Celebrating International Women's Day

On Saturday 5 March Sancoma organised an International Women's Day celebration.

In our week of staggered comings and goings, one woman from the Ethiopian delegation, one from the Tanzanian delegation and three from the Ugandan delegation attended. Each and every one experienced value, finding valuable new contacts and getting important new leads.

The event was set up as a trade fair and a conference, with a gala dinner after. Trade relations were established. A London entrepreneur in search of fabric for the embroidered bedspreads she makes was delighted to meet Engedaye and begin to discuss importing Ethiopian cloth for her work.

Ugandan Maria found several potential importers of her pineapples.

Dina Bina moved the crowd with her speech: What will you do, London? The tenor of her speech was: in Africa women are moving mountains to participate in the opportunities that international trade offers. East African women in London can be part of the experience. They can certainly be responsible for developing wealth.

Councilor Elizabeth Kangethe of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham continued on the same theme. The Councillor had been very confronted by the fact that only 5 of the planned 12 African women entrepreneurs met with her two evenings earlier. The others had been denied a visa for the UK and were still trying to get in to the country. She shared that East African women with UK passports had so many possibilities. Not only can they move easily between the UK and East Africa, they can move easily within Europe. Yes we can, she said. We can grasp the opportunities available.

Throughout the conference, photo's taken during the week of intensive meetings flashed on a screen. They come from The Reporter, Sacoma's online magazine. Check it out!

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the conference was the 20 minute presentation by Kevin Ma on the opportunities the Olympics offer all of us in 2012. He described the many opportunities available to entrepreneurs with the Olympics around the corner. Anyone wanting to win a contract, large or small, to feed the athletic team of your country or sell fresh produce on the markets - or supply door jams for hotel doors for that matter - can sign up on www.competefor.com. Once you have done the sign-up you have access to the hundreds of opportunities available at any one time.

The event went late into the night. Perez Ochieng received many well-earned compliments for making strong networking events like these and bringing great people together.