Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

“When we in­vest in women and girls, we are in­vest­ing in

the per­sons who in­vest in every­one else.” ~Melin­da Gates

The dy­nam­ic plat­form launched by the JMMB Group in Ju­ly 2023, the PowHer­ful Women in Busi­ness, now proud­ly fea­tures the first co­hort of women en­tre­pre­neurs that grad­u­at­ed from this ini­tia­tive. This rev­o­lu­tion­ary Small and Medi­um-sized En­ter­prise (SME) six-month pro­gramme is ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing and em­pow­er­ing women en­tre­pre­neurs op­er­at­ing in T&T and Ja­maica.

In giv­ing de­tails on the pro­gramme, Shani Dun­can-Fal­con­er, se­nior cor­po­rate man­ag­er, JMMB Group SME RC shared, “The PowHer­ful Women in Busi­ness ini­tia­tive was de­signed to cater to the per­son­al and busi­ness needs of fe­male en­tre­pre­neurs and ad­dress some of the unique chal­lenges that they face, cre­ate an en­abling en­vi­ron­ment, and a gen­der-sen­si­tive fi­nan­cial frame­work that em­pow­ers women to ac­cess the sup­port and fi­nanc­ing need­ed to scale and grow their busi­ness­es.

“This pro­gramme cul­ti­vat­ed busi­ness net­works that they can lever­age to take their busi­ness­es to the next lev­el and ex­pand in new mar­kets.”

This in­ten­sive pro­gramme con­sist­ed of coach­ing ses­sions, ac­count­abil­i­ty part­ners and work­shops on a range of top­ics in­clud­ing mar­ket­ing, per­son­al brand­ing, net­work­ing, strate­gic and busi­ness plan­ning, ac­count­ing and fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, among oth­er key ar­eas to dri­ve busi­ness suc­cess. In ad­di­tion to men­tor­ship, a frame­work to cre­ate and up­date busi­ness plans, mar­ket­ing plans and fi­nan­cial state­ments was al­so in­te­grat­ed in­to the ini­tia­tive.

Nao­mi An­der­son, Uni­cak­ery

The cre­ative force and pas­try chef Nao­mi An­der­son is the founder of Uni­cak­ery. She aims to seam­less­ly merge her love for art with the world of cake artistry. Be­yond the culi­nary ex­per­tise, An­der­son’s aim with Uni­cak­ery and, by ex­ten­sion, Uni­cak­ery Tu­to­ri­als is to share the mag­ic of cake artistry with oth­er chefs and as­pir­ing bak­ers through dif­fer­ent learn­ing av­enues.

She’s an artist at heart, us­ing cake as her can­vas to ex­press in­tri­cate de­signs skill­ful­ly and ar­tis­ti­cal­ly.

“Uni­cak­ery is all about bring­ing love, art and a whole lot of mag­ic to the dessert world! Each cre­ation is made with love and ex­e­cut­ed with pas­sion! Be­ing au­then­ti­cal­ly unique is the num­ber one pri­or­i­ty. Every cup­cake, every class and every work­shop is cu­rat­ed to cre­ate the best pos­si­ble ex­pe­ri­ence for you!”

To learn more:

Web­site: https://www.uni­cak­ery.com/FB: https://www.face­book.com/uni­cak­ery

IG @uni­cak­ery

Jamelia Williams, Livin Tri­ni

In­no­v­a­tive, ad­ven­tur­ous and fo­cused on show­cas­ing the tourism des­ti­na­tions of T&T, Jamelia Williams, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor at Livin Tri­ni, is de­ter­mined to cre­ate mean­ing­ful and un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ences for all! Livin Tri­ni pro­vides all the beach es­sen­tials for tourists (lo­cal and for­eign)–from cloth­ing to seat­ing, to tents, mu­sic, even the cool­er and drinks. Be it for a birth­day cel­e­bra­tion or every­day beach ex­cur­sions, their beach pack­ages re­move the has­sle of a ‘beach prep’, al­low­ing peo­ple to im­merse and re­ju­ve­nate at our T&T beach­es.

With 15 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the tourism in­dus­try, a back­ground in tourism ser­vices, and events co­or­di­na­tion, and an as­so­ciate de­gree in So­cial Work from The Col­lege of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ap­plied Arts of Trinidad and To­ba­go (COSTAATT), Williams’ ethos is an­chored in cus­tomer ser­vice.

“Livin Tri­ni is here to give you and your fam­i­ly a re­lax­ing, fun and mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence on the most beau­ti­ful beach­es in the coun­try.”

To learn more:

FB: https://www.face­book.com/liv­in­tri­ni

IG: @liv­in­tri­ni

Dian­dra Gran­di­son, Newd Gyal Per­son­al Care

The mas­ter­mind of T&T’s favourite am­a­teur-friend­ly Sug­ar­ing Wax Kit, Dian­dra Gran­di­son is the founder and op­er­a­tions man­ag­er for Newd Gyal Per­son­al Care Lim­it­ed.

As a hair re­moval en­thu­si­ast, Gran­di­son was forced to get cre­ative with her hair re­moval meth­ods dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. With very sen­si­tive skin and a low thresh­old for pain, she re­searched how she could recre­ate the sa­lon ex­pe­ri­ence from the safe­ty of her own home and thus, Newd Gyal Sug­ar­ing Wax was born.

Newd Gyal’s am­a­teur-friend­ly Sug­ar­ing Wax pro­vides ac­cess to de­mo videos, tips, and dos and don’ts to fa­cil­i­tate the best at-home sug­ar­ing hair re­moval ex­pe­ri­ence. Newd Gyal Or­gan­ic of­fers sug­ar­ing wax, wax sticks, reusable ap­pli­ca­tors as well as reusable wax strips. Their best­seller is the sug­ar­ing wax kit that in­cludes an 8oz con­tain­er of sug­ar­ing wax, a reusable ap­pli­ca­tor, four reusable wax strips, a scannable sug­ar­ing guide and a tweez­er.

“Newd Gyal Sug­ar­ing Wax is the less-painful, af­ford­able al­ter­na­tive to tra­di­tion­al wax­ing that pro­vides sa­lon re­sults at home. Made from nat­ur­al in­gre­di­ents, it is wa­ter-sol­u­ble and suit­able for sen­si­tive skin.”

To learn more:

Web­site: www.newdgyalor­gan­ic.com

FB: https://www.face­book.com/newdgyalor­gan­ic

IG: @newdgyalor­gan­ic

Misty Hamid, Ki­da­vo Cre­ations

A pas­sion­ate ad­vo­cate for ed­u­cat­ing oth­ers about Caribbean her­itage and the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our en­vi­ron­ment and bio­di­ver­si­ty, Misty Hamid is the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor and own­er of Ki­da­vo Cre­ations.

With over 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the en­vi­ron­men­tal field, Hamid holds a mas­ter’s de­gree in en­vi­ron­men­tal sci­ences and a BSc dou­ble ma­jor in Zo­ol­o­gy and Botany. Her mis­sion is to ed­u­cate and in­spire youth through Caribbean cul­ture, pro­vid­ing re­lat­able rep­re­sen­ta­tion for chil­dren in the re­gion while show­cas­ing the di­ver­si­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty of Caribbean cul­ture to young peo­ple be­yond its bor­ders.

Cre­at­ed by Hamid, My Trop­i­cal ABCs is a fun, in­no­v­a­tive book de­signed to ed­u­cate chil­dren on lo­cal fruits by match­ing the fruit names with al­pha­bet let­ters.

This book al­lows par­ents/guardians to sit and spend qual­i­ty time with their chil­dren who are at­tract­ed to easy-to-read books with vivid colours and il­lus­tra­tions.

It is a fun book for the fam­i­ly spe­cial­ly de­signed to reach chil­dren at the ear­ly stages of lan­guage and read­ing de­vel­op­ment.

To learn more:

Web­site: https://ki­dav­ocre­ations.wixsite.com/web­site

FB: https://www.face­book.com/ki­dav­ocre­ations

IG: @ki­da­vo_cre­ations

Tri­cia Kissoon, CEO Of JMMB In­vest­ments Trinidad and To­ba­go, says, “We are ex­cit­ed to sup­port the PowHer­ful Women in Busi­ness pro­gramme as a tes­ta­ment to our com­mit­ment to em­pow­er women en­tre­pre­neurs in Trinidad and To­ba­go. By pro­vid­ing them with the nec­es­sary tools, knowl­edge, and re­sources, we aim to dri­ve eco­nom­ic growth and cre­ate last­ing pos­i­tive change in the com­mu­ni­ties we serve.”