Dubai: She was an eight-year-old girl when she first came to the UAE. Almost five decades later, Amira El Sheykh says there is no place she’d call home, except Dubai.“My father was an electrical engineer and got a job in Abu Dhabi when the electricity network was still being set up,” the 57-year-old told Emirates 24|7.At the time, Abu Dhabi had only a few roads, low-rise homes and a handful of apartment buildings, she recalled. But the city around her began transforming rapidly.“I was a child, so I don’t remember every detail, but everything seemed to happen so quickly. Within a few years, there were grid roads and beautiful high-rises. Some of those buildings, especially the towers along the Corniche, are still there today,” she said.Amira El Sheykh with her parents over the years. Top left: Amira's parents - Violetta and Siddik El Sheykh, in Abu Dhabi in the 1980s; bottom left: Amira (right) with her parents in a photo dated 1985; right: Amira with her parents in 1996, with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce behind them.After attending a government school in Abu Dhabi, Amira moved to Egypt to pursue her college education at the American University in Cairo.“I worked in Egypt for about a year, but I just wanted to come back to the UAE,” she said.Jebel Hafeet was one of the many projects, Amira's father Siddik El Sheykh had worked on. "I go to Jebel Hafeet very often to drive through and reflect on my father‘s work years ago. He passed away and is buried in Sharjah ... this land," Amira said. Photo credit: PexelsThe place you keep returning toBorn to a Sudanese father and Russian mother, Amira holds Egyptian and Russian citizenship. And while the real estate recruitment expert has lived for short stints in different countries, the only place that has felt like home has been the UAE.When she finally got a job offer in 1995, Amira didn’t hesitate before making the move to Dubai. Every chapter in her life since then has played out with Dubai in the backdrop.“I still work here, I met my husband here, I have a child who was born and raised here and now works as cabin crew for Emirates. So, yes, we’re as much a Dubai family as it can get,” she said with a laugh.Amira with her late husband, Peter Beckley, at the Dubai horseracing World Cup - 2001. "I love how Dubai connects people from all sides of the globe. Who would have thought that I would meet a man from South Africa to become my beloved husband. Dubai is a place of incredible global connectivity," Amira said.Her late husband, who died in a car accident in 2011, thought of moving the family to another country. But after four years of living in Australia and South Africa, Amira felt homesick and the family returned to Dubai in 2006.The timing was critical.“That’s when the real estate boom was starting,” she said.Her Russian speaking skills played a key role, as Amira joined a real estate company, initially making calls to recruit Russian-speaking salespeople as the business prepared to enter the Russian market. She eventually left the company last year, after rising to the ranks of Senior Director.“We were so excited to be part of the city’s growth,” she said.“Dubai is just so incredibly positive. Even when I would travel, people would often ask me how I’m as positive as I am, and I would literally tell them – because I’m from Dubai. We’re just positive people,” she said.‘Dubai’s resilience builds resilience in you’Even during times of global unrest, Amira has witnessed how each time Dubai has come back stronger, more powerful and with greater recognition globally.“This resilience that the city has builds resilience in you, within your heart. There will always be challenges, of course, every 10 years the world goes through some challenge or the other. But because you’re living in Dubai, when you face a challenge, you try to address the problem and always find a positive solution available. There’s always a way out. This is what I have learnt from Dubai,” she said.After her husband’s death, as Amira raised her daughter, she said that the city also became the natural choice, because of the safety it offers.“The fact that the city is safe makes a huge difference because any time of the day or night, we can go anywhere. Even if my child is sick, I don’t have to think twice – I just grab my car keys and go. Safety is very important, especially for women,” she said.Her daughter, Alexandra, is also a ‘Dubai kid’ through and through. Growing up, she always dreamed of being part of the Emirates cabin crew.Amira had plans for her daughter to move to Australia for her higher education. But as soon as she graduated, she decided to return.“The moment she turned 21, she immediately went for the Emirates interview, it was her childhood dream. She’s now 25 and she doesn’t see her future anywhere else. When I talked to her about moving to Australia, she said ‘I’m not going to do that. This is my home, and I’m not going anywhere’,” she said.Amira (left) with her daughter - Alexandra Beckley.Leadership that deliversThis pull that Dubai has on people, Amira says, has been built over years of seeing the country’s leaders and its government consistently deliver on their promises.“I still remember when His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said ‘build and they will come’. I saw how the real estate sector boomed after that, and it's still growing,” she said.When Sheikh Mohammed recently announced the ‘Dubai-it’ initiative, as a way to pass on Dubai’s work philosophy to the coming generations, it immediately struck a chord with Amira as well.“I really did feel the verb sense of it - it is an action. And that’s what we all do in Dubai,” she said.According to her, one of the latest examples of this Dubai-it approach – to achieve something extraordinary with excellence in record time – is the development of Dubai’s newest airport – Dubai World Central.“Dubai International Airport (DXB) currently has two runways and it already brings in millions of travellers to Dubai. DWC plans to have five runways … can you imagine the impact it will have? Then, comes the location, which is so strategic. It is located near the Jebel Ali port, connects to the Etihad rail network and links to the E611 highway,” she said.“This means that any kind of transit shipment will move very quickly – whether it is by air, by road or by train. It is a very clever move, because freight is money and the quicker you can achieve this movement, the better. That’s why I think we’re only just starting. We’re going to Dubai-it all the way,” she added.No place like homeDespite having watched the UAE transform for nearly 50 years, Amira believes Dubai’s story is still growing.“We are only starting. There is still so much growth ahead, and it is time to keep pushing.”Today, Amira lives in The Springs with her daughter and has no plans to leave the city that helped shape her outlook, career and family.“We have planted our roots very deeply,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
