We recently connected with Marmar Stewart and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marmar thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our organisation, Refugee Women’s Network is a non-profit organisation that offers programs that can help women to become financially independent, most of them for the first time in their lives. Seeing someone get their first pay check ever is an incredible experience. We at RWN have designed our entrepreneurship program to enable refugee and recent women immigrants the opportunity and assistance necessary to create small businesses. One of our successful programs is CHEFS CLUB, in which we help women enter the food industry, selling typical dishes from their home countries at farmers’ markets and other venues and learning to create a catering business. It is meaningful to me because I and my colleagues have personally experienced moving half-way around the world and having to rebuild one’s life all over, adapting to a new system, and adjusting to new cultural norms. It is a privilege to be able to help other women, many of whom have experienced catastrophic trauma and loss, to make this sort of transition.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the Entrepreneurship Development Program Manager at Refugee Women’s Network. The program that it gives me the greatest satisfaction to be involved with is CHEFS CLUB, in which we help women to become certified in the food service industry, providing them seminars, workshops, and hands-on training to help them establish their own catering and food industry businesses. I am originally from Loristan, Iran, and I grew up in Hamburg, Germany, before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. Refugee Women’s Network provides a wide variety of services to refugee and recent immigrant women, and I am always excited to go to work, because I know that we are changing women’s lives every day. We provide assistance in healthcare, social adjustment, education, finances, employment, and the formation of small businesses. We have assisted thousands of women from all over the world—from South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, and elsewhere. We have have helped them integrate into communities throughout Georgia, adjust to American society, become financially independent, and support their families.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

CHEFS CLUB has succeeded in removing borders and in building bridges. We are in the Highlands Farmers’ Market, Emory Farmers’ Market, Decatur Farmers; Market, numerous festivals, and other venues. Relying solely on word-of-mouth advertising, we have expanded exponentially over the past two years. We have catered for Bar Mitzvahs, in churches, in schools, and in businesses, for large corporate staff meetings, and more.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Through our program, Chefs Club, I have met so many women who changed the definition of many words and concepts that I thought I knew. If you had asked me before, I would have told you that I was a resilient woman. People who know me know that I am strong, capable, and forceful in society. However, after I started working with women who had left everything behind in their home countries because of war and political upheavals, I cannot call myself resilient any more. The meaning of the word changed for me. They are lionesses and resilient to an extent I had never known. Now I think that true resilience means starting over from nothing, without savings, without family support, without knowledge of the local language or culture,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://refugeewomensnetworkinc.org/
• Instagram: @refugeenetwork
• Facebook: refugee women’s network

Image Credits
Refugee Women’s Network