Status of Women committee  I definitely think they do need it. As I said, what type of immigrant women are you reaching? A lot of times there are different classes of people. Some people may be highly educated who seek out these resources and who have the tools. But if you are going to a lower-income neigh

Status of Women committee  One thing I would highly recommend is integrating. Integration's a two-way street, like diversity. Take the programs to the people who actually need them. Maybe we can hold an entrepreneur night in one of these low-income neighbourhoods, so that women can learn how they may expan

Status of Women committee  Yes, I agree completely with that statement. I believe that mentorship.... In my view, the media and television arts programs, I mean, talk about a very heavily male-dominated industry, number one. To even think there's anybody who looks like me who's a woman is very rare, and ev

Status of Women committee  I think part of it is the fact that my parents came early. We were one of the first Somali families in Canada. We arrived here in 1984 in Edmonton, Alberta, when there were no Somalis there. I think part of it is that we had a little bit of a leg-up on integrating into society.

Status of Women committee  The community has a lot of barriers. As I said, the barrier that I see us facing is that we're not invited to the table. I think inclusion promotes diversity and it also promotes somebody feeling proud to also be part of Canadian society. One of the things that I'm always trying

Status of Women committee  Very interesting. It's very diverse. A lot of times the children are facing a situation where they're coming from two different cultures. So they have one culture at home where it's the foreign country, and then one culture is the Canadian society. There may be some issues of bal

Status of Women committee  I think they go hand in hand. We live in a very diverse world, especially in terms of marketing for which there are social media and different avenues to reach your target audience. I believe it's an essential skill. It can be learned, absolutely. When people have a mentor or who

Status of Women committee  Absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Actually, I'm looking for one.

Status of Women committee  I mean in media, so if you have any friends in high places.... Seriously, I think it's very important. As I said, for myself, I come from a community in which we don't have people in television, in media or in radio. To me it would have been great to meet someone who had been in

Status of Women committee  I believe in my area in Toronto there's an organization called MicroSkills that works with women immigrants to teach them about entrepreneurship, but I think for the most part there's not a lot of dialogue happening with minority women. I strongly believe the only way out of pov

Status of Women committee  I think you have to know sales when you're an entrepreneur. One of the most important skills we can teach young people is the ability to sell ideas or sell the concepts or the products. Many times young entrepreneurs don't have those skills, and I believe that sales and marketin

Status of Women committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting me. My name is Hodan Nalayeh and I'm a woman entrepreneur, a journalist, independent television producer, and a television host. In fact, I'm the first Somali media owner in the world who is a woman. I created and developed Integration TV, t