Northern Ireland Day 5

The Global Ambassadors Program mentoring forum in Belfast concluded Friday, May 16, with workshops on organizational management and fundraising, a last round of group mentoring dialogues, reflections on the week’s takeaways and next steps, and a farewell dinner in downtown Belfast.

Nurlan Silitonga and Ibukun Awosika

The Global Ambassadors Program has succeeded way beyond my imagination; it has connected me both to this network of extraordinary women from around the world and also offered me a mentoring program that is exclusively designed to accommodate my personal, business needs.

This excellent mentorship has enriched my knowledge and strategic skills to help me to develop my health program, develop its financing and increase its economic impact. The mentorship has shown me a strategic path to gain financial support and to understand better my own professional abilities and my capacity to overcome challenges. 

I have been paired with Ibukun Awosika who has extraordinary experience from leading many successful enterprises in Nigeria. She is now providing me with practical, strategic advice particularly regarding long-term financing solutions to expand my health business.  

This mentorship has filled me with inspiration and motivation to transform my dream into success and also to bring elements of this global program into my country, and bring along more business women leaders to be able to have these kind of great opportunities as well. 

Geraldine McAteer and Nisreen Musleh

The Global Ambassadors Program is an invaluable opportunity to get away from the daily needs of the workplace and look at my business from a completely different angle. Together with Geraldine, I have managed to readdress all the promising ideas I had once touched on and will now incorporate them into new business strategies.

At the International Business Women Conference, the chairwoman concluded her speech with: “I don’t want to be ordinary, it’s crowded there, I want to be extraordinary,” a saying that really encourages people to leave their comfort zone. I like to use this quote to motivate and inspire the young entrepreneurs I work with.

In the Global Ambassadors Program, the diversity of backgrounds, countries and experience don’t cease to inspire me. 

Eleanor ‘Tabi’ Heller-Jorden and Najah Jaroush Abdouni 

A powerful mentoring connection can be a fantastic source of resilience. It’s often easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when you’re in midst of the usual ‘feeding frenzy’ of daily commitments and client interactions. A good mentor can act as an infusion of much-needed oxygen and perspective when the horizon line temporarily disappears. It can provide that reflective mirror to ensure that deeper learning takes place.

I am reminded of the critical impact national culture can have on the growth trajectory of a business. In the absence of dependable governance, financial accountability, etc., how can one best navigate these challenging waters?

Najah is beginning to appreciate how much opportunity exists in the global marketplace, well beyond her own geographic boundaries. I’m eager to work with her to explore how best to expand her business ‘footprint’ using a variety of social media platforms. She is taking on a great deal of ownership in the shaping of her new and bigger vision. Her horizon line is now much less constrained by some of the challenges at hand.

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Watch the program’s YouTube playlist.

Visit the Global Ambassadors page at Bank of America and engage at their social media dashboard.

Photography: David Hume Kennerly