Five Questions with the Founders of DaliliNow.com
ReDI students Maher Ismaail and Hosheng Ibrahim are the cofounders of DaliliNow.com, an online platform that connects newcomers in Germany with the resources and services they need to integrate and succeed in their new home. We spoke with them about their own experiences as newcomers and what they hope to achieve with Dalili.
Can you tell us a little about yourselves? What are your backgrounds?
Hosheng: I’m from Qamishli, Syria, I studied Topography in Damascus University. I moved to Germany five years ago because my brothers were here and I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in Computer Science Engineering. I had also studied German at the Goethe Institute in Syria. Although my visa was rejected three times, I finally got lucky on the fourth try and was accepted. I studied IT at Humboldt University in Berlin as a guest student, where I studied German and interned for a video management company. I’m now working as a freelance web designer and developer — readers can learn more about my freelance services at shengoway.com.
Maher: I’m also from Syria, where I studied computer engineering in university. In 2014, I left my country because I didn’t want to join the Syrian army. So I moved to Istanbul, where I worked for one year as an Android programmer. In 2015 I decided to leave Istanbul because, although life in Istanbul is beautiful, you can’t build a future there — you work just to live and continue breathing. Here I have the opportunity and support to build a new life and achieve my dreams.
What is Dalili?
Maher: In three words, it’s a services search engine. In Arabic, the word Dalili means “my guide,” so we’re aiming to build a search platform for critical services here in Germany that empowers users to find everything they need to integrate, like German courses, jobs, flats and more. Dailili will help guide newcomers to find the right resources to meet their needs as well as quicken the integration process. We want to change the image of newcomers asking for help.
Hosheng: I would say it’s “Yellow pages for newcomers”.
How did your own experience as newcomers shape your vision for Dalili?
Hosheng: The two biggest challenges for me were the language barrier and also finding a job. Many people assumed that as a Syrian, I didn’t know anything about technology, so it was hard for me to find opportunities.
Maher: As a newcomer, I suffered from many problems during the first months here. I wanted to integrate, but it wasn’t easy to know how. I lost 10 months of my life in Germany not knowing what I could do. Now, I know that there are so many great organizations and NGOs that provide support and education for free. But I — like other newcomers — didn’t know about them. I hope Dalili can bring both sides together and share information with other newcomers.
What is the history of Dalili? How did it get started?
Maher: I wanted to help other newcomers discover their opportunities and options here in Germany, as it took me almost a year to discover ReDI School. I know I’m not the only one suffering from these types of problems. I actually came up with the idea in a hackathon with ReDI School and Techfugees, and later told Hosheng and one other ReDI student about it. We were all in a ReDI class together and I told them because I was looking for people who would have the same passion about the project as me — I thought Hosheng would have this passion. We finally started moving forward with my idea in December of 2016.
What is happening now with the app? Where are you at with it?
Maher: We’re currently doing a program with Ideas in Motion, a business incubator for newcomer entrepreneurs in Berlin, and are learning new things with them everyday, such as design thinking, human-centered design, entrepreneurship, and more. We will register soon as a for-profit company in Germany and hope to take an office or coworking space somewhere and set up our central operations. We’re also building a partnership with another organization that can help us get data for our search engine. Lastly, we’ve received quite a bit of interest from volunteers who are interested in working with us — we still need designers and other support. Those who are interested should check out our website, Dalilinow.com or find us on Facebook under DaliliGuide.
