Muslim Women's Council (MWC) was founded by Bana Gora in 2009, with a group of like-minded people. MWC aims to address the barriers encountered by Muslim women and their families, supporting them in playing a full and active role in society and the economy.

1. Their Work

   Muslim Women's Council (MWC) was founded by Bana Gora in 2009, with a group of like-minded people. MWC aims to address the barriers encountered by Muslim women and their families, supporting them in playing a full and active role in society and the economy. MWC envisions a world for ‘every woman, life with all its opportunities’, and the organisation’s mission is to ‘empower women for the benefit of society’. The organisation provides access to skills, experiences, employment, and entrepreneurship through training, activities, workshops, and events. This includes tailored education, employment, entrepreneurship, finance, and debt advice. It runs a pickle-making enterprise, Ammis Achara, for the women it supports.  

2. Pathway’s Support

   Pathway, through Do it Now Now, has provided a £30,000 grant to the Muslim Women’s Council. This covers the cost of the 3000 jars – and labels – for the pickles, the necessary ingredients, the costs incurred in reaching out to the women, the cost of employing a commercial manager, and the associated social media and marketing costs, required to so market the goods. 

3. Pathway’s Impact

   MWC has used this funding to focus on their pickle-making business, Ammis Achar. The jars will be made from locally sourced, grown, and discarded ingredients, to help reduce carbon footprint and food wastage. The organisation started doing this in late 2019 and early 2020, having produced a test batch of 700 jars of pickles, but, it, of course, was heavily affected by the COVID pandemic. This led to them pausing the project. At the time, MWC received interest from local restaurants, and local supermarkets and began talks with national retailers. The project supported 40 women in making and selling Indian pickles. The funding from Pathway has allowed this programme to resume.  

4. What’s Next?

   By effectively utilising the expertise of a part-time Commercial Manager and focusing on strategic priorities, the hope is to maximise chances of successfully getting the products into national and local supermarkets. The organisations is also working to provide consultative services, to other entities, looking to set-up similar initiatives, it also being the case that it will be commissioning merchandise related to Ammis Achar, in due course.