17 Mar, 2022
This month is all about women and their achievements,
and because we believe that women need to be celebrated every day, The Avenues
Insider spoke to five inspiring women who decided to follow their passion,
break barriers, and start something new in Kuwait.
We asked about their beginnings, their journey,
keys to success, and finally, we invited the women to share a few words of
wisdom in hopes to inspire all women trying to make it happen.
So, for all the entrepreneurial women with a dream and a vision, who just need a little nudge of inspiration, keep reading; we hope the stories of these incredible women inspire you as much as they’ve inspired us.
You can also read about Farah Asaad, Fatemah Alhabib, Evette Abou Samra, DJ Bonita.
A doctor and current Psychiatry Resident at the University
of Toronto, a Zumba instructor, and health and fitness coach, Hana Jaafar’s in
pursuit to help people become healthy in every aspect, both mentally and physically.
As one of the first Kuwaiti women in both the
medical field and health and fitness, we asked Hana to shed some light on her
health and fitness journey and on using her passion to create a career.
Some people discover their passion at a young
age, but this was not the case for Hana Jafar. “I used to hate exercise, and my
diet consisted of fast food and Nutella, but I was blessed with a fast
metabolism. Back then, I equated being thin to being healthy.”
However, she started gaining weight when went
to university and that was her wake-up call, she needed to begin exercising. It
was her mom who encouraged her to go to Zaina AlGhabra’s Zumba class, and it
was Zaina’s welcoming nature along with the class’ non-intimidating nature that
got Hana to continue going and exercising.
Her appreciation for exercising intensified
when, as a doctor, Hana studied the benefits of fitness, “The number of
benefits that exercise has on the brain and on your mood is uncountable.” She followed
by explaining how exercise is proven as a nonmedicinal activity people can do
to improve their mood, so much so that it is recommended by doctors for
patients suffering from depression.
Even during her exams, she kept going to the gym
and exercising, crediting it for helping her manage her stress levels during
that period.
Becoming a Zumba instructor was not part of
Hana’s initial plan, she was visiting her sister in Boston when she saw a Zumba
instructor course and decided to take it to fill her empty schedule. Despite
not planning on giving any courses, she saw an opportunity to teach Zumba at a
local gym in Kuwait and decided to give it a go. Hana’s classes were very successful,
and over time she began experimenting with different types of workouts, “I
started becoming more interested in strength training, and decided to pursue
other fitness certifications, and received my Strong Zumba and ACE certifications”.
Since her clients were all women, Hana then decided to get certified in pre-and post-natal, “I wanted to help every single type of woman”.
“I definitely had a lot of fears before taking
this step,” she explained. Before starting her online health and fitness business
with her husband, Hana exclusively coached in gyms. But it was her husband who
pushed her to become more independent as a coach because he knew that people
attended her classes for her, and not out of convenience.
But it was during the pandemic, which she described
as a blessing in disguise when gyms closed down that she took that step to
create her online program, as she received many requests from clients to continue
training with her. Between her busy schedule and creating daily workout programs,
Hana found that going online was the most convenient option, as she’d be able
to reach more women, and also accommodate busy women who don’t have the time to
go to gyms.
Today, Hana and her husband manage their online
health and fitness program, called hybrid training, where they offer virtual workouts, PT, as well as nutritional
plans.
“Stay true to what your goal is and what your
passion is, and always support people who are doing the same thing as you because, in order to be successful, you need to help other people succeed too.”
