Enterprise Story: Noura Qusairy

Posted on: 16 November 2023 by Samantha Riella in Enterprise

Noura is a Masters in Project Management graduate who founded her business, Yamama, with her sister.

With an experience working in refugee camps in Jordan, the sisters initially set up Yamama as a social artistic business that would support refugees in Liverpool and provide a creative outlet for them. They worked with refugee artisans to produce sustainable fashion and art, but have now turned their attention to food and drink while creating a venue to host their creative endeavours.

Noura is a recent graduate with an MSc in Project Management from the University of Liverpool, and Futoon has an MA in Fashion and Art Direction. She founded her business with her sister on the innovator visa. From creating a social enterprise to support refugee artisans by providing sustainable, fair employment opportunities to produce high-quality handmade crochet fashion pieces, they have now expanded their brand, Yamama, to a whole new level.

They have recently opened a café at 32 Parliament Street in Liverpool, where they not only serve Middle Eastern cuisine, but also provide a platform for local artists to showcase their talent and masterpieces.

Thankfully, I have received support from the University of Liverpool. More specifically, I participated in the "Design Your Future" programme. This programme is designed to help students and graduates to progress on an existing or an early-stage business idea. The sessions were highly interactive, which enabled me to increase my connections, my skills, and my knowledge about different areas in the market.

Also, we received the Enterprise Fund Award twice from the University of Liverpool. This massively helped us to make our business a reality as well as to take it to the next level.

Additionally, we had the chance to showcase our products at the university square and trade on campus, which hugely helped us to increase our exposure and share more refugees stories with customers to increase our impact.

Moreover, we were able to receive 1:1 coaching from Alison, who is the Start-up And Entrepreneurship Consultant the University of Liverpool, this helped us to get advice and brainstorm some amazing ideas that can help us overcome some challenges. We are constantly working on widening our impact. To stay posted with the latest updates about Yamama. You can follow us on Instagram.

I'm thrilled that I got the chance to participate in so many programmes, after all I got to learn from experts, gain skills, and had fun along the way. There are many more programmes organised by the University of Liverpool Careers and Employability team where you can join and get to experience it yourself.