Laval exhibition highlighting Arabic skills first of its kind in Canada
Posted June 2, 2022 11:27 am.
Last Updated June 2, 2022 7:03 pm.
“Canadian Projects with Arabic Skills” is the first exhibition of its kind in Canada to host and showcase successful businesses founded by Arab businesswomen and men – who all mostly arrived here as immigrants or refugees. They followed their dreams and turned them into reality.
“We saw that they have the talent, they have the skills they deserve this chance, so Maya and I decided that we will give them this chance to support them and we started and it was what! Wow!” explained Ola Lutfi, co-founder of Canadian Projects with Arabic Skills Exhibition (CPAS).
Canadian Projects with Arabic Skills. (Photo: Farah Mustapha, OMNI)
“I came to Canada in 2015 as a refugee from Syria,” said Mohamad Chaaban, founder of Modern Designs. “In 2017 once my wife came to Canada we started this project, we started from home and now we have a small shop in Montreal, we are so happy to gradually become bigger.”
For Eman Saeed who came to Canada from Iraq, her business idea is book folding which is not only profitable to her but also great for the environment.
“I started with my kids’ books, by the end of the year instead of throwing them I decided to recycle them and I started folding and then I donated these books to the libraries of the schools and they liked it and then I started my business,” explained Eman Saeed, founder of Emma Cadeaux.
“It takes me 3-5 days between designing and working, beautiful art, you can use it in your salon or as home décor or as a gift,” she added.
Canadian Projects with Arabic Skills.
(Photo: Farah Mustapha, OMNI)
Some of the participants saw the pandemic as a chance to develop their talents with handmade crafts in small businesses.
“I started this project during the pandemic because we had a lot of time to do something and its very stress relief and very interesting to do these stuff,” said Zein Elbaroudy, founder of Maison-Pastel.
“Arabs here are successful they are not only immigrants, but they are also doing beautiful things, you can now visit each table and you see what they have, they have power and energy and they want to tell the world, we are here,” said Lutfi.
For more: Canadian Projects with Arab Skills
