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13 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,O ctober 14,2021 insidehalton.com www.shoppersdrugmart.ca 2501 Third Line905-465-3000 478 Dundas Street West905-257-9737NOW OPEN24 HRS EVERY DAY • Patient Counselling • Complete Diabetic Care• Home Visits • Consultations • Free RX Delivery• Free Nutrition Counselling • Vaccinations• Cholesterol, A1C, AFib and DNA Screening lw ys Here toelp You! DE RANGO PHARMACY INC. w 2501 T905-465-3000 • P• H • C AlwaHelp Pharmacist -Fabio De Rango Drug Store/Pharmacy Overdue on aVacation? Calling All Winter Travellers & Snow Birds! CALL: 1-800-461-5083 or email us: travel@tripemco.com CALL US TODAY & SEE WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU! COURTNEY HiNRiCHS GEOFF BURmAN CALL TRIPEMCO FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE NEEDS • For you • Your loved ones • Even your Pet We have a variety of products that cover: Covid-19, Cruises, and almost all pre-existing health conditions! From swimming to gyming, it's all here at theY. Check our our new flexible ways to join at ymcaofoakville.org ing my husband was like, 'What were you doing in the middle of the night?' I said I 'applied for a grant' and af- ter that I forgot," Aire said. Around the same time, Logaina El Kattan applied for the same grant on be- half of her and her mother Amal Soliman's business Nuba, which makes herb- al-infused drinks called ti- sanes. A tisane (pronounced "tea-zahn") is any tealike drink brewed from herbs other than tea leaves. Hi- biscus from the Nuba re- gion of southern Egypt, where Soliman's father's family is from, are one of the better known ingredi- ents of the Nuba drinks. Visa Canada contacted both owners and asked them to come make a pitch for the grant. Neither knew the global payments technology com- pany was about to pull a bait-and-switch -- of the fa- vourable variety. "We thought we were still pitching our business, like a second interview or something," Soliman said. "Nearly close to the end, they told us, 'You are one of the winners.'" "I'm pitching my life away," Aire recalled about her very similar meeting with Visa Canada. She said Visa Canada told her during the meet- ing, "We wanted to let you know this isn't a pitching call. You have been selected and are one of the win- ners." Their worlds were lit aflame by a $10,000 grant and one year of mentorship through IFundWomen that will help their businesses grow. "The program is really in support of women entre- preneurs in the Canadian market," explained Sarah Steele, Visa Canada's small business lead. "In the Ca- nadian market and in many places around the world, women entrepre- neurs were under-re- presented and some of that is because they had a hard time accessing capital and the support they needed to start their businesses." Visa Canada said the company was "inspired" by Nuba's emphasis on natu- ral ingredients, as well as the mother-daughter part- nership. It was won over by Our Ancestories' sharing of Af- rican stories in particular. Aire released her first book, "Idia of the Benin Kingdom" -- a children's book about the real Queen Idia of Benin, who ruled in what is now Nigeria -- back in January. She has since released the book "Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba" about the ruler of kingdoms in what is now Angola. Aire says that the grant money will go toward a third and fourth books she plans on releasing. "Quite a lot of money goes into marketing books. Advertising and distribu- tion. So the money would help me, but on top of the money they gave me is coaching. That is what I find the most valuable about this program," she said. Soliman is particularly excited about the coaching because she plans on dis- tributing the Nuba drinks in Walmart, Sobeys, Lo- blaws and Hudson's Bay marketplaces in October. "We need to have more guidance in our marketing efforts, we need more guid- ance in how to do business development," she said. "We are going to use the money for our digital mar- keting." BUSINESS Continued from page 12 Ekiuwa Aire showing her two books. Mansoor Tanweer/Metroland