KARACHI: The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development (CEID) at DHA Suffa University (DSU) organized a memorable ceremony to celebrate the successful entrepreneurial journey of women who went through a rigorous training program on starting their dream business. The training called “SheCan” was held for enthusiastic women of our country who participated in the workshops and received hands-on training to become successful business women.
In Pakistan, a large number of females are not part of the workforce and have no contribution to the family income. During the pandemic, a lot of people lost their jobs and they being the only breadwinners of the household, their families suffered from financial crisis.
The SheCan training was targeted to empower women by training them on how to run their low budget as well as home-based businesses and contribute to their family income within the convenience of their houses.
The event started with the recitation from the holy Quran followed by the National Anthem. Along with the participants their family members also attended the ceremony to celebrate their success and encourage them on starting their business.
The business started by the participants of the training included products of various kinds including garments for kids, health and beauty products, stationery, food and a plethora of other home-based items. Other than this some participants also started their home based training business for kids & youth. All these businesses have already started and done good sales a well.
The chief guest Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah, CEO Dr Essa Laboratories encouraged the women entrepreneurs for taking this bold step of starting their home based business. He said that there is no limit for women to be a productive part of society. Even if they are staying at home and taking care of their families, they can still become business women and contribute even more for the betterment of their families. Dr. Farhan also appreciated the efforts of Ms. Eram Abbasi, as she was the main trainer of the SheCan workshop and also the main organizer of this event.
Prof. Dr. Ahmed Saeed Minhas (pro-vice chancellor at DSU) applauded the courageous women who took time out to go through this rigorous training and have started their business. Giving examples of other women who are doing business from, he said that women being a vital pillar of our society cannot be ignored. Their contribution to society has always been evident in different eras. He also appreciated the efforts of the whole team of CEID for successfully organizing this training and mentioned that in future DSU would continue to hold such trainings for different strata of life.
Ms Eram Abbasi briefed the audience about the successful journey of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Development (CEID) at the university and also informed them about various programs being held under CEID. Talking about the SheCan program and the women who participated in this training, Me. Eram mentioned that Women staying at home are not just housewives rather they are nation builders. So such women play a very important role in any society.
Many senior personalities and students from DHA Suffa University (DSU) also attended the event. Among DSU officials were;
- Engr. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Afzal Haque (Vice Chancellor)
- Prof. Dr. Ahmed Saeed Minhas (pro-vice chancellor)
- Engr. Prof. Dr. Johar Khurshid Farooqi (Dean)
- Dr. RizwanTanveer (Head of Dept Computer Science)
- Dr. Shama Siddiqui (Faculty member)
- Ms. Eram Abbasi (Director Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Development)
Concluding the program the host gave a message to the participants that to “Be a strong woman so your daughter will have a role model and your son will know what to look for in a woman when he is a man”
Prominent guests present at the event were:
- Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah, CEO Dr Essa Laboratories (Cheif Guest)
- Dr Farah Essa, President Open Karachi
- Abdul Basit Khan, Section Manager Machinery at Fauji Fertilizers
- Women founders who are successfully running their business. This includes:
- Shazia Muzammil, founder of sweetnsalty
- Nadia Makhdumi Siddiqui. Founder Fitness Cruise.
- Kanwal Gohar, Founder Dreamery.pk
- Danya Shahid, Founder Saucet
- Yogini Hina Sohail, Founder Yogatiful
- Daniyal Ashraf, Digital strategist, NIC Karachi
- Zahra Abdus Samad, Communications designer, NIC Karachi
- Sana Shah, Creative and Outreach Lead, NIC Karachi
- Kanza Sohail, Entrepreneur trainer
- Saima Sardar Khan, Lecturer management science department at DSU
Partnering for this event was local and international organization which includes:
- Commonwealth Entrepreneurship Club
- OPEN Karachi
- NIC KHI
- JumpStart Pakistan
- IdeaGist
- Entrepreneurs Den
- DJ Pizza (for keeping the motivation of the participants high by providing them home delivery of free delicious pizza)
