How Sharjah empowers businesswomen

Sharjah Business Women Council (SBWC) hosts inspiring speakers to motivate and encourage women entrepreneurs to set up enterprises that both contribute to female self-empowerment and to economic development in the UAE.
The council, an affiliate of Nama Women Advancement Establishment (Nama), has successfully held its annual Ramadan Summit, with the event took place on Tuesday evening in Sharjah.
Titled 'Self Reflections,' the summit - which takes place each year on the side-lines of SBWC's Ramadan Suhoor - attracted more than 250 business women and society ladies who gathered to listen to the success stories of a number of inspirational speakers.
Among those attended the Ramadan Summit were Ameera BinKaram, deputy chairperson of Nama and chairperson of SBWC; Hala Kazim, counsellor, artist, author and founder of 'Journey Through Change' and Asma Hilal Lootah, entrepreneur and founder of The Hundred Pilates Studio in Dubai and The Hundred Wellness Centre project. Also in attendance were the Motivational Speaker Anas Bukhash, Co-Founder of Ahdaaf and Founder & Managing Director of Bukhash Brothers; and Muna Harib Al Muhairi, Founder of Breathing Numbers Humanitarian Act and Director of Branding and Corproate Communications in Dubai Parks and Resorts. "Sharjah has become an incubator of businesswomen and their projects ... Sharjah Business Women Council serves as a platform to empower women professionally and economically and attract the largest possible number of women and young ladies to the world of entrepreneurship," said BinKaram. "By the end of last year, in collaboration with our partners in the international foundation Education for Employment, SBWC launched the Jeel entrepreneurship initiative, through which we seek to support Emirati entrepreneurs and businesswomen in Sharjah and provide them with counselling and training services in order to ignite their spirit of innovation and creativity," she added.
BinKaram pointed out that SBWC has recently placed an extra emphasis on training, with this focus leading to the launch of the Badiri Women's Enterprise Development Virtual Academy - the first-of-its-kind initiative in the region.
She revealed that in the near future Badiri Academy will witness the inauguration of the strategic partnership with FazINOVA Innovation and Entrepreneurship School. She also underlined that the implementation of these initiatives and projects had resulted in a significant increase in SBWC's membership applications, with SBWC having received 141 new membership submissions during the first five months of this year - a growth rate of 13 per cent. - abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com