{"id":2584,"date":"2019-11-09T00:48:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2019-11-11T21:11:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T18:11:44","slug":"as-first-yemeni-woman-owned-business-opens-hamtramck-celebrates-diversity-of-its-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/as-first-yemeni-woman-owned-business-opens-hamtramck-celebrates-diversity-of-its-city\/","title":{"rendered":"As First Yemeni Woman-Owned Business Opens, Hamtramck Celebrates Diversity of its City."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Simon Albaugh – YAN – Hamtramck<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"State Representatives, businesspeople, Hamtramck City Council Members, and a full crowd all stepped into the back yard of a soon-to-be-opened business. They stood in the October cold and, after the ribbon-cutting, welcomed a new owner to Hamtramck\u2019s community of entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But this enterprise is a first for the city\u2019s vibrant array of businesses. KMK Multi-Service Center provides resources that only comes from years of experience in public service. It provides counseling in a number of state-wide processes like public benefits. And it\u2019s an entirely new perspective to the business world of the city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kamer Zindani made history in Hamtramck\u2019s Business Culture. As the first Yemeni woman to own and run a business in the city, she explains how this venture was years in the making, starting with work in the public sector.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI was working as an outreach specialist,\u201d Zindani said. \u201cBut I was limited to what I could do, and the community was telling me to open up my own business because they needed more services.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As of 2016, the Wayne County Community Needs Assessment noted that many people who live within the spectrum of poverty reported being denied services on the basis of family status and income level, among other criteria. More importantly, they stated this as a cause for their difficulty in moving out of poverty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the time of the Community Needs Assessment, Zindani worked for the Wayne County Community Health Center in Hamtramck. The proportion of people living under the threshold of poverty in 2016 was 48.5%. It\u2019s estimated that the proportion in 2019 is 50.85%.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

People like Kamer usually connect people with these services. But in terms of need in the county, there\u2019s only so much that she was able to do. \u201cWe have so much need here,\u201d Zindani said. \u201cI\u2019m so happy that I opened up the office for the community and for the people that need services.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The opening of Zindani\u2019s business was big. It became a campaign stop for the people running for city council seats, with Ian Perotta, Saad Almasmari, and Mohamed Alsomiri stopping by.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something to be proud of,\u201d Almasmari said. \u201cI think Hamtramck needs more businesses. Yes, we might be tight on business spaces, but if you search for something, there\u2019s a great place to have your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business has been a heavy topic for news coming from Hamtramck. Many people have been relocating from the business-saturated centers in Detroit in search of opportunities in Hamtramck, according to the Detroit News. Most of the new entrepreneurs say they felt attracted to the diversity of the city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Being the first Yemeni woman to open a business in Hamtramck came with its anxiety, says Zindani. \u201cIt was more the fear of how they\u2019d see me as a woman in business,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd once I put it aside, I got encouraged by many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But until she finally registered her business with the city, she wasn\u2019t even aware that she was the first woman from Hamtramck\u2019s Yemeni Community.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t even know that until I went to the city,\u201d Zindani said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when someone who worked at the city said: \u2018I think you\u2019re the first Yemeni woman.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ian Perotta, a councilmember for Hamtramck and the owner of a bar, says there\u2019s a good culture for businesses in the city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to look out for each other when you\u2019re first opening up,\u201d Perotta said. \u201cIt can be difficult to navigate the ins and outs of running a business, so if you\u2019ve got other people who\u2019ve had similar situations, it can be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Simon Albaugh – YAN – Hamtramck State Representatives, businesspeople, Hamtramck City Council Members, and a full crowd all stepped into the back yard of a soon-to-be-opened business. They stood in the October cold and, after the ribbon-cutting, welcomed a new owner to Hamtramck\u2019s community of entrepreneurs.   But this enterprise is a first for […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/2587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}