“Simply, there is a lot … to do, but always do something you like, look for something that you would like to see an impact or change within. Because this type of stuff makes you look forward to the long term... Not only looking at the mission which is short term, but also the vision which is the long term.”
Studying Human and Medical Genetics at the Queen Mary University of London, Rakan is taking the skills he learned locally via USAID to international markets. Born in Jerusalem, Rakan is a graduate of USAID’s Middle East Entrepreneurs for Tomorrow (MEET) activity, which brings together Arab and Jewish youth through technology, entrepreneurship and leadership.
Today, Rakan supports a start-up called “Jerms” which sells products to promote gut health by nurturing healthy gut bacteria, a very competitive market in the UK. To be competitive in this market Rakan highlights the importance of balance between creativity and entrepreneurship “we needed to really brainstorm to enter the market, we looked at our competitors, thought about new projects and tried to identify how we could fit in and succeed.”
Rakan credits USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation activity, MEET, for how far this initiative has come. “MEET is basically the reason I’m here. I know USAID had a huge support in MEET, and without this project I wouldn’t be in London following my dream. MEET is [...] a program that takes each person and their skills and builds on top of it.”
Looking forward, Rakan hopes to expand his influence into mental health and bio-technology and use the entrepreneurial skill set he gained from USAID’s MEET activity to improve the healthcare system. “[The healthcare system] is developing incredibly quickly, but at the same time there are a lot of things that are not provided in the best way. This causes me to think in an entrepreneurial way ‘what would I do to make this different?”
