They moved from Online to Young Entrepreneurs Fair in Gulshan

Nargis Akhter and her 7 friends came from Chattogram to sell homemade food products like ghee, pitha, butter, mustard oil etc. under their online venture 'Tararmela'. Nasreen said that it was in this fair that she had her first direct contact with customers as a seller. Earlier they sold products only online. This fair gave her experience in direct marketing and more information about customer and market management.

“I was able to apply what I learned from the training and workshops at the EYE Project here. This fair is helping me understand business ventures in the best possible way” – she added.

As an effective solution to eliminate unemployment, a 'Young Entrepreneur Fair' was held in Gulshan with several such business ventures.

There were 14 stalls at the two-day fair (June 14-15) in the courtyard of Save the Children Bangladesh's Gulshan office. Each of the 14 stalls showcased and sold the products of 14 business enterprises from different parts of the country, including handicrafts, regional food and clothing. Each initiative received training and business development support through Save the Children's Education for Youth Empowerment (EYE) project. The fair was open to the public to connect with young entrepreneurs and support their ventures by shopping. 

Sazia Afrin, Communication and Media Coordinator of Save the Children in Bangladesh, said that the purpose of the fair was to create income opportunities for young entrepreneurs from different parts of the country to showcase their products and promote their businesses.

She added that Save the Children's Education for Youth Empowerment (EYE) project has been empowering youth for over 20 years by providing market-relevant vocational skills training, life skills and employment training. One of the main objectives of the EYE project is entrepreneurship development, where marginalized youth are provided with entrepreneurial training, business plan development, mentoring and linkages with financial institutions.