C.E.O. Women Launches Grand Cafe Educational Soap Opera and Expands Proven Program into San Jose

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Creating Economic Opportunities for Women (C.E.O Women), a non-profit organization developing economic opportunities for immigrant and refugee women, today announced the launch of its new multimedia series to expand the reach of its proven educational entrepreneurship program. The Grand Cafe educational soap opera provides low-income immigrant and refugee women with access to English and business training, in order to help them attain their goals of becoming economically self-sufficient individuals and small business owners. C.E.O. Women will implement the educational soap opera in its existing Oakland-based program, as well as in its new San Jose program.

"Since founding C.E.O. Women, we have been focused on creating a program that is uniquely geared toward immigrant women looking to start their own small businesses, as this group faces a unique set of challenges including language and cultural barriers," said Farhana Huq, founder and CEO of C.E.O. Women. "We are now taking our proven program and offering it to women in the South Bay who didn't previously have access to our resources through use of popular media and technology. With the launch of Grand Cafe, we believe we are reaching these women in a more relatable way, and have the potential to expand into even more areas in the future."

Grand Cafe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqEyf3Oqxak) imparts language, financial literacy and entrepreneurial training through the stories of four immigrant and refugee women by demonstrating their challenges and triumphs in starting their own businesses in the U.S. The 18-episode series of DVDs and workbooks will be used in conjunction with classroom-based training offered by C.E.O. Women. This will allow more women the ability to participate in a more flexible way. The official launch of the Grand Cafe will run simultaneously with C.E.O Women's expansion into San Jose.

Currently, nearly 127,000 immigrant women reside in the Bay Area, with 38,000 living in San Jose. Many of these women are unable to commute north to Oakland and will now be able to participate in classroom study, while also utilizing the Grand Cafe series.

Since its inception, C.E.O. Women has served over 1,600 Bay Area immigrant women through its award-winning business entrepreneurship program, workshops, one-on-one assistance and referrals.

About C.E.O Women

C.E.O. Women is a nonprofit organization founded in 2000 to address systemic poverty and lack of income mobility faced by low-income immigrant and refugee women. The mission of C.E.O. Women is to create economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refugee women through teaching English, communications and entrepreneurship skills, so they can establish successful livelihoods. For more information about C.E.O. Women's mission and programs, visit them on the World Wide Web at www.ceowomen.org.