Rabat – Rim Machhour and Safae Bennouna made headlines in Morocco and Europe on Thursday for winning the prestigious Awa Entrepreneurship Prize for women entrepreneurs.
Machhour won first place in the category of “innovation,” while Safae Bennouna came third in the category of “scale up.”
Machhour is a master’s degree holder in Social Innovation and co-founded Dealkhir.ma, an e-commerce platform with a philanthropic mission. The platform donates 70% of its profits to NGOs.
Bennouna, on the other hand, is the founder of Hedo, a fashion company for women that collaborates with artisans.
The young Moroccan women entrepreneurs collected the awards on January 26 in Brussels in a ceremony that saw the presence of Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
The Awa Entrepreneurship Prize is an initiative of the Belgian Development Agency (Enabel) that honors women entrepreneurs in the partner countries of the Belgian Cooperation.
The winning projects this year were selected from more than 2,400 applicants from 16 countries.
According to Enabel, the Awa Award “aims to support impactful businesses and women entrepreneurs who are role models for their communities.”
“The winners of the Awa Prize are all impressive role models,” said Caroline Gennez, Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation and of Major Cities, according to a report from the Brussels Times. “I greatly admire their perseverance, creativity and guts. They will inspire countless girls and women in their own communities to follow in their footsteps.”
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