JEDDAH — Finally, the names of the three winners of the Growing Initiatives Award organized by Femi9 are out. In honor of women's progress in the Kingdom and to support women in their entrepreneurial ventures, Femi9 had celebrated March as the Women Appreciation Month each year and has hosted competitions targeted at encouraging women's creativity and entrepreneurship. This year the competition was on a larger scale, and the selected winners of the Growing Initiatives Award will receive legal consultation and business training to prepare them for a journey that is very new to them. They will be invited to attend workshops at the Jeddah Municipality that will help them get started, from selecting the right location for their business, to going through all the paperwork to be officially and legally registered, developing a financial plan, and finally managing finances. One of the main goals behind the strong support for the young women was because these projects were entirely initiated by women and would in turn open up job opportunities for more women to work alongside them in the business or social project. “Jeddah Municipality was happy to be a partner in this initiative because we appreciate women with ambitions and we want to support them in taking the first steps of their project to guarantee professionalism in their work and a successful outcome. “We will be hosting workshops for the winners and they will be assigned a personal consultant who they can easily reach at any time whenever they may have queries,” said Dr. Arwa Yousuf Al-Aama, vice mayor, IT Affairs at Jeddah municipality. Another sponsor of the Growing Initiatives Award, Glowork, will help the women in their marketing strategies, communications, public relations, and advertising their products and services over the social media. The founder and CEO of Femi9, Eyad Mashat, congratulated the winners and said: “In my view, the consulting services that Jeddah Municipality and Glowork will be providing for the winners are far more valuable and important than any financial reward. “Our gift to the winners is meant to complement the services provided and help women cover their initial financial expenses. “Each of the three winners will receive a large cash prize for their business or project, which will of course be dispensed periodically and only for purchases pertaining to the business and with regular advice on spending. The remaining seven finalists will each receive a Femi9 gift voucher of SR3,000.” Nahed Al-Hubail won for her business project called “SkyTouch.” She said: “My initiative adds a new, creative, and inventive touch to the gift wrapping service. “Once our clients bring us the gift we decorate it by placing it inside a balloon and we also offer delivery service. “The first thing our client says when they see our final work of art is: ‘How did you get it inside the balloon?'” The second winner, Ghada Maghrabi, was chosen for her unique style and sense of décor in flower arrangements. She wants to open her own floral shop, called Petals, and employ other talented women to work with her. The third winning project, called Athar Alshabab, was more of a social service project rather than a business. “My initiative was to develop the youth's skills and talents and channel their teeming energy into doing something useful for their community. “The goal of our youth club is to promote volunteer work in the society. Our main focus is to organize entertainment visits to hospitals for the sick children who are in-patients; bringing with us plenty of gifts and putting on a fun show. “I immensely appreciate the help in getting organized and also the financial funding,” said Engawi.
