Amman, Jordan - 9th June 2015

The Mowgli Foundation, an award winning, UK-headquartered mentoring organisation delivered a Leadership & Mentoring Sparking Session at the KAFD Gaming Lab on 1st April 2015 to inspire and empower 10 Palestinian women entrepreneurs during their exchange visit to Jordan with Business Women's Forum - Palestine (BWF)

The Business Women Forum (BWF) exchange visit has been sponsored by Bank of Palestine and SPARK and was tailored to provide Palestinian women with new learnings, exposure, open new markets and experience share with Jordanian Business Women.

The day kicked off with a visit to ZINC with a welcome and introduction from Rami Al-Karmi, Senior Advisor at Zain, after which Mowgli invited the entrepreneurs to participate in an interactive Leadership & Mentoring Sparking Session. The workshop introduced the concept of mentoring and explored the benefits of mentoring in entrepreneurship; highlighting the importance of mentoring for developing entrepreneurs' self-awareness and leadership skills, both personally and professionally, which in turn has a positive impact on business growth and success.

The Mowgli Foundation seeks to support the sustainable development of societies through the mentoring and evolution of entrepreneurs and leaders. This is achieved through the provision of unique and unparalleled mentoring programs that enable mentors to offer their practical support and share their expertise to help entrepreneurs grow as leaders and expand their businesses, thereby creating new jobs and economic growth.

After the Sparking Session, selected Mowgli Alumni; Neda' Kharoub, Nemati El Emam, Rabeea Al Nasser and Jumana Tahboub, shared their Mowgli journeys with the Palestinian entrepreneurs, their successes,  the challenges they faced and the impact that mentoring had on them and their business.

Ihsan Al Kurdi, a representative from the King Abdullah II Fund, briefed the entrepreneurs on the upcoming King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement, encouraging those eligible to apply for the 2015 award. Nadia Dajani, a jewellery designer with a successful online store, gave an inspirational talk about her experience as an entrepreneur, sharing her knowledge and offering advice to the Palestinian entrepreneurs.

The day ended with a special visit to see Linda Al Hallaq, a Mowgli Entrepreneur who graduated from in 2014. Linda and her partner, Hanan Hallaq founded First Bazaar, Jordan's first online bazaar connecting buyers with independent creators and shop owners to find handmade and vintage fashions and accessories. Linda and Hanan took questions from the entrepreneurs, and offered their support to Palestinian entrepreneurs in the same industry.

Mowgli CEO, Kathleen Bury, commented: "It was wonderful to support this event in Jordan.  Mowgli sincerely believes that the empowerment of women as leaders in entrepreneurship is vital for the development of sustainable societies. Our sparking sessions aim to inspire entrepreneurs to develop their leadership skills and discover mentoring, which is an incredibly important component in entrepreneurship and leadership development, to support the growth and success of their business. We hope the entrepreneurs enjoyed and benefitted from the event, and we hope we can continue to support the Palestine Business Women's Forum in the future."

Quote from BWF Managing Director, Doa Wadi: "As always, we felt at home in Jordan, and everything ran smoothly thanks to Mowgli's great planning - they were a perfect match for the exchange visit. The entrepreneurs experienced a great day meeting their peers; listening to their entrepreneurship journeys and lessons learnt along the way. Our entrepreneurs were exposed to new ideas, new information and networking in a new environment. Mowgli's Sparking Session was one of the most energising sessions the entrepreneurs were treated to. We are looking forward to further partnership with Mowgli and we'd like to thank Mowgli for making it a special day."

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About Mowgli
The Mowgli Foundation is an award winning, UK-headquartered mentoring organisation, established in 2008, which has been pioneering and specializing in entrepreneurial mentoring and embedding leadership development through the philosophy of mentoring within MENA's governments, corporates, entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Mowgli provides mentoring that inspires, connects and guides entrepreneurs and leaders to overcome life's personal and business challenges through:

·         Interactive, experiential and transformational 'Kickstart' workshops

·         A unique environment for accelerated relationship building, mentor training and matching

·         Engagement within a learning and mentoring focused global alumni network

Mowgli has an alumni with 1600 members and has matched over 700 entrepreneurs with trained mentors in 13 countries; Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and the UK. In December 2012, Mowgli was recognised with the Mohammed bin Rashid Award for Young Business Leaders Award for the 'Best Mentor Network in the Arab Region'. More information is available on Mowgli's website: www.mowgli.org.uk

For media inquiries:
Dubai: Kathleen Bury
Email: kathleen.bury@mowgli.org.uk

© Press Release 2015