Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry

AWCCI’s and Partner’s ( Roshan Telecom) efforts resulted in action Based on collaboration between AWCCI and Roshan telecommunications

company, Women Empowered Organization was able to get connected to

this opportunity through AWCCI. Hamida Lesany, President of Women

Empowered Organization, a member of AWCCI, in mobile repairing

section which is a section of her organization, could launch a mini-shop of

Roshan Telecom in Dasht-e-Barchi to facilitate the provision of Roshan

Telecoms products and services. The employees of this mini-shop are all

females so that women can easily visit this mini-shop for buying Roshan

SIM cards, credit cards, internet services, and others.

AWCCI is thankful to Roshan Telecom for creating such opportunities to

empower women economically.

Goldozi Partnership Network Conference

AWCCI as a stakeholder of Goldozi Partnership Network (GPN) a FHi360 Afghanistan Job Creation Project (AJCP)

participated in GPN Conference on August 7, 2018. Goldozi is a newly started project which aims to create 550 job

opportunities for women in hand embroidery, so AWCCI provided inputs and introduced around 20 women-owned

businesses of embroidery associations to them.

Afghanistan Handicraft Promotion Center (AHPC) launched its new branch and

“Empowered Women’s Handicraft” Exhibition in Roshan plaza, Kabul!

Director of Handicraft Promotion Center, Mr. Mohammad Shafiq Sekandari,

by allocating five shops at Roshan Plaza to handicraft Promotion Center

launched the second branch of Handicrafts and Empowered Women’s

Handicraft Exhibition on August 13, 2018.

Ms. Wafeq appreciated their initiative and mentioned that handicrafts

exhibition is one of the main parts of AWCCI’s activities. Ms. Wafeq

emphasized on cooperation between private, government and international

organizations activities and said that it is the coordination between the

organizations that will result in more success of business activities.

August 2018 Newsletter

Date of Issue: 11/9/2018

Issue#: 9

Highlights of the Month

AWCCI delegaton’s study visit to ALEAP Women Industrial Park, Hyderabad India

Emergency General Assembly of AWCCI election of three Baord members

for the emptied seats – Practice of democracy and good governance

AWCCI-East Zone Nangarhar Office Physical Launch

Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry

AWCCI delegation study visit to ALEAP ( Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India)

Women’s Industrial Park

A delegation of AWCCI visited ALEAP (Association of Lady

Entrepreneurs of India) industrial park in Hyderabad on 8th to

10th August. In total 10 Afghan delegation from AWCCI

together with Ms. Palwasha Amin Ahmadzia Economic

Consult to First Lady, Mr. Sabawoon Ahmadzai UN Women

Economic member, and David Fox Business Consultant to

AWCCI participated. The main goal of this visit was visiting

ALEAP industrial park and learning from their experiences.

UNWomen sponsored this study tour.

ALEAP industrial park has 170 production companies

members which are all women owned and women led

companies as well as 60% of this Park’s employees are

women.

Mentioning achievements of this visit, Ms. Suraya Saifi learned more about box making and got new ideas for making

such company in the country, Ms. Mohsena Saqeb visited clothing industry and wants to bring some new changes in

her company and meeting of Ms. Binazir Yakta with Indian business women also went well in attracting buyers dried

fruit. Besides, AWCCI makes a documentary from ALEAP industrial park visit and Mr. David Fox will write a

Business Plan for establishing Indusrial Parks in Afghanistan.

Launch of 2nd mini-services center of Roshan Telecommunication in Mazar-e-sharif

Roshan Telecommunication Company opened the second branch of its mini

stores which is lead by a member of AWCCI Mrs. Sima Hashimi, in Mazar-e

Sharif on August 14th . It is worth mentioning that the first Roshan mini store for

women which is lead by women was opened in Kabul last month. For buying sim

cards and solving any problem related to network, people can refer to these stores.

Balkh women Chamber of commerce appreciate the Roshan telecommunication

company support for more economic empowerment of Afghan women.

AWCCI Nangarhar branch is ready to serve

AWCCI President Ms. Manizha Wafeq and Public Relations officer of AWCCI Ms. Kawsar Rahimi visited

Nangarhar Board of Directors on August 28, 2018. The main goal of this trip was providing an orientation and

planning with newly hired zone manager of Nangarhar Ms. Sadia

Umarkhill. Also, AWCCI President and Nangarhar Board members

met Dr. Shams the President of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce

and Industry (ACCI) in Nangarhar, and Deputy Governor of

Nangarhar H.E Ms. Habiba Kakar.

As AWCCI and ACCI in Nangarhar had met and agreed to allocate

two office rooms to AWCCI in Nangarhar, Board members

accompanied by Ms. Wafeq went and saw the office rooms. Ms.

Wafeq thanked Dr. Shams for their sincere cooperation and asked

them for their further support in the future. At the meeting with Ms.

Kakar, Ms. Wafeq introduced AWCCI and talked about its details of

Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry

establishment, services and achievements since last year and its background as LEAD(Leading Enterpreneurs for

Afghanistan Development). Ms. Kakar said she will try her best to support AWCCI and promised to do whatever she

can to improve business women.

At the end of the meeting, AWCCI delegation thanked Ms. Kakar for her time and presented a sample of women’s

handicraft to her as a gift for her appointment as Deputy Governor of Nangarhar.

West Zone – Herat office Board of Directors meeting held

Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry West Zone

– Herat office held a meeting with board members on August 26, 2018.

The purpose of meeting was to develop AWCCI activities in Herat.

This meeting focused on Participation of AWCCI- West Zone in round

table of Help Organization, Drafting MoU with FAO , Discussion

about research program about business women’s problem, Discuss

about the exposure visit of Ladies entrepreneurs and women industrial

association ALEAP located in HaydarAbad, India.

AWCCI North Zone-Balkh One-day training of CIPE

AWCCI in cooperation with Center for International Private

Enterprise (CIPE) launched a training on topics such as Market

Economy and Market characteristics, Building Advocacy Strategy,

strategy techniques and coalition building for 36 women in Mazar-e-

Sharif Balkh. In this training which was conducted for a full day,

participants were mainly businesswomen, university students,

AWCCI Balkh staff, and Board Members. The training contained

presentation on AWCCI-Balkh services and activities for

businesswomen and training by Presenter of CIPE Mr. Murad.

AWCCI meeting with Insurance Affairs Directorate of Ministry of Finance

AWCCI had a meeting with Insurance General Directorate of

Ministry of Finance on August 29, 2018. In this meeting Director

of Insurance Affairs talked about Insurance Affairs services and

expressed their interest to cooperate with AWCCI members.

AWCCI appreciated their interest for cooperation and gave them

time for delivering a presenteation in one of AWCCI events.

Emergency General Assembly of Afghanistan Women

Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) to elect

three vacant Board of Director’s Members – Practice of

democracy and goodgovernance

AWCCI held emergency general assembly to elect three Board

members for emptied seats on Thursday August 30, 2018 at

AWCCI office.

Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The aim for this event was to elect three board members based

on the decisions made in board meeting held in July 2018 by

the remaining 8 members. In this event the chamber’s members

and current Board members participated. Around 40 members

attended the program.

In this program, three members were chosen by general

assembly to monitore the whole procedure of election.

candidates introduced themselves, talked about their

achievements and plans for AWCCI development.

In this program business women who have membership of

AWCCI and the current Board of Directors voted for their

desired candidates and ones with majority of the votes were chosen elected as new members of Direction.

Namely, Nastaran Bina, Mohsena Saqeb and Sameera Sarwar were the top three candidates with majority

of the votes and the 11 board member based on By-law became completed.

AWCCI West zone Board members visited with Herat’s Mayar

AWCCI West zone Board members had a meeting with Mr.

Mohammad Daud Anwari, the Mayor of Herat on August 29, 2018.

In this meeting, Board members of Herat introduced AWCCI to Mr.

Anwari, they planned for establishing standard markets for women-

owned businesses products and services, and talked about

considering different market sectors in a standard way, considering

proper places for markets, providing places for Bazaars and

seasonal exhibitions.Mr. Anwari appreciated AWCCI’s hard work

and promices his further cooperation with them.

AWCCI North Zone-Balkh Board members meeting

AWCCI-Balkh conducted its weekly Board Member meeting on

August 29th, 2018. In this meeting, they discussed on working

with GIZ, launching permenent exhibition parks by AWCCI-

Balkh, and linking and signing an agreement with different key

organizations in Balkh for developing tangible activities for

business women. Also, in this meeting Sharara TV which is

Balkh Directorate of Municipality TV had an interview on

AWCCI-Balkh activities.