This September I travelled to Sharjah to attend the third part of the Social Entrepreneurship Programme in Sharjah, UAE with the Badiri Academy and the School for Social Entrepreneurs London and Cornwall.
Many thanks to the NAMA and SSE's teams for their support.
I also recorded a message of support for Dr Sara Calvo founder of Living in Minca who was attending an Award ceremony in Portugal.
Badiri Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship Programme, NAMA and the School for Social Entrepreneurs first Cohort 2018
We began the day by introducing ourselves to ladies and NAMA representatives who were unable to attend the UK tour.
We reflected about what we had learnt about the UK tour and how we used the tools and examples in our work.
Session on Funding and Finance with Louise Treacher in Cornwall was very informative and useful.
Day 2 - 7th August 2018 - Expert Session with Louise Treacher funding streams for soc ents, SSE Cornwall 2018
I expressed the sustainable funding presentation was important however there is are limitations of funding in the UAE and I hope Tanu and Shalabh will be able to provide more information during our time in Dehli.
Day 1 - Revisiting your SMART objectives,
BSEP and SSE 2018
Revisit your SMART Objectives
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-based
We all spoke about our social enterprise concepts and how our ideas were had evolved.
Day 1 - Introductions
BSEP and SSE 2018
Maitha explained that she had acquired an events trade license from Dubai Economic Department which was reasonably priced at 2000 AED but one would require an Emirati sponsor.
The photographer came to take beautiful photographs of our afternoon session.
The second part of the afternoon session was brain storming ideas for social enterprises.
Day 1 - Presentation about soc ents in the UK,
BSEP and SSE 2018
We started by discussing issues affecting the UAE.
OBESITY
PLASTIC WASTE
ISOLATION cultural
KIDS RAISED BY NANNIES lack of understanding of cultural identity
CONSUMER ADDICTION
DEBT
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
BULLYING
MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA
HIGH DIVORCE RATES
Trends in the UAE
Online learning
Oneline shopping
Social media influencers
Virtual reality
Artificial intelligence
Food Truck/Pop Ups
Current Trend in the UK
Online Learning
Oneline shopping
Pop ups
Upcycling
Activity Choose one social issue and one trend
Create an soc ent
Choose an impact and income stream
Day 1 - Brainstorming ideas for soc ents in the UAE,
BSEP and SSE 2018
Mariam, Khadija, Fatima and I talked about low youth employment and how this could be connected to food trucks and pop ups.
Day 1 - Brainstorming ideas for soc ents in the UAE,
BSEP and SSE 2018
What needs to happen or be in place for me to be successful starting and/or developing a sustainable social venture.
Prompts
Whats needs to happen? e.g. find more time
What do I need? Family support
What needs to change?
What do I need to do differently
What skills do I need to develop?
We started the day by preparing for Jen MacKay's session for Tuesday afternoon.
Questions we had to prepare for Jen's session
What does a leader mean being to you?
Being a leader means being passionate, honesty, dedication, credibility and good health.
What is your biggest leadership strength?
Happy, Organised, Optimistic, Powerful, Satisfied, and Compassion.
What one leadership quality could you benefit from developing?
Being heard and a little more assertiveness and confident.
Imagine it is 10 years into the future
What impact do you want your leadership to have?
Humble, Compassionate and Dedicated.
Expert Session with Alisdair Inglis
INTRODUCTION AND AIMS OF THE MARKETING MASTERCLASS
For this session we were given a marketing handout.
Day 2 - Expert Session with Alisdair Inglis
BSEP and SSE 2018
Your unique proposition - What unique problems do you solve for your customers.
Day 2 - Expert Session with Alisdair Inglis
BSEP and SSE 2018
NOT ALL PROBLEMS ARE EQUAL
What 3 problems are you solving for your consumers.
1. Saving consumers valuable time and effort, by importing and procuring bespoke hand crafted ft products.
2. Raising awareness for fairtade by showcasing products, helping consumers to become ethical responsible consumers.
3. Changing and challenging the mindsets of consumers by sharing producer stories and explaining the benefits of fairtrade, environmentally, socially and economically.
Activity describe a product
Describe 5 features
My product
My Gold BAG
Hand embroidered bag by the Lahu Tribe
The gold bag is unique and special, its hand made not machine made and no-one will have a duplicate
Fair trade and ethical
It made AMY me feel good, She was so happy she was not exploiting anyone. She expressed it was good for her conscience.
Bespoke and beautiful this feature can be related to the bag
Durable
Long lasting, quality, it does encourage repeat purchase and also encourage consumers to purchase other ft products
Activity Page 6
We worked in pairs and filled out page 6
Day 2 - Expert Session with Alisdair Inglis
BSEP and SSE 2018
Worth through the different segments for your business.
Who is the knowledge holder ie. tourist companies/guides, hotels, b2b and wholesale opportunities
PART 2 webinar, October 2018 tbc
Witness Session with Sally Heard
Day 2 - Expert Session with Sally Heard CEO of SSE Cornwall,
Act Hotel, Sharjah 2018
Advisory Session
Advisory Boards
Questions
What's in it for the (specialists advisors) them?
How to select specialists?
When to organise?
Why set this up?
Format of meetings
Background of members?
How to get those on board?
The selection process is key
Vary the skills people can bring to the table, Legal, Marketing or Finance
Do Not to assume they understand your business model
Make it a social event
Your working from trust
4 meetings a year
The session was audio recorded.
Activity 1 - We started the day using postcards to explain what we were bringing to the session. I chose a gentleman smiling which resonated with me.
His smile was a smile of contentment peace of mind and satisfaction.
I wanted to bring happiness, joy and laughter to the group.
We all gave an update about our mentors and our interaction with them.
WITNESS SESSION WITH RABEE ZURELKAT
JORDANIAN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND FOUNDER OF ZIKRA INITIATIVE.
http://www.zikrainitiative.org
About Rabee Zurelkat
Studied marketing and advertising in Jordan.
He drove across Jordan when he received his driving license
He said he felt sad and mad due to the marginalization faced by rural communities..
In 2004 there was no Facebook so he couldn't post where he could volunteer.
During Ramadan he approached the Islamic Centre.
We watched a video about Umm Omar and we all valued and appreciated her innovative ways. We all agreed that she was a school of self sufficiency.
video here
Rabee talked us through his slides and presentation.
Umm Ommar is an beautiful example about how to live a better life without modernity and how to be connected to life.
How to productive and responsible and how to make use of resources and your environment.
Exchange to Change
Everyone is giver and receiver.
Every community has something to offer and its not about a hero victim relationship/concept.
Exchange Tourism
Companies and Universities to come to the village
Umm Omar is teaching others how to become sustainability
35 dollars per person (fee) this not charity it is a fee for her services.
No foreign aid
Local resources
Projects are self funded
More sustainable
Wire cars
Physics, Engineering, Mathematics the value of the toy.
Making products from local resources
The kids from villages are teaching children from private school children to make the local cars and products.
We all have something to offer.
Notes referring to Q&A
The Cause will keep you going
Two entities non profit and consultancy
Rabee was an ASHOKA FELLOW and received a stipend for 3 years
A personal passion
Middle Eastern naaee
Arabic instrument was not available in Amann
Reed similar to sugar cane
He ordered one from Syria.
Quality is bad in Jordan.
He visited many valleys and conducted research
His friend was a naeee player
The first nayee working workship
Rabee established with House of the NAYEE Bait al Nayee
Nayee is 7000 years old
Its a local resource
Divide between rural and city.
AFTERNOON SESSION WITH JEN MACKAY
This session was continued from our first session in London.
Day 3 Expert Session with Jen MacKay
BSEP and SSE 2018
Day 3 Expert Session with Jen MacKay
Asma Ahmed and Assia BSEP and SSE 2018
On Wednesday we visited Reem who created ENABLE.
Day 4 -Visit to Enable Dubai Festival City,
BSEP and SSE London and Cornwall 2018
Day 4 - Visit to Enable Dubai, BSEP and SSE
London and Cornwall 2018
A beautiful succulent available at ENABLE, DUBAI, UAE
Day 4 - Visit to Enable Dubai,
BSEP and SSE London and Cornwall 2018
Day 4 - Succulent Planter purchased while visiting Enable
Dubai Festival City
This session is a continuation of our session with Reetu in London.
Comparing fashion houses Monsoon and Zara.
Monsoon Value Preposition Analysis
What is the product?
What's the value?
Whats the offer?
Who are they offering?
Diferrences
Price points
VALUE PROPOSITION
Whats in it for customers, what value are offering them?
It explains how your product solves customers problems or improves their situation.
VALUE PROPOSITION: OVERVIEW
A clear stament of the benefits that you can uniquely offer your customers
Slide photo
Product Centric and Customer Centric
YOU WANT TO BE CUSTOMER CENTRIC not PRODUCT CENTRIC
Customer Centric
Create best solution for customer
Customer culture: searching for new needs to fill
New solution develop: customer experience management
Rewards deep insights into customer
3 COMPONENTS of VP
Customer Avatar
Day 5 Expert Session with Reetu Sood Customer Avatar worksheet
A Day in the Life
LOOK AT EARLY ADOPTERS
CUSTOMER JOBS
Trigger questions
handout
The VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS
handout
CUSTOMER PAINS
Trigger questions
handouts
Orange post its
CUSTOMER GAINS
trigger questions
refer to your orange post its
THE VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS
Day 5 - Expert Session, value Preposition with Reetu Sood,
BSEP and SSE London/Cornwall 2018
Pain relievers
Day 5 Expert Session with Reetu Sood pain relievers worksheet
VALUE PROPOSITION TEMPLATE
Day 5 - Expert Session, value preposition template with Reetu Sood,
BSEP and SSE London/Cornwall 2018
ASSESSING VP
handouts
ZOOM CONFERENCE in INDIA with SSE INDIA
We ended the week with a zoom call to SSE India.
FAREWELLS
Day 5 - FAREWELLS, Thursday 20th September 2018
Succulent Gift
Day 5 - Farewells with Amy and Sally of SSE London Cornwall,
BSEP and NAMA Sharjah 2018
Day 5 - Farewells with Khadija,
BSEP and NAMA Sharjah 2018
Day 5 - Farewells with Asma and Maryam Q.
BSEP and NAMA Sharjah, Sept 2018
Day 4 - Visit to Enable Dubai, SSE London,
BSEP NAMA Sharjah September 2018
During the SSE course in Sharjah I received an email from Dr Sara Calvo founder of Living in Minca.
Dr Calvo had kindly requested that I record a video message to explain how her MOOC Social Enterprise Turning Ideas into Action had assisted me and The Little Fair Trade Shop to move forward.
The video would be used to support her nomination at The 4th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Teaching Awards Awards - University of Aveiro Portugal.
I'm very happy to announce that Dr Calvo won.
Certificate of Merit awarded to Dr Sara Calvo
I've attached my video below for those interested.
video tba
Alisdair Inglis and WE ARE GROW
Dr Sara Calvo and Living in Minca
School for Social Entrepreneurs
Bees Wax Candles
Vegard Olsen - The Coaching Partner
Reetu Sood - Social Enterprise Consultant
Jennifer MacKay - Jump Training & Development
Jo van Osch - Soulfully Connected.co
Janie Wilson
School for Social Entrepreneurs Cornwall
The ArtHouse
Pendennis Castle Falmouth
Charlotte Hill
Tracey Roose
Steve Neale
The Poly Falmouth
Louise Treacher - Founder 4GeorgeLtd
Tim Van Berkel - The Cornish Seaweed Company
Charlotte Young
The Eden Project
This month my right shoulder is still very painful and I have struggled to record this vlog and type this blog.
This month I supported fairtrade fortnight 2024 and celebrated Fairtrade's 30th Anniversary.
Here is my Easy Fairtrade Cocoa and Fairtrade Bananas Recipe which I baked for Fairtrade Fortnight 2024.
I have tried my best to translate this recipe in Urdu.
یہ ہے میری ایزی فیئرٹریڈ کوکو اور فیئر ٹریڈ کیلے کی ترکیب جسے میں نے فیئر ٹریڈ فورٹ نائٹ 2024 کے لیے پکایا تھا۔
میں نے اس ترکیب کا اردو میں ترجمہ کرنے کی پوری کوشش کی ہے۔
This month I supported fairtrade fortnight 2024 and celebrated Fairtrade's 30th Anniversary.
Sign up to get the latest on fair trade fashion.
I'm Sabeena Ahmed owner and creator of The Little Fair Trade Shop. I've been an individual associate member of the World Fair Trade Organization since 2011 and together with my artisans I bring you a bespoke collection of ethically sourced fashion & gifts.
© 2024 The Little Fair Trade Shop. “We love to listen to our customers and for this reason we would be delighted to hear from you if you would like a bespoke fair trade product made especially for you.”
The Little Fair Trade Shop Ltd
Registered in England & Wales
Company Number 08189489
