Is there more to ROTA than just the projects?

In sociology class we study a variety of topics by scanning through the chapters. I found the recent class to be the most interesting class from the previous classes. I say this because I learned something new and interesting that never captured my attention. We spoke about Organizations in terms of Formal and Informal organizations. The discussion looked at Voluntary organizations and Utilitarian organizations.  ROTA is an organization that best defines theses two kinds of organizations according to Sociology. 

“Towards Education for all…Today, Tomorrow, Forever” is there priority mission statement. I am currently a non-paid worker for ROTA (Reach Out to Asia) and this experience gives me a valid explanation of judging the type of Organization it is in our society. The organization has a hierarchy of employees where some are paid to run the organization, while most do voluntary projects to create awareness of the illiterate people who are less fortunate or hard working laborers to get proper education. My job in ROTA is to educate eighteen cleaning staff members of Education City twice a week. These workers are mostly recruited from Sri lank and possess low skills in communicating with their colleagues or people in charge of them in English. They fail to understand certain vocabulary that is very important in order for them to do allocated tasks.

Therefore, I am an individual who gives 2 hours of her time to help these workers learn a few English words, so that their bosses and employers have an easier time communicating with them. ROTA is also a utilitarian organization. A utilitarian organization indicates that the organization has a specific goal/ purpose and implies that some members get paid for running the few aspects of ROTA and is usually a matter of individual choice. I can strongly say this organization is not a Coercive organization. The aim of ROTA is to increase access to educationalfacilities in a crisis situation. The chairperson H.E Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani and a few other Board members provide guidance and direction for the charity.

Since the organization is a utilitarian organization, this means they are Bureaucratic. A bureaucratic organization indicates that an organization has forms for everything, a lot of paper work, policies, procedures, and deadlines. This organization incorporates all of those attributes in order for an individual to be a non-paid employee, or part of a quick volunteer project. The organization strictly believes in their aim and ways to achieve that aim. The organization has to be bureaucratic because they are dealing with a large number of people of different knowledge skills and areas. They have to deal with the volunteers and the people who need the voluntary assistance. They have to try and get people to sponsor their notion and they work forward with that support and funding’s. Qtel and Vodafone are so far the most spoken about sponsors for the projects of ROTA.












ROTA is a non-profit organization, and thus there is a limit of trust and liability issues that have to be kept under control and supervised regularly. These benefits of having rules is a functional point of view, a positive way to see an outcome in every bureaucratic organization. There is an achievement, which is education that is given and received by a range of individuals.

Although, if there is too much bureaucracy pushed towards the organization, there tends to be negative issues with the organization called Social conflicts. The social conflict in ROTA is that there might be some Asian countries who do not get the privilege to receive the same sort of education everywhere. 

One reason to this is that they might not have enough students or people to do the voluntary work of teaching in those specific regions. Or, they might only get a visit of help once a year that has the possibility to hold an event of teaching. The picture of the Map above shows the different regions that ROTA has visited to help educate more illiterate individuals.

In Doha Qatar itself it becomes a social conflict because many Indian schools barely receive information about ROTA trips abroad or several local projects because the organization only picks people who have a certain amount of skills or study in Education City. Education City most of the time tries to get university or Qatar Academy students to participate in these projects, in order to build their Community and Serviceskills and approaches. The picture below is of a Carnegie Mellon University student teaching the cleaning staff of his University. As a teacher myself, I have noticed that there are no teachers from The College of the North Atlantic or Qatar University. The next picture identifies how serious ROTA takes their educational services because it shows the training sessions that occurred for all the upcoming teachers in Education City.

Visit this link to watch how Education city demonstrates enthusiasm for Reach out to Asia: http://www.youtube.com/user/reachouttoasiatv?ob=0&feature=results_main

“Make a Difference and take Action” says ROTA.

Which door can I take?

Earlier this semester, in our Sociology class, our professor, Geoff Harkness, showed us a video of a sociology experiment that was done in the US. Watch below:

I thought if this experiment was done here in Doha, Qatar no one would conform and we would most likely have different results. On the other hand, our professor had a different hypothesis, where he believed people would conform.

So I went out and actually did the experiment as one of my assignments. I placed “ladies only” and “men only” signs on the Carnegie Mellon building doors here in Qatar. Here are my results:

I thought of many different reasons to why people acted in this manner. One of which is that here in the Middle East, specifically in Qatar, there is a stereotype that women are more oppressed and can’t always do what they wish on doing. So when they saw such signs in Education City, a space with six different American universities, they were disappointed and angry. Instead of being able to express themselves in their universities, they had to deal with the cultural restrictions there too.

Whereas for the men, I believe that the men acted out this way as a sign of masculinity. They refused to walk into the “ladies only” door and confidently walked into the “men only” one. We don’t see any of the men acting out on the experiment as being something they disapprove of. However, in minute 2.47, we see how this young man refuses to be pulled in to the ladies only door and forcefully walk into the “right” door, dragging the lady with him.

Our professor pointed out an interesting fact too, women happen to cross gender boundaries more often than men do. An example of that is, imagine a “man’s” sport, like football- that is usually accepted and women won’t get as many negative sanctions as a man, let’s say, doing ballet- now, THAT is out of the ordinary.

I would love to hear what other people think of this, please share any thoughts on why you think people here didn’t conform to this like they did in the US.

Culturally Religious

For some reason, Islam is automatically linked to Arab identity. It’s like foreigners don’t realize that Arabs can actually be of a different religion. What’s funny about this is that Arabs might forget that too sometimes.

Many of us Muslims grew up in a culture that is based on our religion’s pillars and rules. So, in Islam we follow a lot of the things that our Prophet, PBUH, did, such as saying “Bism Allah” (In God’s name) before starting a meal. I remember sitting at the dining table with my parents when I was younger; after they plated my food, they reminded me to say “Bism Allah.” Being my-not-thinking-before-I-act self, I chose to act out and break the norm and said, “mish Bism Allah” (not in God’s name). I obviously had no idea what I was saying. After that, I automatically got a negative sanction from both my parents, which is a negative reaction in sociology. Looking back at that memory now I understand exactly why my parents did that. Now, I actually understand what I said and why my parents asked me to say “Bism Allah.” It’s not something we just said for social reasons; it had religious meaning as well.




Here’s the thing, there is “haram” and there is “a’ib.” “Haram” basically means forbidden upon in Islam. “A’ib” means shameful in our culture. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two. An example of something that could be considered “a’ib” and not “haram” is being deviant by getting a crazy hair cut and dying your hair bright pink. If you go out to visit family friends or even just family it could be “a’ib” to walk in with a crazy hair-do and you will probably get a lot of negative sanctions. But in Islam, it is not “haram” to look like that. However, many culturally restrictive things are also forbidden in Islam, like one’s choice of wear. A woman is supposed to be dressed appropriately in public in Islam and in this culture.



The same goes to girls and guys mingling; it could be considered “a’ib” and “haram” at times. Girls and guys hanging out isn’t something that we see in public all the time, aside from in universities in Education City and at parties. It wouldn’t be so hard to find someone, at least one person, staring at you from the corner of his or her eye when you’re alone with the opposite gender, especially if you’re younger in age.

Maintaing Qatari Culture and Education

Qatar has developed tremendously through cultural, society and technology. The wealth came from the oil and gas and now Qatar is heading to a progressive path and developing impressively.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar is encouraging the society to a well-privileged education. By opening Qatar Foundation, a place for education at its best with varies world famous universities: Northwestern that specializes in Journalism and Communication, Carnegie Mellon: Computer Science and Information Systems, Texas A&M: Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering, Georgetown: International politics, culture and politics and international economics, Virginia Commonwealth: Graphic design, fashion and interior and the Weill medical College of Cornell University: medical . The commitment of education that’s given to the city became vastly industrialized knowledge/educational based society itself.

However, with all these developments, Qatar still holds its unique heritage and maintains it so that the society will not face challenges to any of their cultural heritage. There are many new projects to promote the awareness of Qatar's heritage. Qatar Foundation also sustains Qatar's culture and heritage. With all the libraries that are available in every university and the Museum.

An example from the Middle East would be in Oman, they mainly concentrate on business and law majors; they have strong education in these specific majors. I have a friend from Oman who came to Qatar foundation to study arts, as I heard from her, Oman do have art universities but not that strong for a student who has a design critique.

Qatar has its own new institutions to teach the society and its youth with all the supports given and contributes to community health and the well-developed universities. There’s a right balance given to education and culture.

Unleashing the Qatari Culture in the Residence Halls

On September, 27th, 2011, one of the female residence halls in Education City in Qatar hosted an event to educate the International students about the Qatari Culture.The CDA’s and the residence hall director arrived before the event to set up all the items which represent the material culture of Qatar. These items included the traditional sofas, Arabic music, local pastries, regional dresses and henna cones.



A total of 16 students made it to the event. Most of the students came from Middle Eastern and Asian countries. However major western influence reflected the way these students dressed and talked. The fact is that Education City, which consist of six American universities, sways the subculture of the students to behave in a more western-oriented manner. They all communicated in English since not everyone from the attendants could speak the Arabic language.




Throughout this social gathering, I noticed many aspects of the non-material culture of the country. For instance, folkways like greeting everyone in the event by kissing on both cheeks were firmly applied. Also, the attendants showed open-mindedness and respect towards each other, which is a value embraced within the Qatari Culture. There were norms like maintaining the cleanliness of the place by disposing all tissues, paper plates, plastic cups after using them. Everyone made sure that they kept the pillows of the traditional sofas in the correct order after sitting on the sofas. The music was played at a modest volume. These examples illustrate how keen the Qataris are about living in a hygienic and organized place.





Back to the material culture, the students indulged in the two large dishes of the freshly baked chicken, meat, spinach and vegetable pastries known as fatayer. The portions were huge and this explains the concept of hospitality and generosity when it comes to dining in the Arabic culture. The students had fun trying out the Women’s traditional dress which corresponds to the beliefs of Islam in the culture as the dress was very conservative. Also throughout the event, the students were excited to get their hands decorated with the complex henna designs as henna in the Qatari culture symbolizes beauty.



Adding to all the energy of the occasion, one of the students turned 19 on the very same day. Matea Malikanovic a freshman at Georgetown University celebrated her birthday among the many students in the event. No one knew that her birthday was on that day so there weren’t any preparation to celebrate the occasion to its full potential. However they did sing her the popular birthday song and exchanged birthday wishes, which showed an example of cultural diffusion. Originally from Bosnia, Malikanovic shares a glimpse of her past, “I was born during the war,” she states. However, the situation has improved immensely since then. Still, she decided to study in Qatar to gain a better understanding of the culture and religions of the Middle East.


Birthday girl


A role is the behavior, obligations, and rights expected of a social status. The role of an Education City student involves committing to your schedule, submitting your assignments on time, participating in class and of course passing exams. Despite the busy academic schedule of most the students at the event, they were all looking forward to relaxing and enjoying their time. In fact, 9 students had exams the next day. Elizabeth Boctor, a Weill Cornell student said “I have no idea what I’m doing here but I know I’m happy.” Similarly, Sarah Omar, from Georgetown University expressed her excitement on attending the event, “We are enjoying free food and seeing people we normally wouldn’t see because of our busy schedules.” This casual get-together permitted the students to step out of their rigorous role and engage in leisure and social activities.

While the event only lasted for two hours, it gave students the chance to renew their motivation for studying and refresh their energy. It also helped inform them about the various aspects of the Qatari culture.