Stage 3 – Learning to read

Reem is an educator, writer, editor and translator, with a great interest in children’s literature and its intersections with children’s development. She joined Kalamna in 2024 as the founder of its London branch. She has taught for many years in London, conducting research on the politics and history of the Arab world. She is a member of the Shadow Heroes collective, which runs translation workshops to promote young people’s cultural awareness and confidence.

An economist by training, Dina spent her early career working for NGOs and think tanks that conduct research on issues of poverty reduction, inequality and sustainability. Fuelled by her growing interest in children’s education, she completed a masters degree in Children’s Rights. Following a long struggle to find the right setup for her twin daughters to learn Arabic, she found Kalamna. A few conversations and training sessions later, she’d paved the way to make a complete shift into teaching Arabic.

Dina holds a BA in Business Administration and an MA in Economics from the American University in Cairo and a Masters in Children’s Rights from the University of Geneva. She is trilingual and uses both English and German in her Arabic classes.

Following a 20 year career in corporate banking, Rim, a Lebanese mother of two, discovered her love for teaching as she was helping her children with their online schooling during the pandemic. That, followed by her family’s move to France in 2021, she saw how important learning Arabic was in shaping their sense of identity. Coming from a family that treasures their mother tongue, she has since decided to follow her passion and shift her focus to teaching Arabic and joined the Kalamna team in Paris in 2023.

Rim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and an MBA from the American University of Beirut.

Mariam wears multiple hats at Kalamna. When she’s not teaching our youngest students in Cambridge on Sundays, she’s making sure we run a smooth operation across all our Kalamna classes. Before moving to the UK, Mariam worked at a nursery in Alexandria, Egypt. She is an avid photographer and traveller.

Dalia joined Kalamna in 2021 opening our second franchise in Manchester. Before moving to the UK, Dalia founded one of the first sensory play classes for babies in the Arab region. A certified Positive Educator, she is a mother of two and a passionate student of all things child-psychology who has a natural talent for meeting children where they are at and enabling them to develop and thrive at their own pace.

Rehab joined Kalamna in 2020 and opened the first ever Kalamna franchise branch in Newcastle, UK.

When she’s not teaching Arabic to her students in-person and online, she’s working on English-Arabic translations or editing Arabic books. She’s the author of the best-selling book Rice Pudding for Two (Dar ElShorouk, 2008). Through her translation career, she translated over 25 books into Arabic. Rehab holds an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University.