Khawla Hammad Co-founder and CEO of Takalam
ZAYED UNIVERSITY ALUMNA START-UP WINS ENTREPRENEUR MIDDLE EAST AWARD Takalam, a mental health start-up co-founded by a Zayed University (ZU) alumna, was named “Wellness Platform of the Year” at the Entrepreneur Middle East Enterprise Agility Awards, which recognize innovative businesses and individuals across the region. Takalam (Arabic for “speak”) is an online counseling service that connects users with qualified mental health professionals for one-to-one sessions through video, audio, and instant messaging, in both Arabic and English. The platform launched last year with the aim of eliminating the barriers and stigma associated with seeking mental health support. It currently caters to individuals, couples, and groups, and also offers an Employee Wellbeing Program to improve mental wellbeing in the workplace. Offering convenience, affordability, and anonymity, Takalam has received
widespread praise for encouraging more people to seek the help they need. By enabling practitioners to digitize their services, clinics and therapists are able to scale their offerings with marginal costs. Takalam co-founder and CEO, Khawla Hammad, who received support from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at ZU, said the platform is intended to “empower individuals and employers to access support in a manner that promotes understanding, accessibility, and affordability.” Commenting on Takalam’s success, ZU’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Director Dr. Wasseem Abaza said, “We are very proud of what they have achieved so far and look forward to what they will achieve in the future.”
Source: https://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/news/2021/January/takalam.aspx
