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Basma

@basmadarwich

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Gratitude, Grace, & Growth🧚🏻‍♀️
whimsical spirit • soft humanity
heart-led, always🤍
@lumabybasma

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I'm still here where I made a difference and I think a big part of me always will be. I will talk about this journey today, tomorrow, and for as long as my brain is healthy and I'm still able to share the little details that changed my life. In my speech I mentioned that though we worked on things physically the real change happened inside of us.
The connections we made, how much we grew in a week, how the little joys of every single day were anything but little, the new emotions we felt. If I could repeat this week for a little while longer I would, but since I can't, I vowed to have a life with more weeks like this.
I'm so very very very blessed and grateful to have the ability to give.

Thank you forever @nomuhub

#humanitarian
#volunteer
#purpose
#africa
#zanzibar by @basmadarwich

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a year ago

Little did I know..
That I was going to come back with a clearer purpose.
That I was going to feel the type of love only familiar to mothers.
That I was going to work harder than I have ever before to secure a future that wasn't even mine.
That at 32 I'll find out my favorite animation movie is The Lion King and that I will watch it every time I needed warmth.
That I will leave Zanzibar without a big piece of my heart, and I'll be okay with that.
That I will shed every skin I once knew and wear something made out of magic.
Little did I know that I would find out what it means to give without conditions, without expectations, and without fear.
All because of you and for you♥️ taken in Zanzibar, Tanzania by @basmadarwich

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2 months ago

I once ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in years at a café. She came to say hi. 5 minutes later we were sitting across from each other at the table & she was opening up about her mental health.

At my old job, I had an employee who was having panic attacks. I went to sit with her. I didn’t have one big solution. I just stayed. A few months back, another employee from that same job reached out to me for advice because she remembered how I showed up for that girl.

In 2024, I had a massive breakdown in a psychiatry session. The kind where everything spills out at once. It led to my psychiatrist reaching out to my freelance therapist. Now they both occasionally talk to discuss & help others together. That still humbles me.

I’ve had people at gatherings pull me aside to ask for my therapist’s number. I once deactivated Instagram & someone went out of their way to find my phone number because she was struggling & remembered that I talk about mental health.

People always ask me how I’m so comfortable talking about it.

The truth is, it’s never really been about comfort.
It’s about fear.

I’m scared of one day not being here & realizing I never softened someone’s darkness, even a little. I’m scared of staying quiet when maybe my honesty could make someone feel less alone.

Yes, I know I’m the one in the reel. I took those videos. But sharing has never been about me.

We’re all struggling. Just in different colors.

There’s subtle beauty in darkness. In surviving it. In coming out softer because of it.

My life isn’t all sunshine & rainbows now. Every once in a while I still need a little fine tuning. Healing didn’t make me perfect. It made me more aware. More willing to ask for help. More gentle with myself.

If your world feels dark right now, it doesn’t stay that way forever. It shifts. Slowly sometimes. But it shifts.

You don’t have to carry it alone. I didn’t. & it brought me beauty, friendship, & love. Things that can never be taken away from me. 🤍 by @basmadarwich

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8 months ago

✨ Ready to add a little sparkle to your life? 💎💖

Join us for Luma by Basma: Your Bedazzling Experience — an afternoon of creativity, connection, and a little extra sparkle! ✨

Get creative, bedazzle your own portrait, enjoy delicious food and drinks, meet lovely ladies, and take home a special goodie bag. 🎀💕

📅 October 24, 2026
⏰ 2:30–5:00 PM
📍 Third Place Cafe, Abu Dhabi @thirdplaceuae
💎 AED 120 per person

Come as you are, make new connections, and let your creativity shine! ✨

Spots are limited, so DM us to join the fun! 💌

#LumaByBasma #AbuDhabiCommunity #ladiesinabudhabi #inabudhabi🇦🇪 taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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2 days ago

I will always be the first to say this: there is beauty in vulnerability.

I started Luma. I created it, I hold it, and yes, I am the face behind it.

But I am not Luma.

Luma is the space between all of us.

It is a place for women to come together and put down whatever they have been carrying, whether it feels small, heavy, messy, confusing, painful or impossible to explain.

Luma is vulnerability. Honesty. Softness. Courage. It is being seen without having to perform. Being able to say, “This is where I am today,” and knowing that is enough.

As I move through my 30s, one thing life has taught me is how much people need spaces like this.

I have spent years in therapy. I have done the work. I have had the difficult conversations, learned, unlearned, healed, fallen apart and put pieces back together.

And I am still learning.

Healing did not make me someone who no longer struggles. It taught me not to hide every part of myself that does.

And I have reached a point where I want to share that.

I want to make a show of vulnerability.

Yes, a show.

I want it to have a presence. I want it to be seen. Not for pity, not for attention, but because I want someone to see another woman being open about what she carries and think, “Maybe I’m allowed to feel this too.”

You are allowed to feel it.
You are allowed to show it.
You are allowed to speak about it.
You are allowed to give it somewhere to sit.

And that is why Luma is not me.

Because I need Luma too.

I am not there with all the answers. I am there to share, to listen and to give you the space to do the same. To sit together in all our different stories and realise that we have so much more in common than we think.

You are Luma.

So give me your trust, and I will give you a seat.

A seat where you do not have to be the strongest version of yourself. A seat where every colour of you can spill out.

And you will still be beautiful. @basmadarwich taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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13 days ago

Someone said my aura is moonstone 🤭🌙 taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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14 days ago

Meet Basma ✨
Basma traveled to Zanzibar 🌍 and came back with a story worth sharing. Hear it in her own words:

“I truly believe some of your deepest joy and peace lives in moments like these. There’s something about giving a piece of yourself to others that brings you closer to who you really are.

Every time you step into someone else’s world, you come back knowing your own heart a little better. You learn what moves you, what matters to you, and just how much love you have to give. And I think that’s why these experiences fill you in a way that nothing else really can.”

Be the next Nomuhub traveler in the spotlight 🤍

تعرّفوا على بسمة ✨
سافرت بسمة إلى زنجبار 🌍 ورجعت بقصة تستحق أن تُحكى. اسمعوها بكلماتها:

“أؤمن حقًا أن جزءًا من أعمق لحظات الفرح والسلام يعيش في لحظات مثل هذه. هناك شيء في أن تمنح جزءًا من نفسك للآخرين يقرّبك أكثر من حقيقتك.
في كل مرة تدخل فيها عالم شخص آخر، تعود وأنت تعرف قلبك أكثر بقليل. تتعلم ما يحرّكك، وما يهمّك، وكم من الحب لديك لتعطيه. وأظن أن هذا هو السبب في أن هذه التجارب تملؤك بطريقة لا يستطيع أي شيء آخر أن يفعلها.”
كن أنت المسافر القادم في السبوتلايت مع نموهب 🤍

#travellerspotlight #nomuhub #travelwithpurpose by @basmadarwich

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17 days ago

I think I like it here🕯️ taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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23 days ago

🪽

It's giving 2008 😚 taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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a month ago

Life lately📚 taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by @basmadarwich

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a month ago

August slipped away into a moment in time🔐 taken in The Third Place by @basmadarwich

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2 months ago

Who are you?

You are the moments in between arriving and leaving. Every version of yourself that showed up thinking she knew what she had come to give, only to leave understanding that giving can take a thousand different forms.

The first time I came here, I sat on a scaffold helping rebuild a classroom. The second time, I sat cross-legged on the ground surrounded by orphans who didn’t need me to build them anything. They needed hands to hold, arms to fall into and eyes that stayed on theirs long enough for them to know they were seen.

Somewhere between those 2 versions of me, I understood something I could never have been taught.

It was never really about building or teaching. It was about presence.

About staying long enough for a child to trust that you weren’t going anywhere yet. Learning their name. The little hand that finds yours. The child who moves closer. The one who asks for nothing, but somehow asks you for everything.

Making a difference isn’t always about changing someone’s life. Sometimes it’s stepping into it for a moment and leaving behind the quiet reminder that they matter. That they are worthy of someone’s time, tenderness and belief in who they might one day become.

I came here twice thinking my hands were meant to help build something.

The first time, it was bricks, paint and four walls around a classroom. The second time taught me that some of the most important things we build in another human being will never have walls around them.

They live quietly inside them, long after our hands have to let go and we have to go home.

That's the hardest and most beautiful part of loving people you cannot stay with. Hoping that when you leave, they don’t experience your absence as another abandonment. Hoping you loved them loudly enough while you were there that they carry some of it with them when you’re gone.

That somehow they understand that leaving does not always mean forgetting.

That distance does not undo love.

And that somewhere in this world, someone went home carrying a piece of them too.

I missed you from the second I said goodbye and I'll miss you forever 🤍 taken in Zanzibar, Tanzania by @basmadarwich

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2 months ago