Nada Radwan a graduate of English language and literature at Al-Quds Open University in Gaza in 2014 was frustrated and desperate due to the difficult circumstances that prevented her from working in her field of study. She decided to fight unemployment choosing a path that is different from what she had studied at university.
According to authorities the rate of unemployment among young people in the Gaza Strip especially graduates rose recently to 65% which points to increasing unemployment due to the Israeli siege along with the increasing number of graduates in the universities of the Gaza Strip in various departments.
Nada says: “Since my childhood I loved cooking. After graduating from college I could not get a job. I started a small cooking project and began publishing my work on social media outlets especially on Snapchat where I got a lot of encouragement from my followers.”
Radwan pointed out that this led her to seriously consider creating a project called Nada Kitchen to be a professional online cooking platform which specializes in providing recipes for housewives presented in an interesting and easy manner.
Expanding work
A dates company in Saudi Arabia contacted Nada to film five videos of different types of dates to use the videos for promotion to export these products to Muslims in America and Europe.
She added that her project is part of UCAS incubator which is run by the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza that is specialized in providing recipes for different and distinctive dishes stressing that this encouraged her to create a website to publish different recipes of Palestinian food as well as advise women on how to cook both in Arabic and English.
Nada Kitchen also features different recipes from pastries Western dishes desserts and tips and instructions related to maintaining the kitchen and etiquette.
Variety of tastes
Not only did Nada provide recipes of Palestinian dishes but she also touched on the Western cuisine that has become widespread in the Arab society so as to meet the needs and tastes of all.
Nada explains that she and her team are seeking to spread Palestinian food such as Maftoul Musakhan Maqloubeh and other Palestinian dishes in easy and appropriate manner for local and international communities especially in light of the spread of Western fast food that young people prefer.
Problems and challenges
In spite of Nada’s success at the local and international levels she faced some problems and challenges. The lack of her marketing skills and experience and the widespread spread of her work prompted her to join the UCAS Technological Incubator of the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza.
Nada explained that she needed a body to support her to develop her idea and realize her dream of creating her own website to publish the videos that she records about the different ways of making dishes. She joined the UCAS Incubator and the Kuwait Development Project which is carried out by UCAS and co-funded by Al-Rahma for Relief and Development and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development under the supervision of the Islamic Development Bank.
The incubator helped her to obtain administrative and financial skills to benefit from specialized training courses to identify specialists and consultants to know the strengths and weaknesses of her project in addition to learn how to market her products and solve the problems she faces which enabled her to launch a website for her project.
