World Women Trade Fair

"It is a privilege to inspire others to build their businesses and economic power as many of us here in the United Stated have been fortunate to do.."

Edie Fraser ( CENTER)President/Founder

Business Women's Network Washington D.C and

Women's Entrepreneur Corp- A Business Mentorship program of Professional women who are willing to donate their time to help growing businesses in developing countries.

Inspiring Women Service Corp recruits Volunteers from a diverse background :-

-Academic-students, researchers

-Professional Business Women

-Artists and Designers

to work with women businesses in developing countries.

-Womens Human Rights Advocates and Activists for better trade policies and other pressing gender issues affecting women and their businesses.

Volunteer Opportunities available :

-Mentoring Women Businesses

-Product Designers

-International Market Researchers

-Internship opportunities for students

-E-Commerce

-Product Merchandising and assisting at Trade show with booth designs and customer relations.

-Galleries and Retailers to host Special Event Product launch.

-Women Business Centers and Associations to host study tours.

Edie Fraser Inspiring Women Service Corp Recognition Award.

The Award recognizes the volunteers for their outstanding Vision and Inspiration.

We are Proud to Recognize two (2) Great Ladies who have inspired women in developing countries for their had work and vision

Ida Wanler

Products & Furniture Designer

BA(Hons)Kingston University London UK.

MA-Inredningsarkitektur & Mobel Formgiving.Sweden.

Ida carried out Product Development workshops for craftswomen in Kenya and Cameroon to assist them to produce export ready quality products.

A big challenge for Ida was to work with so many small crafts producers on various crafts-beading, textile, home decor, basket weaving among others who have little or no knowledge of  global market standards.

The women groups organized a 2 days exhibition event to showcase women products. Ida began the short-term training with Product Assessements followed by skills training on Quality, New Product lines and Designs, Costing and the use of local materials to stay competitive

Ida left Africa with a strong vision and inspiration to continue to assist the crafts women in their efforts to access Global Markets for their products.

After Africa Ida worked with Boym Partners Inc Studio New York as a junior designer and during this period accomplished the task of :

-New Design lines of functional natural looking homewares in natural materials.

-The craftswomen participated in Trade Shows in Washington DC and London UK.

-Researched Markets in New York and London for homewares in natural materials-baskets, trays, storage containers.

Chandra Russo

Senior Vassar College.N.Y

Edie Fraser Inspiring Women Award recognizes Chandra Russo for demonstrating great tolerance and flexibility in the face of adversity. While she was not immune to the realities of being in a very different culture, working with a women group with few material resources, she created a program not only where the women might begin to have conversations about Sexual Violence but also so that they could become educators themselves.

Chandra was interested in working on Human Rights issues in Cameroon.

Sexual Violence was a key issue the women faced with the knowledge that no one was addressing this issue with the groups or in the greater region-

Special Needs Women Entrepreneurs is a group of craftswomen with disabilities specialized in traditional embroidery.Chandra designed her own curriculum and created a series of workshops that bridged these women's cultural context with universal understanding of what constitutes Sexual Violence and how the women might fight it without a formal infrastructure of police, hospital protocol and professional counseling as is more available in the States.

Chandra's strength is how she struggled understandably at times to bridge certain cultural and linquistic barriers. She was eager to adapt her work to suit the women's lived experience , adapting the curriculum to their own needs and spreading the message to satelite branches of the group in rural areas.

At the last lesson Chandra encourages the group to teach a group of men with special needs with whom the women are connected, what Sexual Violence means and how men can participate in a political struggle against it.

Chandra was passionate and energetic about this project and inspired the women to start to address a pressing gender issue of Sexual Violence.

Following the success of this program, a Professional Womens Forum has been formed in Bamenda by Dr. Yang Geh to create awareness on the issues of Domestic and Sexual Violence.