LAHORE: A number of people thronged a business expo hosted by the Pakistan Mission Society (PMS) on Saturday.
The two-day event is meant to promote young entrepreneurs of the Christian community and will conclude on Sunday.
The PMS organised the first National Christian Business Expo at the United Christian Hospital (UCH). The Christian community entrepreneurs from all over the country set up their stalls of clothing items, footwear, leather, food items, medical equipment, grocery items, jewellery, nursing, educational, books and property dealing.
“I started my online clothing business some six months ago and advertised about it on social media. I found this opportunity to approach the public with my stitched and unstitched clothes and the visitors checked the quality and colours. This will build their trust on my product,” said Mahnoor. She said she had received a good response from the visitors.
First two-day event concludes today
One of the organisers, Hina Saleem, said the expo was organised to provide a platform to the community, especially the youth, to showcase their products. She said Rs5,000 were charged from each entrepreneur to establish a stall in the two-day business expo. The organisers have provided tables, chairs, fans, electricity, tent and other equipment to establish the stalls.
She said an effort had been made to provide a platform to the youth to take their products to the market and families and students invited to visit these stalls. She said the expo would help maintain the business activities in other parts of the city and country.
Ms Saleem, who belongs to Gulberg, has set up an online food business with Food Panda service under the name of Amal’s Kitchen. “I am getting a good response and have set up a stall at the expo to check the response of home-made food items.”
She said the visitors had appreciated the quality of her products. “Some of the visitors complained about the taste of the fruit chaat and she would fix it.”
Shahzad, a sales manager at a medical equipment stall, said his company had established the stall to promote the sale of operating theatre tables, ICU beds and other items at affordable prices.
A home nursing care stall was established and healthcare experts were present providing information about their stall. The nurses were of the view that they would offer home healthcare services and complete medical assistance for homebound patients.
They said they would have qualified staff from renowned institutions of the country and they would provide help to the homebound patients. The nurses were also providing free blood sugar, weight checking, blood pressure and heart beat test facilities to the visitors on the stall.
Some hospitals also set up a stall to tell the visitors about the medical services being provided in their facilities.
A book stall was part of the expo where books about art, literature, fiction and religion were placed.
A stall was established by Don Bosco technical and youth centre to empower the Christian youth through quality education. The manager of the stall said they were providing technical education to the Christian youth. The technical education includes AC installation, service, gas recharge, repair and maintenance, house wiring, and welding.
The visitors including women and children seemed interested in food and clothes stalls. A kids playground near the expo attracted the children.
Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2022
