Doha, Qatar – In the heart of the lively Doha neighbourhood of Al Mansoura is a beauty and fashion shop which has gained a strong following among Africans living in the Qatari capital ever since the store opened about two years ago.

Butterfly Beauty Shop is located along Al Mansoura’s crowded main street and is nestled among grocery stores – known locally by the Arabic word baqaala, restaurants, tea and snack spots and a smattering of hardware supply shops.

The shelves and aisles of Butterfly Beauty Shop are packed with beauty products, hair extensions, fashion accessories, clothes, shoes, and seemingly every possible fashion item from Africa.

“This is the only shop catering to the fashion needs of Africans in Qatar,” boasts the Kenyan shop owner Bernard Wanjiku, 32.

Qatar is home to a diverse foreign community that makes up 90 percent of the country’s population.

The sub-Saharan African community accounts for roughly 6 percent of the total population in Qatar, with foreign nationals coming from countries such as Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia and Ghana.

Wanjiku arrived in Doha from Kenya in 2013 to work as a driver for a local organisation, but switched jobs to become a taxi driver five years later. It was through conversations with his clients that he got the idea to start his own business.

“Every time someone from Africa sat in my cab, they would ask me if I knew of someone coming from home who could bring some beauty…