Erbil, KURDISTAN (March 2, 2018) – Rwanga Foundation, in partnership with COSV are implementing a project of soft incubation and acceleration of opportunities for entrepreneurship ideas in the Media Sector, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth in KR-I. COSV is one of the members of FURSA Consortium which is led by Search for Common Ground and implementing the project titled with funds from MADAD EU Regional Trust Fund.
The goal of the project is to strengthen community resilience and social cohesion among Syrian Refugees, Internally Displaced and Host Community youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey.
The previous capacity building sessions targeting the ten shortlisted project applicants, started on November 26th and finished on December 6th. On December 21st, these applicants presented their final business plans to the evaluation committee.
Dastan Qader, the Committee Member and Trainer stated “All the ten participants were very much attached to their business ideas and they had a good knowledge about it. However, they did not have a clear picture on how to design, plan, and launch their businesses. This has changed as the participants had a complete business plan explaining how they will execute their projects. I congratulate the winners, and I hope the rest will continue their dreams because the society needs such creative businesses.”
Rwanga Foundation is delighted to announce the final four selected projects in the media sector. “The four finalists were shortlisted as per the predefined selection criteria including the possibility to address a need or gap in the Media Sector, job creation, sustainability and match funding. These criteria enabled us to select the four finalists in a transparent and just manner,” said Fadi Denno, Committee Member and COSV Livelihood Project Manager.
The final four winners are as follows:
1. Candidate Name: Reshan Hemo
Project summary:
To raise community awareness through a satirical program (Comic Criticism) under the name of “Reshanism” which is currently running and has a fair impact on the society.
2. Candidate Name: Zana Mahmood Ahmed
Project summary:
Developing a digital media software to manage and organize social media platforms for businesses in order to reach more people and increase sales.
3. Candidate Name: Sary Abdullah Najib
Project summary:
Creating Kurdish audiobooks based on narrative speeches or abridged versions of books.
4. Candidate Name: Majid Sharaf
Project summary:
Development of an online platform for the Kurdistan and Iraq doctors ‘tabibiraq.com’ and creating an application for Android and IOS to provide the site services for the public.
The Evaluation committee consisted of six members:
1. Salwan Jameel Zaito – Independent Media Expert
2. Khdir Domely – Independent Media Expert
3. Dastan Qadir Abdullah – Rwanga Foundation Representative and Director of Projects
4. Fadi Denno – COSV Livelihood Project Manager
5. Ceren Karatas – COSV Business Development Services and Training Coordinator
6. Kabar Fawzi – COSV Project Coordinator for Livelihood and Social Cohesion
For the next four months, Rwanga Foundation is going to monitor and coach these projects by providing support and assistance in order to optimize the sustainability of the projects. “Fortunately, according to the plan, we successfully reached the last milestone of the project. Currently, we are paving the way for the winners to start their projects.” said Kawa Ismail, Project Coordinator – Rwanga Foundation.