VICTORIA University is hoping to attract Somali women to a new course designed to help them start their own businesses.
Haefa Adam is the coordinator of the university’s New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, a Federal Government initiative that helps unemployed people start their own businesses.
Ms Adam is hoping to extend the program to reach out to Somali women in the western suburbs.
The course will need about 12 applicants to get the green light and would be facilitated with a Somali translator.
Ms Adam’s hopes were given a boost after the success of a business forum for Somali women at the Flemington Community Centre earlier this month.
The forum included the chance to meet professionals and ask questions about finding assistance to run a business.
“We just want to try and get them up and running in their own business,” Ms Adam said.
“A lot of them [the Somali women] are running businesses at the moment. It’s about giving them that extra hand.”
Forum attendee Farhia Hersi, who is 26 and lives in Braybrook, came to Australia from Somalia in 1995.
Ms Hersi heard about the forum after going through a six-week program run by Women’s Health West.
She said she would be interested in applying for a business course at Victoria University if it got the go-ahead, and wanted to start a coffee shop or a milk bar.
“This has given me a lot of ideas. Where to go and who to get support from.”
Sally Camilleri, of Women’s Health West, said a six-week financial literacy program held by the organisation was aimed at giving women the chance to start their own businesses.
“We hope that through the programs women feel stronger and in a better position to make their ideas happen in Australia.”
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Source: Moonee Valley Community News
