Breaking barriers: The Young Social Entrepreneur from GB Empowering her community via social media

Social media has given people a platform to showcase their unique skills and find a market for their craft to earn financial independence. Even though Pakistan has significantly improved in terms of smartphone and data penetration, there is still a considerable portion of the population that hasn’t yet figured out how to utilize this tech innovation to improve their lives. This is where youngsters like Aziza Sualeh become very important.

Aziza is one of the talented and socially driven young participants of the SDG Bootcamp cohort 2 that are working hard to make a change through their social enterprises. Aziza is the owner of Mountainshop.pk, an online platform that is using the power of social media to bring financial independence and empowerment to the female population of remote areas of Gilgit Baltistan.

Gilgit Baltistan is home to many widely appreciated crafts and traditional products that unfortunately lack the right kind of advertising due to insufficient knowledge among people in the area and the cumbersome operational aspect of running a successful business setup. Aziza, however, has taken it upon herself to guide the local women about the importance of their skillsets and crafts and is helping them find a market via social media.

The young entrepreneur is not just fulfilling her dream of running a business but is also helping multiple women gain access to the right kind of knowledge and become financially independent through their skills. As a result, these empowered stakeholders are able to improve the quality of their lives and contribute towards showcasing the local talent across Pakistan and even globally via Mountainshop.pk

These SDG Bootcamp are being run nationwide as part of an agreement signed between Jazz and UNDP Pakistan. As per the agreement, the bootcamps will target 800 youngsters and 50% women participation by end of 2022.