Archive for July, 2010

Afghan businesswoman Lima Ahmad wanted as much education as possible when she came to Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2006 as a Project Artemis fellow. She welcomed the two-week business course in Glendale, Arizona, but dreamed of earning a full degree.

Lima finally will get the chance when she arrives Aug. 15, 2010, as a full-time student at Bucknell Univeristy in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. “Higher education is considered a basic need in this era, but for many Afghans it is still a dream,” Lima said.  “My dream is to be a global advocate for peace and development, and this opportunity at Bucknell University will help me to shape my career.”

Erica (Haefner) Ferro ’97, a Project Artemis mentor who has worked with Lima for four years, will meet Lima at the airport in Pennsylvania and help her move into her college dormitory. The friends have not seen each other in person since their days together at Thunderbird.

Project Artemis mentors make a two-year commitment to work with their Afghan counterparts, but Erica decided to extend her relationship with Lima.

“I don’t think I ever will be done,” said Erica, an IBM business development manager in Colorado. “Lima and I have a great relationship, and I think we are hooked together for life.”

Lima came to Thunderbird with 14 other Afghan businesswomen in the second cohort of Project Artemis, a women’s empowerment program that Thunderbird launched in 2005. The third cohort came to campus in 2008, and a fourth group will arrive in October 2010.

Lima, who was 23 at the time, ran a clothing design and production company called Made in Afghanistan. When she returned to Kabul, she expanded the business and found other sources of income.

She also pursued a degree in international relations at the American University of Afghanistan, but the ongoing war in Afghanistan created interruptions.

“Every time there was a bomb or some sort of incident, the instructors would get pulled out,” Erica said. “This created long delays.”

Erica said her friend has shown a remarkable ability to reinvent her dreams and press forward regardless of the obstacles. “She works and works until she gets what she wants,” Erica said. “She never gives up.”

Women in many parts of Afghanistan face persecution and violence when they enter the work force, but Lima said they have become a powerful force in the economy. “Women are business owners,” she said. “They are doctors, politicians, social workers and leaders. I am also trying my bit to contribute to my country development and to maintain a peaceful world.”

Follow Lima’s blog, which she started in January 2010.

Thunderbird MBA student Emily Eckert, ‘11, is currently working as Reporting Officer Intern for FLAG International in Afghanistan. FLAG is a consulting company that provides technical and management consulting services for companies seeking to generate an above-average return on the capital of their owners and investors. You can read more about Emily’s work in Kabul here.

By: Wynona Heim, Program Manager, Afghanistan, Thunderbird for Good

The second annual 10,000 Women Leadership Academy brought more than 100 partners from 20 countries worldwide together in Washington, DC from June 6th – 9th, 2010. The entire Thunderbird for Good team was in attendance to represent the 10,000 Women programs that Thunderbird partners with in Afghanistan and Peru.

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women business training program has provided entrepreneurial training to 2,000 women with high potential businesses or concepts for businesses in 20 developing economies in the first two years of the initiative.

Former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice addressed participants at a dinner held at the newly re-opened Smithsonian National Museum of American History, “On many occasions I’ve been asked, what’s the one thing you would do if you could wave a magic wand and make the world better? And I always come to one as central: I would empower women.”

We at Thunderbird for Good wholeheartedly agree! The significance of economically empowering women was evidenced by four 10,000 Women graduates who attended the conference as honored scholars from Brazil, Kenya, India, and our own graduate from the Afghan program, Masooma Habibi. Masooma spoke eloquently to the group. “Before I started 10,000 Women, I didn’t have a business, I just had a dream,” she said. “But 10,000 Women was like turning a switch. Everything changed. Now I have 22 employees.”

The academy was held over three days and included speaker sessions and interactive workshops that focused on the challenges partners faced in administering the initiative, as well as broader trends in empowering women in developing economies. Influential leaders in this area came together to speak to participants during the three day conference, including: Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s issues Melanne Verveer, Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass, founder and CEO of Women for Women International Zainab Salbi, and more.

Thunderbird for Good and other program participants made maximum use of the opportunity to share best practices and insights gained from the first two years and 2,000 graduates of the initiative. However, we all agreed that the very best part of the Leadership Academy was the chance to finally put faces to names and get to know in person all of the colleagues that we had previously known primarily over phone and e-mail communications.