Al Sudaniya Mentoring

Mai founded Al Sudaniya Mentoring (ASM) in 2013, following her participation in the MILEAD Fellowship, led by the Moremi Initiative and based in Ghana. As part of this fellowship, Mai was tasked with implementing a community-based project in her home country. Al Sudaniya Mentoring offers support and guidance through mentorship to women in Sudan to develop their personal and professional skills. Throughout the six-month mentorship programme, women are provided with tailored, holistic, one-to-one mentoring with female Sudanese role models, informative workshops, and the opportunity to implement impactful projects of their own.

Mai attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018, on an Enterprise for Peace Scholarship supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has continued to be an active member of the Community and has attended One Young World events in London, such as the London Caucus in the British Museum and the European Commission’s Peace Caucus in 2021.

In the first year of the mentorship programme, five girls graduated. Currently, there are more than 280 women involved in the project as both mentors and mentees. In addition, mentees have the opportunity to become mentors once they have graduated from the programme. 93% of mentees reported that the programme was very useful in building towards their professional goals, while 87% of mentees maintained contact with the ASM community after completion of the programme. Since graduating from ASM, 87% of mentees have helped at least one other Sudanese woman to develop both personally and professionally and 72% of mentees have gone on to obtain full or part-time employment.

“If there is one thing I have learnt during my time at One Young World, it is that everyone has something to offer, and we all have a purpose, it has been truly empowering. We must find out what we are passionate about and work hard to make our dreams a reality.”