Tracking the Success Series - 1

In May 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, Sunita Anandarajah from The Asia Foundation (TAF) contacted me with the news that Visa Foundation was keen to work on a regional program related to Covid-19 struggles. TAF’s Concept Note was accepted, and Visa Foundation had awarded TAF a grant for a three-country (Malaysia, Nepal, and Myanmar) project titled “Accelerating Women’s Economic Advancement and Responding to Gender-Based Violence in Asia During the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

During my term as Training Chairman and later as an EXCO for Special Projects in NAWEM, I had developed and executed several classroom training projects for women in business. This new one that will be implemented during a total lockdown period was definitely going to be a challenge for me, but I knew that this was worth doing! I told Sunita let’s do this; we will learn and fine tune the program as we go.

This was the start of the Tech4Her@NAWEM program – a fully online training program designed to help women micro-entrepreneurs turn their venture into a viable online enterprise. I am a strong believer in experimentation, so the focus of the program was to teach entrepreneurs to validate their ideas through data and experimentation, refine and implement their business strategy, and use digital marketing to increase sales and grow their business.

A few things that we decided to incorporate:

1. This must be a long-term program to allow for sufficient time for experimentation and learning. The program spans 10 months and classes are conducted as half-day sessions twice a week on weekdays only.

2. Trainees will be guided and supported through this journey with coaching & mentoring: One-to-One coaching sessions with Certified Coaches and expert advise in key areas of finance and marketing.

3. We will facilitate business linkages with government and non-government agencies so that the entrepreneurs get the additional support to grow their businesses.

The program was launched in August 2020 with the first online session on 1st September 2020 and will end in July 2021. Today, I am incredibly happy to say that our first batch of entrepreneurs have grown beyond our expectations; they have greater business clarity, they are collaborating with each other and celebrating each others success.

I have learnt so much from this journey!