Toma'nina is an app for children and parents with the aim of supporting and nurturing emotional development. With a unique approach to incorporating mindfulness and spirituality in a playful and purposeful way, the app features beautiful characters representing childhood emotions that are resonating with Muslim children worldwide. 

Toma'nina co-founders Sarah Abdulrahman and Latifa Abdulrahman - who are also MCC members - spoke to us about the development of the business and why creating this brand was so important to them. 

You've had a busy year launching the app. How is it all going?

It was challenging; we had countless ideas but also a limited budget so we had to narrow it down and focus on the essentials that we wanted to introduce to kids. We decided to start there, with the hope that as we grow, we can continuously adjust and add to our content.

Of course, like any business, we've experienced our fair share of ups and downs. The learning curve has been steep and continuous, making the entire process both challenging and rewarding. This past year has been particularly busy with extensive research, trial and error, and various testing phases. Although these tasks are time-consuming, we firmly believe that the effort is worthwhile.  

The themes of the app are really universal but obviously a lot of thought has gone into it... how did you approach deciding the messages, games and activities?

Discovering the concept of mindfulness and practicing some techniques, although rooted in Islam, was something we only truly understood and felt the effects of around ten years ago. Personally, we've benefited immensely from these practices and often wish we had incorporated them earlier in life. Given these experiences, we thought it would be valuable to introduce and teach mindfulness to children, so they can also reap its benefits from a young age.

Additionally, we found great value in another skill we  learned later in life - emotional intelligence (EQ), which involves recognizing, understanding, and managing our emotions. Both mindfulness and EQ have proven to be deeply interconnected and transformative skills.

Managing our emotions shapes how we react to different situations, and mindfulness enhances self-awareness, aiding in emotional regulation.

With this app, we aim to help children become more self-aware, recognize their feelings, and manage their reactions better. By fostering these skills early on, we hope to set a strong foundation for their emotional well-being and personal growth.

The characters are so beautiful. How were they developed?

We have a great team working with us on Toma'nina for development: Anamil Tech for technological development, the marketing agency Anonymous, child development experts, and illustrators. They all contributed to creating, testing, and ensuring that our characters are child-approved.

Another important design factor was ensuring that the content is relatable to Arabic-speaking children.

What has the feedback been like so far? It must be so satisfying to be able to make a difference to families?

It’s been great to receive feedback from kids and parents about how much they enjoyed and benefited from using our app. We are also very grateful for all the suggestions and feedback. We never view any feedback as negative; instead, we consider it very helpful in making continuous improvements.

What does the future look like for Toma’nina?

It’s too early to say definitively, but we have new content and ideas that we're working on for next year. We have strong faith in our content, but we'll take the time to observe, learn, and adapt as needed.

Our content has the potential to make a significant impact—whether it's helping a child sleep better at night, manage their anger issues, or assisting a parent in guiding their child to understand and regulate their emotions more effectively. This drives our commitment and passion for what we do.

MCC is proud to partner with educational enterprises and businesses that have a positive impact on our children. If you're interested in knowing more about Toma'nina, or would like to find other educational platforms that can benefit your family, contact the team who will be happy to help.