Shashi, Ayesha and Reshma – Budding entrepreneurs at Mumbai Smiles

3 dynamic ladies from the slums of Andheri (East) Mumbai, Shashi Haritwal, Ayesha Rashid Khan and Reshma, dreamt of creating their own identity in the society. Unfortunately due to societal barriers, financial issues and early marriage, their dreams were shattered before they could even start pursuing them. Their husbands work as makeup artist, Clerical accountant and ship crew member respectively.

However, a turning point came when they got to know about our SEED training program, which aims to empower women financially and socially by imparting skills to them based on their needs and employability/self employability potential in the market. They were briefed about our program through a community mobilization drive.

Coincidentally, all of them wanted to create their identity in the hospitality space. Thus, they were enrolled in the beautician course, which commenced in July 2012. They were highly enthusiastic and actively participated in the sessions. They were trained for two months. Post the training, Shashi Haritwal and Ayesha Rashid Khan started working in a parlor named, “Make Over” in Sakinaka area of Marol while Reshma started practicing from her home.”Make Over” was a loss making organization at that time due to which the owner had made up her mind to sell the parlor. However, after these women joined, the number of customers increased and “Make Over” became profitable again. Moreover, the parlor is now being managed by these women and there are also regular orders for weddings.

They gave us the following feedback when asked about their experience and future plans:“We want to expand the area of our parlor so that we can give services to more customers and earn more. We are extremely happy that we got this opportunity from Mumbai Smiles which has transformed us in many ways and have givean us the confidence to think big in life”.