The word “sustainable” is mentioned nine times on the Prosperity Catalyst website. When searching Google for the word “sustainable” I found that results ranged from the Olympics to the United Nations. A word that is most commonly associated with...
We made a promise to the Iraqi women in our program. We promised to train them to make and sell candles, and two years later, we’ve completed our first shipment. Despite obstacles along the way, such as delayed shipments...
This week, Prosperity Catalyst was a featured exhibitor at the NY NOW Trade Show, a leading trade show for the home, lifestyle and gift market. The three day event represents an opportunity for a wide range of exhibitors to show...
Our US-based Iraq program staff (Stephanie Finigan, Zedan Mohamad, and Liz Mastors) flew to Amman, Jordan last week to convene with our Baghdad-based staff (Farooq Gariyoka, Rawad Sabar, Mohanad Dheyaa Tawfeeq, Mayada Alsafi, and Zeina Vasee). The team came...
In order to administer candle-making training to women in Baghdad, our local team identified ten women willing to undergo intensive candle-making training so that they could pass on this knowledge to other women in our program and serve as...
I’m currently in Istanbul with Mohanned, our Iraq Program Manager, Rawad, our Iraq Business Manager, and Ted, President of Prosperity Candle. We are here to provide training to four women who were all trained to make pillar candles during...
If you’ve followed our journey these past few years, you’ve heard all about Prosperity Candle’s pilot program in Baghdad in 2009, in which more than fifty women were trained to make candles from their homes. The pilot is where...
The past month has been difficult for Iraq and Iraqis. The deterioration of the security situation impacted all aspects of daily life— not only in the cities seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)— but in...
On this very rainy 4th of July, I am feeling more reflective than celebratory. Tomorrow, when the sun is shining and I’m with my family, I will be celebrating and relaxing, but today I feel drawn to continuing to...
To say that Iraq is having a bad week would be the understatement of the year. The last week has been incredibly tumultuous for the country as the extremist group ISIS has quickly taken over several cities throughout the...
Prosperity Catalyst is delighted to announce that we are a proud recipient of a $2 million dollars in US Department of States funding to focus our work in Iraq. What started as a successful pilot project run by our sister social enterprise Prosperity...
“When women are empowered in any way, the ripple effect is tremendous” - Siiri Morley Last weekend, we were featured in The Boston Globe’s Business section. The article led the readers through the inception of Prosperity Candle, our sister...