Member Article

Leading businesswomen champion young entrepreneurs with charity hike.

Leading businesswomen are putting their best foot forward by undertaking a hike to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust.

Led by Rasha Khawaja founder and CEO of Toucan, the 8m hike up the Seven Sisters in the South Downs, East Sussex, will raise funds for the #ChangeAGirlsLife Campaign, part of the Women Supporting Women initiative, which supports young women who have grown up in challenging circumstances.

The #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign helps young women who have had a very challenging start in life. It provides support and encouragement to help young women access education, training or employment, or to start a business.

Toucan supports the growth of creative entrepreneurs. It has created an eco-system that provides mentors and investors to help start-ups through the tough early stages. Toucan specialises in the food and beverage, lifestyle and retail sectors.

The Seven Sisters walk is a warm up to a larger challenge in 2020 when Toucan and other supporters of Women Supporting Women will tackle Kilimanjaro.

Rasha Khawaja commented: “Young women across the UK need support to bring their ideas to life and launch thriving businesses. ONS statistics show that 92,700 young women are now excluded from secondary school every year and currently are 388,000 young women not in education, employment or training. As I see every day through my own business, this is not acceptable, and by making introductions to a network of inspirational business leaders, I am in a position to be able to help make a difference.

“We encourage other entrepreneurs to join our walk and celebrate women in business. Signing up to support a Prince’s Trust challenge event will help raise valuable funds and it provides a great training run for Women Supporting Women’s sponsored hike up Kilimanjaro next year. We’re very much looking forward to the challenge.”

The Women Supporting Women Seven Sisters hike takes place on June 28th.

Chrissie Rucker, Founding Silver Patron of Women Supporting Women said: “Every penny our fantastic team from Toucan raise will go towards our #ChangeAGirlsLife Campaign for Women Supporting Women at The Prince’s Trust which is supporting incredible young women who have grown up in very challenging circumstances. This support will help these young women either get back into education, get their first job or even start their own business. This work is truly life changing, so please do give as much as you can.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Terry Gilligan .