Partnership of Kuwait’s first regional Hearth Summit advanced individual, organizational, environmental wellbeing
KUWAIT: Zain Kuwait’s partnership of the Hearth Kuwait 2025 Summit marked the first regional event of its kind in Kuwait dedicated to individual, institutional, community, and environmental wellbeing. Organized by en.v in collaboration with The Wellbeing Project, the three-day Summit was hosted by the American University of Kuwait (AUK). Zain’s support for this event builds on the company’s Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) department’s ‘BE WELL’ initiative, a pioneering mental health and wellbeing program launched across Zain’s operations to provide employees with practical tools and professional support to manage stress, protect their mental health, and foster healthier workplace cultures.
BE WELL was introduced in 2021 and developed in cooperation with leading partners, reflects the company’s belief that employee mental health is a core element of its “psychological capital” and a foundation for sustainable performance and engagement. Through BE WELL, Zain aims to normalize conversations around mental health, encourage leaders and teams to adopt mindfulness and self-care practices, and create work environments that reduce burnout, absenteeism, and the negative impact of chronic stress. The company sees Hearth Summit Kuwait 2025 as a natural extension of this journey, opening a wider community space for dialogue, learning, and collaboration on wellbeing beyond the workplace and into society at large.
Zain’s team and organizers in a group photo at the summit.
The summit brought together more than 200 changemakers from civil society, education, business, the arts, philanthropy, and public institutions. Over the course of the event, participants took part in inspiring discussions, interactive workshops, and artistic, cultural, and culinary experiences that explored the role of wellbeing in building more resilient and sustainable communities. Within this broader wellbeing agenda, Zain is also advancing its IDE strategy and WE ABLE 2030 roadmap, which together seek to build an inclusive and equitable workplace for all, including persons with disabilities. This approach focuses on embedding accessibility principles into recruitment, career development, and workplace design, and on translating inclusion from generic slogans into everyday practices that strengthen innovation and sustainability across the business.
As part of the summit’s program, Waad Al-Azmi, Inclusion and Accessibility Advocate at Zain Group, took part in a special panel discussion in which she shared her experience of working within Zain’s inclusive environment. She spoke about the importance of wellbeing, psychological resilience, and institutional support in enabling employees with disabilities to contribute their full potential, and emphasized that a culture of listening, respect, and acceptance is the foundation of all inclusion policies and initiatives at Zain.
During its participation at the summit, Zain also spotlighted its GROW program, which is specifically designed to empower graduates with disabilities through clear career pathways and individual development plans that build their skills and prepare them for future leadership opportunities. The program combines on-the-job training, professional mentoring, and capacity-building aligned with Zain’s competency framework and business objectives, providing a practical model for inclusive workplaces capable of discovering and developing untapped talent. Zain is inviting graduates with disabilities to apply for the new cohort of the GROW program via the link: https://zain.com/en/grow to join a holistic professional development journey that offers structured opportunities for career growth, experience-building, and meaningful contribution to the future of the digital economy.
The company’s support of the Hearth Kuwait Summit reflects its ongoing commitment to supporting initiatives that put human wellbeing at the top of the agenda and connect mental health and social inclusion on one side with innovation, digital transformation, and sustainable development on the other, in line with its purpose of creating “Better Lives, Lasting Connections” for all. The summit was organized by en.v, a Kuwait-based organization focused on community development initiatives and building the capacities of civil society institutions, in partnership with The Wellbeing Project, a global initiative dedicated to the wellbeing of people working in fields of social change.
