Firaoli Adam ’17 (left) and Yasmin Samatar ’17 (right) cofounded Mawadda, a company that provides personal protective equipment that meets both hospital safety and cultural requirements. Photo by Tara Sloane.
By Kara DeMarie MLIS’16. From the St. Catherine University Magazine fall 2023 issue. Face Mask For Adult
Yasmin Samatar ’17 was the first person Firaoli Adam ’17 met at St. Kate’s. The two, both first-generation Black Muslim respiratory care students, met at the campus bookstore before their first classes, and had an immediate bond. “She was like the mother of our group,” says Samatar. “I was the introvert; the first one to exit the class, go straight to my car, and drive home. So one day she grabbed me and said, ‘Every day you’re not running away. You’re gonna talk to us.’”
Adam and Samatar formed a friendship that was strengthened by their good luck working together in multiple hospital placements. They became business partners when they cofounded Mawadda, a company that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the healthcare industry by providing personal protective equipment (PPE) that meets both hospital safety and cultural requirements.
Their idea for Mawadda’s first product, a disposable isolation hijab cover, started during Samatar’s orientation at her first hospital job. In preparing for the sterile environment, she was warned to be sure her hijab was tucked snugly into her collar. Inside the operating room, she was asked to keep tucking it in more. She knew she needed to focus on what she was supposed to be learning, but her mind was flooded with worry. If she moved the wrong way would her hijab come loose? Was she accidentally bringing infection into the room and impeding the patient’s safety?
Adam had faced similar experiences starting her career, and after speaking with Muslim colleagues, the pair found they were far from alone. Other hijabi healthcare workers relied on complicated workarounds to get through a day of treating patients.
Adam and Samatar used workarounds, too, until they took jobs as traveling respiratory therapists, working on the front lines of the COVID pandemic. They were placed at a Boston hospital that offered beard covers as PPE. “What is this?” Adam remembers thinking. “Why can’t they have one for us as well?”
Photo courtesy of Mawadda LLC.
As respiratory therapists, their St. Kate’s training had instilled in them to seek solutions to obstacles. They also had family members coming up in healthcare, and felt strongly that the next generation should not have to experience the same discomfort.
“We have to start it for ourselves,” Adam realized. “We can’t just wait for somebody else to do this.” They went to work, finding a designer and developing a prototype and sample of a disposable, hygienic hijab cover. They held focus groups to get feedback from people in various healthcare careers, and started the arduous process of securing FDA approval, and identifying a manufacturer and group purchasing company to work with.
Samatar and Adam have other projects and still more ideas lined up. “There are needs we didn’t even know about,” says Adam, who adds that they’ve gotten requests from people from other cultures to develop products that would make hospitals more inclusive for them as well.
In the meantime, Mawadda is open for procurement opportunities from all U.S. healthcare settings, and their pilot product has already made a difference in the daily lives of the hijabi healthcare workers buying them. “When you hear those kinds of stories, it’s like, ‘This is why we’re doing it,’” Adam says. “It doesn’t matter how hard it is.”
Learn more about Samatar and Adam’s journey at usmawadda.com.
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