Photo Essay

Young Entrepreneurs from Aswan

Girls from Aswan are starting their business

Dalia Younis

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Available in:
English
العربية

29 October 2018

From right to left: Eman, Shaimaa, Marwa, Azhar and Amira are 19 years old young ladies from Edfu, Aswan. Since high school they started attending the trainings provided by ”Meshwary" (My journey), a UNICEF-supported project in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and funded by USAID.

As a result of their participation in “Meshwary”, the girls were trained on life, career and entrepreneurship skills which made them able to start their own projects.

In this photo essay, we will explore their creativity and passion in studying different market needs and creating their own brands to meet those needs.

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Shaimaa didn’t like the imported low-quality lanterns in the Egyptian markets during Ramadan season. She believed they do not reflect the Egyptian culture and are easily broken by children. Her lanterns, on the contrary, are made of Egyptian beads which makes them more durable and beautiful, even to the most hyperactive children!

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Marwa creates home accessories out of recycled material. One of her most innovative artworks is this vase made of recycled old towel. She soaked the towel in a mixture of cement and water, shaped it when the it was semi-solid and sprayed it with golden glitter when it dried.

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Azhar runs the first-of-a kind pudding business in her village. To attract more customers by tackling their special dietary needs, she created fasting-friendly pudding for Christians by replacing dairy ingredients with fresh fruit juice.

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Eman designs and creates her own clothes. Her brand’s unique selling point is that she offers whole outfits (including accessories) that match together beside individual pieces. She believes that this saves many of her clients the hassle of finding complementary pieces or accessories in matching color or style.

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Marwa is passionate about flowers. She started creating bridal bouquets for her friends and then her parents encouraged her to turn it into a business. Although she already sold many bouquets so far, she keeps the very first one she created and refuses to sell it to anyone. She dreams of opening a store specialized in bridal bouquets to be the first-of-a-kind in Aswan.

Girls from Aswan are starting their business as early as high school

UNICEF/Egypt 2018/Dalia Younis

Ehsan, on the right, is a facilitator at the youth center where the girls attend their “Meshwary” training. When she first went to the center, she found that all the attendees were adolescent boys with no girls because there was a general belief that ‘these trainings are not for girls’. Ehsan offered the guys a couple of free hours to play football at the center’s stadium only if they would bring their sisters to the session tomorrow. Next day, the youth center was a full house of girls.