Local female entrepreneurs to represent Pakistan through Facebook Leadership Programme

KARACHI: Hailing from Pakistan, two female entrepreneurs Kanwal Ahmed and Nadia Patel Gangjee, will be representing the country at the Facebook Community Leadership Programme (FCLP).

The recently introduced FCLP is a programme designed to empower individuals who have not only built strong communities on the social media platform but have also garnered a massive fan following. Ahmed and Gangjee are two out of 115 participants who have been selected from over 46 countries.

Kanwal Ahmed of Soul Sisters Pakistan:
Ahmed’s Facebook group Soul Sisters Pakistan (SSP) has over 83,000 members.

“I came up with the idea of Soul Sisters Pakistan in 2013 when I realised there was no space online for women to talk about their issues,” Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “Since childhood, women are told to practice sabr (patience) and bardasht (tolerance) and to not raise their voice. I wanted to change that. I wanted to break this culture of silence.”

She added, “Our voices deserve to be heard. Our stories needed an outlet. And I wanted SSP to be that safe space that gave women an opportunity to speak up.” However, Ahmed’s job is much more than just approving over 600 posts everyday. “I manage SSP single-handedly. Therefore it’s a humongous task to go through hundreds of posts every day. I encourage women to share stories with identities revealed but also respect it when someone prefers to stay anonymous,” she stated.

SSP serves as a global community for Pakistani women residing here and overseas. “I don’t approve all the posts sent to me in order to try my best and maintain meaningful content. They can talk about ANYTHING except religion and politics,” added Ahmed. “As we have women from different religions and countries, it’s essential to respect everyone. We have expanded beyond Pakistan and welcome women from other nationalities too.” Why so? “To dissolve borders and bond as women.”

SSP has become a judgement-free, apolitical place where women can network as well as find legal, financial and psychological help.

Nadia Patel Gangjee of Sheops Pakistan:

Sheops, the brainchild of Gangjee launched in 2015. The community serves as an online platform for women’s marketplace, facilitating budding entrepreneurs and female-run businesses to sell their products online.

“The idea of Sheops came about almost three years back after a robbery incident,” Gangjee said. “I lost my cell phone and was harassed when I went on one of the online stores to find a replacement. This prompted me to create a WhatsApp group of female friends and family to buy and sell to one another. This group spawned others and soon led to a big Facebook community, which is now comprises over 118,000 women.”

Gangjee added, “Apart from our Facebook community, in May 2016, we launched a website and Android, and iOS applications. The idea was to bring many home-based businesses by women to the fore, which propelled into an international startup.”

Speaking about her vision, Gangjee mentioned, “My mission is to economically empower women and to increase digital and financial inclusion of females, enabling them to contribute more to the economy.”

Earlier this year, Sheops was invited alongside 13 other global startups to be a part of FbStart 2.0, a scale-up accelerator programme by Facebook. It was the only woman-led community there and the only one selected from South Asia.

The training programme stretched over five months and Gangjee was invited to visit the Facebook headquarters in the United States in January and May this year.

About FCLP:

At the Programme there will be three components:

1. Educational curriculum designed around leadership development, strategic community engagement, and technical skills.

2. Every participant will receive financial support for their offline community building activities.

3. Participants can meet community-building experts, Facebook leadership and other FCLP participants. They are supported by Facebook professionals and make connections with local experts, organisations and thought leaders.

Source: Express Tribune