Help the nanny on to better things
Padmini Gupta grew up in Dubai, and when she returned to the city of her childhood in 2008 with her husband, to raise their own children, she noticed that the country’s labourers still faced the same issues they always had: lack of access to funding; and inability to learn new skills to grow in their careers. “What people desired more than money, entertainment or status was growth, and a chance to be included in this globally affluent economy that social media had exposed them to.” But by not meeting the minimum monthly salary required to set up a bank account, they don’t have the basic financial tools.
“Neither did they have access to new learning or professional growth, so they landed up working for decades in the same job with stagnant wages,” says Ms Gupta.
In 2015, former banker Ms Gupta and her tech- savvy husband, Milind Singh, created the app Rise, available on iOS or Android, which provides domestic workers with affordable educational childcare courses (Dh50-Dh200), designed by the celebrity parenting expert Nanny Stella of
Nanny 911 fame. An employer can also pay their maid with the Rise app.
“We get a local bank account and debit card for your nanny, and the salary gets deposited into her account,” says Ms Gupta. “Your nanny can then get access to a whole set of financial products from her home country.”