74 November 2013 www.bahrainthismonth.com Amina Al Hawaj is a busy young woman these days. The 24 year-old has three patents for medical devices that facilitate mobilisation of upper and lower limbs, aiding in recovery from injuries. Amina has signed up with partners in Austria and Germany where her devices are being manufactured. She plans to expand to markets such as Brazil, Jordan and Qatar over time. The founder of Momkin says it was all an attempt to prove the naysayers wrong. “When I was in search of an answer to my problem, I felt all doors closing on me. Finally, when I hit upon the right idea, I told myself everything was possible (Momkin in Arabic). That’s the reason I named the company Momkin,” she says. Making her dreams possible is business angel Tenmou, which has now invested in Amina’s venture, giving the necessary fillip to her research and development endeavours. She plans to use the funds to build new medical devices, develop ideas and create services. Her company will also market efficient medical devices in the Middle East region. Amina’s ‘can do’ approach as a physiotherapy undergraduate led her to explore ways in which she could help her patients achieve a speedy recovery. “The Arab mentality is to always wait for machines and devices to arrive from overseas, but I’m an impatient person. I want to create devices that my patients need and get it to them as quickly as possible,” she says. In the course of her practical training in physiotherapy at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), she was treating an 18-year-old male patient with a sports injury. “He was in immense pain, yet he wanted to play football and begged me to do something. I already had an idea but there was no workshop where I could try it,” she says. Finally, she started building a wooden prototype in a shed behind her house, and then switched to aluminium, eventually resorting to steel. After a year of countless trials and failures, she had Almond, a lower hip mobilisation device which she used to rehabilitate over 100 patients at SMC. Her dedication led her to further improve on the device, resulting in her second invention, Stamina, which has additional features for flat foot and ankle rotation. She’s also working on a third device for upper limb rehabilitation which will cover the shoulder, elbow and wrist, providing relief to patients with complaints such as shoulder dislocation, tennis elbow and wrist injury. The young inventor has been feted with a host of regional and international accolades, including the Golden Award for best woman inventor in 2011 by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Silver Award for best invention at the iENA Inventions International Fair in Germany. “There are many bright minds here that lack confidence and are afraid to take risks. But I don’t believe in waiting for things to come to me. As Gandhi said, ‘Be the change that you want to see in the world’,” Amina says. SIMI KAMBOJ Determined and committed, Bahrain’s first female inventor believes in meeting challenges head on. businessentrepreneur xxxxx The Arab mentality is to always wait for machines and devices to arrive from overseas, but I’m an impatient person. I want to create devices that my patients need and get it to them as quickly as possible Amina Al Hawaj Driving Innovation
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