efhamni, a new mobile app to teach Emirati sign language, have secured a second enterprise challenge success, winning AED 50,000 at the 2016 Dubai Chamber Smartpreneur Competition.
Efhamni stood out among 350 original business ideas to be awarded second place in the prestigious enterprise competition, which attracts entries from new and established entrepreneurs across the UAE. The technology was originally created as part of the region-wide Ripples of Happiness university challenge, in which the team also secured the runner’s up place and a $7,000 award to scale the project.
The idea behind Efhamni – Arabic for ‘understand me’ – is to help unite the deaf and non-deaf communities of the UAE by teaching users the fundamentals of Emirati sign-language. It also seeks to support Emiratization among hearing impaired citizens, helping them to access better education and employment opportunities by teaching them, their family, friends and colleagues, how to communicate effectively.
The app epitomized the objectives of the inaugural Dubai Chamber Smartpreneur Competition, which sought to bring forward technology-driven innovations that help to create a smart society in the UAE, through the dimensions of economy, living, mobility, governance, environment, people and infrastructure.
As one of just two student groups in the entire competition, the Efhamni team was initially shortlisted in the top 45 entries, and then selected among ten finalists to pitch their idea to a high profile panel of judges. Team members Craig Muyambo and Siti Ahmed took up the challenge and were rewarded with a further investment in the development of the social enterprise.
Speaking about their latest success, Craig said, “It was amazing to be shortlisted in this competition among so many outstanding business ideas, and to receive an award gives us further motivation to continue with the development of Efhamni and to make a difference to the hearing-impaired community.
“We have already been able to invest in the creation of new videos to extend the catalogue of sign language lessons on offer, and we are also working on the creation of a social network within the app to make it more interactive and user-driven.
“We aim to continue this development and hope to secure further investment to create a fully-comprehensive resource that can help to make Emirati sign-language a mainstream form of communication for citizens and residents of the UAE.”
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