Artemis fellows graduate from Thunderbird program

The 15 Afghanistan women who took part in Thunderbird’s Project Artemis departed from the two-week seminar ready to start new business and impart what they learned to other businesswomen in the war-torn nation.

“Everything I learned I will transfer,” said Soraya, who runs a growing child daycare business in Kabul. “I was not a businesswoman but I am now. I’ll show other women how with a little money how you can open a business.”

The women arrived on Thunderbird’s Glendale campus Nov. 4, and for two weeks got business instruction from Thunderbird’s faculty, went on site visits to local business and worked with their businesswomen mentors on their business plans. The classroom work focused on marketing, finance and management.

Like the women who took part in the first Project Artemis, the fellows in this class will return to Afghanistan to start businesses or grow the ones they already had in operation.

“Courageous Afghan women such as these can make an impact in their country if they are given the tools to succeed,” said Kellie Kreiser, director of Thunderbird for Good, the organizer of the program.

Lima, a 23-year old women who lives, plans to take what she learned at Thunderbird and grow her clothing design and production company, Made in Afghanistan.

“I want my own things to be worn by local people,” said Lima, who speaks four languages and is learning a fifth.
 
A number of the women from the first class of Project Artemis have a thriving business in Afghanistan. Rangina, a 28 year old, is the owner of a business with more than 500 employees that exports products worldwide. She does this all in a patriarchal, war-torn environment where women still have no legal protection.

“The other women and I dedicated to this project know that working is the only real alternative to insecurity,” said Rangina, whose business makes embroidered shawls, pillows and wall hangings. “We have given up on the men in this region, who only know—and love—war and destruction. We women have taken it upon ourselves to stitch the future of peace for our children. Embroidery is the skill we have, and love and patience is what we can give to our families and our country. We will work to help rebuild this war-torn nation.”

Others from last year’s class include Kamela, who grew her Kabul-based construction company and now has nearly 300 women making gabions, which are wire boxes used in the building of dams and foundations. She also started teaching other Afghans the skills she learned at Thunderbird. Yet another is Katrin, who developed a human resource consulting practice in conjunction with her existing micro-finance business. To date, she has loaned more than $200,000 to more than 3,000 clients.

“It’s often been said that the future of the entire Islamic world depends on Afghanistan, and the corollary to that is the future of Afghanistan depends on its women,” said Barbara Barrett, a member of Thunderbird's Board of Trustees, who also serves on the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council. Barrett spearheaded the creation of Project Artemis and remains closely involved with its continued success. 

Project Artemis fellows are selected for the program based on the strength of their business ideas, level of business knowledge, experience, personality and perceived ability to do well in the program.

Some of the women who attended Project Artemis 2006 were:
Habiba, an engineer who formed the Association of Women Engineers in Afghanistan. Her business is the construction of small villages.

Maliha, a basketball player and the owner of Alizarin Assisi Ltd., currently exports cars, but her passion is to bring sports to the women of Afghanistan.

Margi’s started Venus Fitness Center. She identified a gap in the marketplace and opened a gym, so women would have a place to exercise.

Local businesswomen and Thunderbird alumnae again are serving as mentors to the Afghan women, and have promised to help the fellows for the next two years. His Excellency Said Jawad, the Afghanistan ambassador to the United States, presided over the graduation ceremony, which was held Nov.16.

Project Artemis is the result of a public-private partnership between government and private industry.  Thunderbird works with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, the Business Council for Peace (BPeace) and the Afghan Women’s Business Federation (AWBF) to make the program a reality.
AWBF is a new trade association for businesswomen in Afghanistan, from which many of the new Artemis class was selected. Working with the association, which was founded by two Afghan women from last year’s program, guarantees a group of committed women with access to basic business resources inside their country.