Our Story


 

 

"Enable is about the intentional building of relationships with society, creating value through gainful employment, where difference is welcomed and all benefit." - Michael Mascarenhas, Desert Group CEO

Desert Group introduced a comprehensive rehabilitation program called “Desert Group PWD Work Inclusion Program” that focused on developing the behavioral & professional skills of people with determination with an in-house team of specialists. For the program, we started off by hiring 32 UAE nationals to work as gardeners at one of Desert Group's plantation nurseries. We also developed a system for monitoring their performance and trained them so that they could report to their stakeholders timely i.e., parents, management, government, and the community. Over time we kept developing our program to gain a higher level of skill development and efficiency in our employees’ productivity.

In 2015, we wanted to start focusing more on the concept of sustainability and hence wanted to continue this program but with a sustainable model without decreasing our social impact. Therefore, we felt the concept of a social enterprise fits our vision perfectly and that’s how “ENABLE LLC.” came into existence.

Now, Enable as a social enterprise continues to empower our PWD by delivering entrepreneurial skills to them while also offering a range of quality home & garden products that are assembled by our well-trained special stars. Apart from our advocacy strategy, the aim of this enterprise is to create entrepreneurial skills for people with cognitive disabilities and deliver a 3­­60 degree retail model starting from product concept, assembly, merchandise, and sales. These skill sets will ENABLE them with the ability to start their own retail units and in turn achieve financial stability.

Enable as a brand offers a range of quality home & garden products assembled by our stars. The beautiful indoor plant arrangements using quality succulents and cacti sourced from both national and international well-known suppliers. All of the sales of Enable’s products are used to fuel its retail operations with 15% of each product sold going back straight to the employee who created it.