It was US television star Steve Harvey’s love of the region that he has been visiting for ten years now, which prompted him to come up with MELT Middle East, a platform that will bring young people from across the world together to “build bridges and challenge misconceptions about the region”.
Shortly after its conception MELT Middle East entered into a joint venture with OWS Capital to form MELT-OWSC, with the same mission of impacting the lives of young people using the presence of celebrities to raise funds.
“Because I’ve made my name in Hollywood, I know the fame game. The low hanging fruit are with celebrities: If I bring enough of them, I’m going to get cameras, lights, action. Celebrities are going to bring everybody in and we’re going to meet them. I do that to shine a light on what MELT is really going to do,” said Harvey.
“MELT is going to change the lives of young people in this region, and in Africa and the US, through the sharing and merging of cultures. We’ve got to get rid of this misinformation about what the Arab world and Islam is about – the propaganda machine has been rolling for years, but this is not what they are,” he continued.
The envisioned outcome for MELT-OWSC is a UAE-based structure where youth from Africa and the US come together to learn a plethora of subjects, from coding and technology to movie production and all it entails, the ultimate aim being the exchange of ideas and the realisation of their commonalities.
“If you brought Africa to the UAE and let these young people form relationships they will change the world.
Young people will change the perception of the Arab world and of Islam. They will get together and go, ‘you know what? I’m a Christian and he is a Muslim but we’ve got some in common’,” said Harvey.
MELT-OWSC’s glittering launch event took place at the end of November and included a charity celebrity golf match – won by American singer Akon and actor Malik Yoda – and an auction gala dinner where attendees bid on front row seats to a Dolce and Gabbana fashion show and pieces of art by contemporary British artist Sasha Jafri.
“One thing people like is a good time so we said let’s do it in a way where we keep it professional yet entertaining, fun, interacting, engaging and that’s what we did. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid has a famous quote where he says, ‘we say what we do and do what we say’ and taking that and applying it has been something Steve has made sure we lived up to,” said Dubai-based entrepreneur Oweis Zahran, the CEO of OWS Capital.
“We’re really excited to get this off the ground; it’s going to be the birth of something spectacular that would come back every year. We have key decision makers from all across the seven emirates, tourism authorities, financial authorities, government officials, private sector individuals and the idea is to discuss, elaborate and announce life changing ideas for the MENA region,” he continued.
This line of thinking means that MELT-OWS will continue to work with the US entertainment industry to drive its mission forward and as such Harvey sees opportunities for Hollywood in the region.
“Eventually this is going into people coming over here to shoot [movies] because they understand the value of peace of mind over here. Adding to that the availability of aerials and things like that, there’s a lot that can happen right here. You can also teach young people, cinematography, lighting, sound and camerawork. Now, if they want to go off into the world and take that somewhere or they want to stay here and expand is there choice,” said Harvey.
“There’ll be a lot opportunities for young people in terms of entertainment and it’s always good when you tap elbows with the entertainment industry. We’ve been working on making a lot of things happen and a lot of young people have benefit from jobs and opportunity,” he continued.
For Brandon Williams, CEO of MELT-OWSC, the golf match and celebrity auction are “just the start of what we’ve been working on for a while now”.
“We’re really excited about the opportunities that are here for everybody, and for the world to see that we’re not just here for some moment or for an event, we’re here to stay. We’re committed to the region and to bringing great people here, but also to make sure that young people understand what it is that this region is and how important it is to the grand scheme,” he continued.
Internationally-acclaimed host Harvey is no stranger to the region and in December last year filmed a hugely popular six-episode docuseries called ‘When Steve meets East’, which saw him travel across the seven emirates of the UAE revealing the hidden gems of the country.
“I just thought it was the greatest place on earth; I’ve never been anywhere that was such a peaceful place to be. I’ve never been able to go anywhere and not have to look over my shoulder or walk down the street and wonder whose driving up or wonder, when a car pulls up, what’s going to happen if they jump out. I’m from that place and I come here and there’s none of that,” said Harvey.
“This place has a piece of my heart because of the relationships I’ve built with people, and the leadership, over here so for me it was a no brainer that the UAE had to be a part of it [MELT],” he added.
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