From Looking for a Village to Building One: The Story Behind Mumma's UAE Mum Community

There are some bits of news that make you stop for a second.

This is one of them.

I've been nominated for Lovin' Community Champion at the Lovin' Dubai Awards 2026, recognising the community we've built through Dubai Mums Club and Mumma.

But this story isn't really about an award.

It's about why Mumma exists in the first place.

And that story started long before there was a website, a family calendar, guides, deals or meetups.

It started when I became a mum and realised just how much we need other people.

Becoming a mum away from home

I became a mum for the first time in 2020.

It was Covid. I was navigating first-time motherhood while living away from my own family and the support system I had always known.

Then, after giving birth to my son, something happened that I still remember very clearly.

Our neighbours started bringing us food.

One of the mums living nearby found out I'd had a C-section. She came over with snacks and a postpartum kit filled with things that could help with my recovery.

It sounds like a simple gesture.

For me, it was a gamechanger.

As a first-time mum, I didn't even know some of those things existed. If she hadn't brought them to me, I wouldn't have known to look for them.

I've never forgotten that kindness.

It taught me something about motherhood that has stayed with me ever since:

Sometimes another mum knows what you need before you even know that you need it.

Not because she's an expert.

Simply because she's been there before.

A meal left at your door.

A recommendation sent at exactly the right time.

Someone checking in.

Someone saying, yes, I've been there too.

When you're raising a child away from your own family, those gestures can mean more than people realise.

That was one of my first experiences of finding a village away from home.

I wasn't trying to build a community. I was looking for one.

Those early months of motherhood made me realise how important the small connections are.

Someone whose baby is going through the same stage as yours.

Someone who knows a good nursery, doctor or baby class.

Someone to meet for coffee.

Someone to message with the question that feels far too insignificant to ask anyone else but is occupying half your brain at 2am.

Or sometimes just someone who understands.

I wasn't setting out to create a parenting platform.

I was looking for my village.

And somewhere along the way, I realised a lot of other mums were looking for theirs too.

Why community matters when you're raising a family in Dubai

Dubai can be an incredible place to raise children.

It's also a city where many families live hundreds or thousands of kilometres from grandparents, siblings, childhood friends and the people who might otherwise have been part of everyday family life.

For many of us, our village isn't already here.

We have to build it.

And often it starts in surprisingly ordinary ways.

The mum you meet at a baby class becomes the person you message when your child hasn't slept.

A conversation in a WhatsApp group turns into coffee.

Two children become friends and, somewhere along the way, their parents do too.

A family arrives in Dubai knowing almost nobody and slowly starts recognising familiar faces.

Those things can look small from the outside.

They're not.

They're how a city starts to feel like home.

From Dubai Mums Club to Mumma

What began as mums helping other mums gradually grew.

Dubai Mums Club became a place to ask questions, exchange recommendations and connect with other families.

And eventually that idea became Mumma.

Today, Mumma brings together a community of more than 40,000 mums and is growing into a wider platform for family life in the UAE. Our own About page describes the same underlying need: being a mum here can sometimes feel isolating when you're far from family and navigating life in a new country.

But the number has never been the most interesting part.

It's what happens between the people inside it.

A mum answers another mum's question.

Someone recommends the nursery that worked for their family.

A mum turns up to a meetup knowing nobody and leaves having exchanged numbers with someone.

Someone new to Dubai finds people who make it feel a little less unfamiliar.

That's the part I love.

What is Mumma?

If you're new here, the simplest explanation is this:

Mumma is a community and family platform helping mums navigate life in the UAE through connection, useful information, recommendations, events, family guides, deals and practical tools.

Think of it as the mum friend who already looked it up.

Because family life comes with a lot of tabs open.

What's happening this weekend?

Where should we take the kids?

Which nursery should we visit?

Is there a discount for that?

What can we do during the school holidays?

Are there any mums nearby with children the same age?

We want Mumma to close a few of those tabs.

Making mum life in the UAE a little easier

That's why Mumma has grown beyond the community itself.

We're building practical resources around the questions UAE parents are already asking.

Our Mumma Mag brings together parenting information, family guides and useful discoveries for UAE families. Existing guides cover everything from finding free things to do with kids in Dubai to family travel, schools, indoor play and seasonal activities.

Then there are the things that make everyday family life easier: our family calendar, community meetups, recommendations, regular updates and deals worth knowing about.

We don't want to add more noise.

We want to share things you'd genuinely send to another mum with a quick:

Saw this and thought of you.

In many ways, we're trying to recreate digitally what that mum did for me after I gave birth.

She knew something that could make my life a little easier.

So she shared it.

That's what we want Mumma to help happen at scale.

Sometimes it's another mum answering your question.

Sometimes it's an introduction that becomes a friendship.

Sometimes it's finding something to do with the kids on Saturday morning.

Sometimes it's a guide that saves you an hour of research.

Mums helping mums, with Mumma making those connections a little easier.

Helping mums find their people in the UAE

There is a bigger purpose behind this too.

I believe humans thrive when we feel like we belong somewhere.

When we have friendships.

When we have someone to call.

When we laugh with someone who understands the strange stage of life we're currently in.

When we're able to ask for help.

When we feel part of something.

And when mums feel supported, the effect doesn't stop with us.

It reaches our homes, our relationships and our children.

I want our children to grow up seeing mothers with friendships, interests, support systems and lives of their own.

I want them growing up around different families and cultures, learning what it means to show up for other people.

Because a wholesome childhood isn't only about the activities we book, the schools we choose or the things we give our children.

It's also about the environment they grow up in.

When mums thrive, families have more space to thrive. And stronger families help create stronger communities.

That's ultimately what we're trying to build.

Mumma nominated for Lovin' Dubai Community Champion 2026

Which brings us back to that bit of news.

I've been nominated as one of five Lovin' Community Champion nominees at the Lovin' Dubai Awards 2026.

Lovin' Dubai describes the category as being for community builders who bring people together and create support networks that help Dubai feel more like home.

That description feels remarkably close to the reason this all started.

Seeing my name there is special.

But I don't think community is something one person can build.

It exists because people participate in it.

This nomination belongs to our mums too

So this nomination is also for every mum who has answered someone else's question.

Shared a recommendation.

Welcomed somebody new.

Shown up to a meetup without knowing anyone.

Passed along something useful.

Checked in on another mum.

Or simply made another woman living far from home feel a little less alone.

That's the village.

That's Mumma.

And six years after becoming a first-time mum and discovering, through some food from my neighbours and a postpartum kit from another mum, just how powerful a small act of support could be, this feels very full circle.

There's still so much more we want to build.

But for today, this one feels worth celebrating.

Thank you for being part of it. 🧡

Vote for Sofi Sitha for Lovin' Community Champion

Sofi Sitha, founder of Mumma and Dubai Mums Club, is nominated for Community Champion at the Lovin' Dubai Awards 2026. Voting closes on 26 September 2026, one vote per email address.

Vote in the Lovin' Dubai Awards 2026

Meet the Lovin' Community Champion nominees

Sources

• Lovin' Dubai, Community Champion nominees, 16 September 2026, and the voting page
• Mumma, About