PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS®

Did you know that an estimated 6%-7% of full-time workers in the US experience major depression, costing employers an estimated $44 billion per year in lost production time? Joy Gihana is the Founder and CEO of Family Life and Beyond and holds a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology. You will get many tips for handling the stress of COVID and everyday life. www.TrailBlazersImpact

Are you courageous? Imagine yourself walking down a street in Afghanistan. You have to be accompanied by a male relative. As you walk along, the potential of a bomb exploding is very real. How do you economically and socially empower oppressed women? Education. By arming women with knowledge, they are able to develop themselves and their households. Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai has a passion that continues driving through adversity again and again. She’s lived under the Taliban regime in Pakistan, she has provided training programs and opportunities for women in Afghanistan. She has tried and failed and gotten up again to try another avenue. Her latest venture is Eagle Online Academy, which is a nonprofit organization offering quality, flexible online educational programs globally. She feels that a good quality education can be life-changing for girls and women giving them marketable skills. www.TrailBlazersImpact.com

Dr. Sharifa Hesarnaee of Kabul, Afghanistan, tells about struggling to maintain the OB/GYN department in a Kabul hospital dealing with both COVID-19 and a horrific terrorist attack on the hospital. Dr. Susan Chambers of Oklahoma City, OK, is her mentor who has continued to be a friend to Sharifa during all this as well as work herself in a hospital in the United States during COVID. You will get a feeling of what they mean by "security" being their biggest worry. The comparison of the environments is a "must listen!"

Barbara Crain, along with her husband, pioneered grass-fed dairy and beef in the state of Oklahoma. Together they have taken a tired, underproducing wheat farm and turned it into a profitable, environmentally responsible value-added grass-fed dairy farm. They began dairy farming in 1991 and built the processing plant in 2005 so they could process their own milk. Barbara oversees manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of all the products. She would like to be an example of how a small farm can be profitable, sustainable, and a viable option for the next generation. Barbara has hosted PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® women from both Afghanistan and Rwanda.

Michel Buthion is considered a fine food and wine aficionado not just in Oklahoma, but around the globe. Other ventures have included turning a vintage theatre into a dining and event center, building and managing the first boutique hotel food and beverage concept in the City, taking over a favorite Italian eatery in town, and finally, developing and managing that long dreamed of saloon and chop house in Stockyards City. At the same time, La Baguette Bistro has grown into a full bar and dining room anchored by their own butchery, bakery, and fine wine store. Hear about the fun events he orchestrated to keep his business alive during COVID-19!

Manizha Wafeq graduated from the inaugural PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® class in 2007 and is currently teaching her 13th year of the program in Kabul as the In-Country Facilitator for Afghanistan. In this role, she has taught and mentored more than 400 Afghan businesswomen in Kabul and other smaller provinces. She tells us what is happening in Afghanistan with the hospital attack and the coronavirus. LISTEN to her full story on Episode 7 of Peace Through Business Podcast.

Ms. Mohseni Saqeb is the Founder and President of Jama Saqeb Design and Production Company in Afghanistan. She is a skilled business woman with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Jama's products in the clothing design sector combine new, classic and local designs such as formal, local and traditional clothing, handbags, pillow covers and mobile phones with new, classic and local designs. The company now provides services in different provinces and countries in America, Australia, Europe and Asia.

Ep. 35 - Florence Isaro is a passionate linguist who works as a translator with two bachelor’s degrees, one in Political Science and one in English-French translation. As an adult in Rwanda, she has seen firsthand how challenging it is for parents to get their children to and from the public library. Her very inspiring objective for her business, Books and Brains Ltd. is to create an enterprise that will not only help kids discover the power of books but will also make those books more accessible to those children who don’t have the luxury of a public library in their neighborhood.

Barbara Umuhoza is a pastor and the owner of Eclat Communications. She’s particularly dedicated to helping her country become a regional conference hub for east Africa. Her company has a wide spread of services, such as translation, content production, and social media usage. She talks about how COVID has changed the pastoral mission. She also has a new television station channel! LISTEN to her full episode 16 on Peace Through Business podcast.

After a long career in the fashion industry, Sylvia Scott was ready for a career pivot. New work led her to coordinating a mother-daughter entrepreneurship summit, and it was the springboard for a desire to help teen girls find a path to entrepreneurship. Her organization, the Girls CEO Connection, offers coaching, mentoring, and regular conferences that connect girls with business leaders and training in how to own their success. Her help hasn’t stopped there, as she also has been connected with women in Afghanistan through the Peace Through Business program. She has been moved by the women’s sacrifices and commitment to building a future in the war-plagued nation. Shop on our site for her book, Realizing a Vision, Your Toolkit for Success.

As president of Funds for Learning, Cathy Cruzan leads her the consultancy in assisting schools and libraries navigate the E-rate program, a critical source of discounts on Internet services. She has a broad portfolio at the company, overseeing their various business efforts. With this experience, she was an ideal mentor for the Peace Through Business program, where she was embraced the role of guiding rising business leaders from Rwanda in how to find success and grow their business. In this podcast she discusses the heartbreak of those whose families were killed in the Rwandan genocide. Yet lasting bonds were formed over the shared experiences and challenges these women shared with those everywhere who enter business.

Alyssa Weathers-Murphy knows the dread of an unfulfilling corporate job. One day, it was finally time to put her considerable skills and passion to use on her own business, striking out to launch her own marketing agency. Nearly a year later, Siren Media is growing fast with an all-female team of close-knit creatives who help small businesses tell their stories and build success. Her team offers graphic and web design, social media content, search engine marketing, and other key services to a diverse client base. A third-generation small business owner, Weathers-Murphy shares her journey and strategies for how women can self-advocate and support others in their networks.

After Ginger Sloan had her first daughter, she was determined to work from home. On a whim, she answered a radio ad to become a medical transcriptionist, quickly finishing coursework and embarking on a new career. She grew a solo operation into Encore Medical Services, with a team of transcriptionists providing medical clients with rapid turnaround for their transcription needs. She’s learned the ups and downs of being a woman in the business world, gaining diligence in who to connect with for growing a business. Sloan shares these tips and more with businesswomen from Rwanda and Afghanistan through the Peace Through Business program. She cherishes these experiences and has much to share how she’s connected with these women through their shared experiences.

Hair Salon owner Jan Hill spent years building a successful business and helping her employees achieve success. However, after contracting an illness that resulted in the loss of using her hands, she couldn’t do hairdresser work any longer. While she could still run the business, Hill wanted to channel energy elsewhere. She was connected to the Peace Through Business program, and encountered the life-changing experience of mentoring women from Rwanda. She’s worked on helping women gain business strategy skills, but more importantly she learned as much about their resilience and the connections that can occur across cultures.

Sonu Ratra embodies the immigrant dream of coming to America and seeking success. She arrived from her native India with a pair of suitcases and just the money in her pockets as she and her husband came to chase new opportunities in the 90s in California’s Silicon Valley. Ratra recounts the journey that culminated in her founding of Akraya, a leader in IT consulting and digital enterprise staffing. Her company’s Women Back to Work program also helps companies tap into the overlooked talent pool of women returning to work after an absence. Ratra details her considerable effort at supporting women in business, including the Peace Through Business initiative.

Business success isn’t built on just hoping for the right outcome. That’s why consultant Angelika Coughlan is always telling her clients to burn that bridge of hope. Entrepreneurs must do the hard work of understanding who their customers are and what they care about. One of her most satisfying experiences with that message is extending it to women business owners in Rwanda with the Peace Through Business program. Through this mentorship she’s been inspired by how they take on challenging circumstances and reach new heights for the companies they’re building. Through her company The Success Catalyst, she’s always offering that spark of inspiration to her clients, pushing them to focus on what leads to success.

Mary Ruppert-Stroescu believes clothing can play a role in improving health outcomes. A longtime fashion designer, she is passionate about the potential for EKG and other types of monitoring systems to be embedded in clothing, delivering better information to patients and doctors. She designed and manufactured her own clothing and owned a small boutique in Paris for years, part of her lifelong passion for fashion and design. She brings that experience to the Peace Through Business program, mentoring women in industry strategy and helping them build up marketing skills. The women from Rwanda and Afghanistan inject new ideas to her work, regularly inspiring her with their strengths.

As editor and publisher of Enterprising Women Magazine, Monica Smiley knows the challenges women face in business. Yet what she’s seen here in the U.S. pales to the experiences of female entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. Their resilience and ability to succeed, however, leaves her continually inspired. Through her work with the Peace Through Business program, she’s helped mentor women through the unique challenges they face in their home country. In Afghanistan, women must still deal with the Taliban and major barriers to entry. In Rwanda, women are embracing technology and playing a pivotal role in rebuilding the country, though gender stereotypes remain. Learn more about these moving stories and how these women are ‘holding up the sky.’

The Peace Through Business program provides women from Rwanda and Afghanistan with the essential skills they need to unleash their entrepreneurial potential. Karel Ford directs the mentorship side with the initiative, pairing up U.S.-based business leaders with women who are launching and building businesses, often in challenging and sometimes dangerous, circumstances. Ford describes how the women who enter the program thrive, building stronger partnerships with their American counterparts and expanding their networks in their home countries. Graduates have embraced challenges such as helping women arrested for selling their goods on the street by taking them under their wing to build legitimate businesses. She is continually inspired by how they are transforming their world.

Karel Ford wants to see women worldwide have the freedom and skills to start their own businesses. This is why she heads the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women, where she and her team mentor women in Rwanda and Afghanistan giving them valuable entrepreneurship skills to help them find success in their home country. Women in the program learn critical skills to launch their business, nurture its growth, and work within their political systems to achieve lasting change. Ford describes the lifelong bonds formed through mentorship training and seeing the women build up their careers and communities, driving a female-powered future.