The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women.

Mentor Application

Information you will need before making application to the Peace through Business® 2009 program.

We are in search of mentors for the 30 women who travel to the U.S. If you are interested, please consider the following:

· We will match students in the program to a mentor with a similar business (type and size)

· Mentors and Students will develop an on-line relationship prior to the Student’s arrival

· Mentors are requested to attend the International Women’s Economic Summit on August 17-18, 2009 (Dallas, TX) to participate and work with their student (requested but not required)

· Students will live and work with their mentors from August 19, 2009 to August 23, 2009

· Students and Mentors will commit to maintain an on-line relationship, assisting each other for a period of one year.

Having fun is an understatement! Our past Mentors have told us that they never expected to receive so much in return. Mentor’s families benefit from the experience of living with someone from such diverse cultures by exchanging laughter, ideas, and customs. Some Mentors and Students have continued in mutually beneficial business ventures knowing they have gained life long friends.

Please consider becoming a Mentor for a woman business owner from Afghanistan or Rwanda. We are creating a pool of qualified women to act as mentors. When the Leadership Development participants are selected, we will begin the matching process.

You can make a difference – you can help save the world one woman at a time!

Title

Last Name (required)

First Name (required)

Middle Name

J-1 Visa require the location where the student will be living and working during the Mentorship. Please provide:

Home Address

Street (required)

City (required)

State (required)

Zip (required)

Business

Business Name (required)

Street (required)

City

State

Zip

Please list your phone numbers

Home Phone

Cell Phone

Work Phone

Fax Phone

Please Indicate Languages You Speak.

Speaking

Writing

Reading

Email Address (valid email required)

Mentorship is most meaningful when there is a match between the type and size of businesses. In order to make the best match between Mentors and Students, we would like the following informtion about your business.

Please describe, in detail, your business in 300 words or less.

How long have you had your business?

How many full time and part time employee do you have?

What percentage of your business do you own?

Annual Revenues

If in partnership, who are your partners?

In 300 words or less, please tell us why you are interested in this mentorship program.

Living with another family, and bringing someone into your home, can be a stressful time if an appropriate match is not made. Please take a minute to provide us with some information on you, your famlly (children, ages, pets, etc.) and how your family feels about participating in this program:

Realizing this is not a job interview, we would appreciate knowing more about your work history. Your entrepreneurial past will provide extra insight for making appropriate matches.

Do you have house pets?

Are there lifestyles or religions incompatible with yours?

Do you smoke cigarettes or use other forms of tobacco?

As you carefully consider participation in Mentorship, we ask that you are able to answer "yes" to the bulleted items below:

  • Can you reasonably devote 5 days to a student from Afghanistan or Rwanda living and working with you? This will include such items as (but not limited to) teaching HR, business practices, management skills, other day-to-day business activities, as well as time normally spent with family and friends.
  • Do you have private sleeping space available for a house guest?
  • Are the members of your family agreeable to someone from another culture living with you as a honored member of your family?
  • Are you willing to bear the additional financial burden imposed upon you as a result of a house guest. (gas, food, time, etc?)
  • Though not mandatory for mentors, would you be willing to travel at your own expense to Dallas, TX for the International Women's Economic Summit?
  • Are you willing to continue an open, on-going monthly e-mail correspondence with your student and IEEW for a year following your student's return home?

Raising funds to accomplish the good work that we are all involved with is challenging, especially in these trying economic times. Please let us know if you are able and willing to bear the cost of your student traveling to your city. If you live within driving distance of the International Women's Economic Summit in Dallas, perhaps you would be willing to drive your student back and forth. If you live outside of a driving perimeter, perhaps you would be willing to purchase a round trip ticket on Southwest Airlines. Regardless of your ability to assist with transportation, we look forward to your mentorship with these brilliant women!

IEEW does not encourage or endorse any participant business (both student or volunteer) and makes no guarantees of goods or services. IEEW acts only as the networking conduit. We are a 100% neutral position and can not become involved in brokering deals, requesting help or discounts.

References:
Names:

Relationship:

Contact Information:

For any questions, please feel free to call Beth Pierce at 405-943-4474 or email at [email protected]



Meet The Women You Can Help

Rezai Shahrbanoo*

Rezai operates the Afghanistan Women & Men Development Organization at Jawzak Village. AWMDO has been open since September 2008 and is in the business of processing and packaging almonds. Comparing her operation to that of local processing, Rezai has been able to improve in the areas of quality control, production control and packaging.
AWMDO employs 24 [...]

[Read more]

Mariam Yousufi*

After leaving Pakistan, where she was a refugee, Marian traveled to Afghanistan and started a handy craft business under the name Mariam Handy Craft. She eventually created “Mariama Education and Culture Association” which trained 370 women in tailoring and literacy. She now sells the goods made by these women.
* Denotes that student has been selected [...]

[Read more]

Gloria’s business has expanded!

Gloria Uwizera, Peace through Business® 2008 graduate and owner of GLO CREATIONS sent photos of her new endeavor.
She reports:
I would like to share some news with you. For the first news: After my return from the US, I thought of making cushion covers but It took me some time to prepare the designs for it. The [...]

[Read more]

Ziba Seddiqi opens new business

Ziba Seddiqi Peacehrough Business®2008 graduate reports that in addition to her existing florist business, she has expanded and opened a convenience store..
Ziba attributes part of her success to the training she obtain in 2008 at Northwood University and from the mentors who visited the campus during her Peace through Business® 2008. Ziba proudly sent photos of store. READY [...]

[Read more]

Real Innovations reporting growth!

Juliet Mbabazi - Peace through Business®2008 graduate and Co-Owner of Real Innovations (http://www.realinnovations.rw/explore.php), an event and branding company reports great successes in her business:
Negotiations are underway with two sizable companies for contract awards. Though talks continue, one contract is near completion but details are not yet available. The awards could represent a valuable 5-year agreement [...]

[Read more]

Parween Usufi*

Parween is a reseller of craft products such as clothes, including silk garments, small rugs, jewelry and tools for crafts people.
She opened her business in 2007 and has one employee.
She operates with one partner.
* Denotes that student has been selected to travel to the US to participate in Leadership Development at Northwood University in August [...]

[Read more]