Vistas: Geri Stengel’s Blog: Women Entrepreneurship

by Karin Kamp

Nada Kiblawi was born in a refugee camp, lived through regional wars and finally found safe haven and economic independence as an entrepreneur in the U.S.

As a child born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, she suffered from low self-esteem, despite feeling love and affection from her parents.

Nada’s family fled to Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israel war, losing all of their possessions and the land they owned in the process. They ended up north of Beirut, in a United Nations refugee camp, which was meant to be a stopgap solution to their crisis.

“There was no running water in the houses. There were common toilets in another building that were shared by all the refugees. People would wash and bathe in small containers and then take the water out and throw it in the common sanitary,” Nada told The Story Exchange.

There’s no doubt about it: women business owners face greater funding challenges than men. A lesser-known fact is that those challenges may be linked to the industries that female business owners are choosing, according to new findings by Biz2Credit, an online credit marketplace. 

Elite women-owned business -- those earning $10 million in revenue annually -- are growing in numbers almost 50% faster than $10 million business in general and nearly 100% faster than all women-owned businesses, according to Growing Under the Radar: An Exploration of the achievement of Million-Dollar women-Owned Firms, research commissioned by American Express OPEN.

by Karin Kamp

In 2012 when insurgents were unleashing a string of attacks across Iraq, who would have dared take on the task of bringing warring religious factions together in face-to-face talks?