Nur M'nasria
Nur M'nasria is living her dream every day, in pursuit of nisria’s mission. Growing up, Nur traveled a lot due to her father’s work. This experience made her feel vulnerable and often she was a victim of bullying and abuse. At 15 years old, she took a stand and changed the course of her life - standing up for herself and the vulnerable people around her. It was at this time she began a journey with social work. From this young age, she has been involved and also lead many volunteer or charitable missions. She graduated from the American University of Sharjah with a degree in Mass Communication (Public Relations). Now, she is an accomplished TV and film producer and philanthropist for over 20 years.
In one of her early missions, she would collect second hand goods and sell them in the Flea Market and the revenues were all dedicated to various causes. She enjoyed this, but felt a pull to be involved more directly with the charitable work. That’s when she was led to travel, discover rural areas and global needs and make a plan to help. This process was healing for her. The deeper she went the more she healed, and the more compassionate she became towards herself and others. Now, her soul has found home in the service of others.
Nur loves traveling and exploring new things all the time. She loves her family and awesome friends, making people happy and giggling along the way. Her favorite colors are purple and turquoise and she has an undying love for pandas.
Rasha Shehada
Rasha Shehada serves nisria as a partner and trustee. She dreams of a peaceful world, where every child gets to feel welcome and realizes their worth at a young age. She was drawn to nisria’s mission as a way to fuel her passion about helping others, as she derives great meaning in serving others and especially to devote that energy to children’s beautiful souls. For example, Rasha believes providing the children with a safe home as a starting point provides an important sense of security, belonging and ownership.
Rasha graduated with a masters degree in marketing communication. She has 14 years of experience in managing a business in the manufacturing industry. Working this long in a male dominated industry shaped her ability to face imposed challenges in being a minority. She brings this experience to her work with nisria.
Rasha is inspired each day by her niece, Leen. Their relationship fills her soul and inspires her to extend that feeling to every child on the planet. She admires giraffes as an animal who stands tall, minds its own business and never hurts anyone unless forced to do so. Her favorite color is pink, as it is calming and reminds her of love and peace.
Our Roots
Nur admits she did not do this alone. There are many amazing friends, family and supporters who believed in this work and supported the cause along the way. Here are a few significant shoutouts:
Of course, Jadda nisria, Nur’s my grandmother. She was a great woman and the main inspiration for our founder, Nur.
Ahmad AlShugairi, who Nur worked and traveled with for many years working on his show Khawatir. Ahmad impacted many people through his show and was always an inspiration and mentor for Nur whether in media or social impact.
Rasha Shehada and her family have been the key donors to the foundation and began supporting Nur’s work way before nisria was established, including almost all initiatives and projects she was involved in or initiated since 2011.
Good Samaritans: all the amazing people and volunteers who have been supporting Nur’s mission since day one.
