- Radwa ElKhalifa is an Egyptian self-made woman, born and grew up in the countryside of Fayoum. She is considered a live role model for all the women who overcame weakness and defeat, proving themselves in the work field. Radwa is one of the women who has a great deal of self-confidence and a tremendous ability to build a better future that would benefit her and contribute to the advancement of her society and country.
- Radwa managed to enter a field that many may think of as restricted to men. However, with her perseverance and determination she was able to change such a stereotype and she became the first woman, the only woman in the Governorate of Fayoum, and whole Egypt, who has stormed the field of exporting medicinal and aromatic plants since 2006 She earned the title of “ the Youngest Exporter for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants’’. Today, she has her own company that bears a name that took 16 years of hard work, toil, attempts, experiments, and perseverance to reach her goal, to set up in her company all what she has dreamed of and turn dreams into a perpetuating real success, for future generations.
- Some may think that she has inherited a lot of money or likewise for building her company, but the fact is that all that Radwa achieved was from her personal savings, being characterized by intellectual capital gave her a competitive advantage that distinguished her, as her extensive experience in this field made her unique. Her persistence, perseverance and hard work helped her achieve her goals, which varied from dreams for herself, and others for her community and her country.
- Radwa ElKhalifa is the owner of the “Radwaminta Company” for exporting medicinal and aromatic plants in the Governorate of Fayoum. She supervises all the production stages by herself, starting from receiving and collecting the product from farmers and suppliers, through supervising the processing and packaging, to shipping the final product by land, sea or air and customer delivery.
- Of course, her life did not begin like this, but her actual success story started in 2001.
- Radwa climbed up the career ladder in various sectors. During that time, she dreamed of joining a place where she would utilize her potential and become a prominent businesswoman someday, until she ended up in the field of aromatic and medicinal plants. And it was the motive for her father to begin cultivating such plants on his land in 2006. At that time, Radwa was offered a job as a secretary in one of the most famous companies working in the field of exporting medicinal and aromatic plants in Fayoum, which was her first goal to achieve.
- Radwa’s second goal at that time was to get a high position in the company, and indeed, after strenuous efforts, hard work, working in almost all departments the company, and perseverance to prove herself, in a short time she was appointed as the executive director of the company . However, after a while, precisely in August 2008, and after two years of fruitful work, Radwa quit her job as she felt it was restricting her and killing her ambition. As she had self-esteem, she refused to have any one limiting the horizons for her ambition and goals just for mere arbitration as long as it is in the interest of the work as a whole. This is what prompted her to quit her job, and this was what preventing her from achieving her third goal, which she refused to give up and preferred to give up her position in the company she still appreciated. She considered her resignation as a new beginning for an arrow, not a retreat.
- In the period from mid-2008 to mid-2009, she moved to play an important role as a consultant for some export companies working in the field of medicinal and aromatic plants. Through the experience she gained at the previous company, her job was to train new employees on all the administrative aspects of documentation, marketing, shipping, the art of dealing with customers, obtaining international quality certificates, and the international requirements for export; Everything that is related to corporate management.
- At the same time, she was working in the field of community development in a charity, believing in the role of the individuals towards their community.
- In September, 2009, she was offered a job by one of the exporting companies for medicinal and aromatic plants, and all the powers were given to her as long as it was in the best interest of work, its development and progress, and she would bear any losses that the company would incur because of her decisions for the production and processing plant. Therefore, Radwa set off relentlessly with all the knowledge that she had for the progress of the company, so she interacted with farmers and suppliers, supervising the process of receiving the raw product, production, operation, packaging, shipping and exporting, gaining more experience of the administrative and marketing aspects, to complete the full chain of knowledge at all the stages of the export process of the product, starting from receiving the product from the farms until product delivery overseas and having the customer feedback. for the shipment in accordance with the conditions concluded in the contract.
- Radwa considered that period as the happiest period in her career, despite its difficulty and the arduous tasks that she carried out on her personal shoulders, as she completed her third goal with patience and diligence, proving her abilities and utilizing the power that she had, making it tangible on the ground.
- Radwa says that she still owes the owner of that company all the respect for giving her such an opportunity and letting her utilize all her power and experience. He was certainly a wise man who was sure of the profits that he would get out of that as well.
- Radwa continued to work in production until in July 2011, she received an offer from an American company that had a branch in Italy and another in China, for Radwa to represent the company’s fourth branch in Egypt. Thus, achieving her fourth goal, which required her to establish a company in August 2011 to conclude agency contracts, named after the parent company “Millennium Herb”. After years of hard work, as one condition of the agency is that Radwa shall not work with anyone else as she represents the parent company around the world. Therefore, she dealt with the situation wisely in order to preserve the entity of her agency and its honorable history up to date.
- In July 2021, history recorded a new event for her fifth goal in her never-ending struggle and after Radwa got a master’s degree in business administration, she established a new company, witnessing a new era that carried 16 years of experience, to restore her splendor, brilliance and freedom; to provide her field and her clients with all that is new through her company. ”Radwaminta for Exporting Medicinal and Aromatic Plants”, is a long-standing name that was built from her struggle that she worked for with all conscience, sincerity and honesty so that the name would grow with a good reputation and become one of the top ranked companies around the world.
- Through her company, Radwaminta, .Radwa laid out her plan to achieve three basic goals in the field of exporting medicinal and aromatic plants Let us watch her and follow her path, as she certainly does not tell about her dreams in advance, but rather strives and achieves them on the ground, and then brings them to the light after making sure of the extensive studies and the benefits to her society and the country.
- While writing her fifth goal and narrating it to you, she has not given up on the sixth, and seventh goals, Radwa has taken a vow to herself that she would never be broken and that only God Almighty will control her life. She loves her work field and considers herself entitled to think, and as long as a heart that beats, she will not give up achieving any dream she believes in, no matter what happens. Now, she plans for herself where she will be in ten years. So let us wait and look what she will do to record, over time, a new account of the achievements she will reach in her long journey, and we pray for her to achieve more progress and advancement to be the best pride for every Egyptian woman.
- And at the end of every dream she achieves, she ponder her years, where is she now? In order to rearrange her thoughts according to her required priorities for each stage she passes through. She drifts off and smiles, her face is full of happiness for what she has achieved, the good fruits she has reaped. She worked hard and sincerely to prove herself and not to fall in despair or surrender to any circumstances she went through in order to become what she is today , thanks to God, parents, her respect, appreciation and love for work and its sanctity.
Radwa’s educational milestones
Upon graduating from the Institute of Languages and Business Administration, with an excellent grade, Radwa EKhalifa joined the Faculty of Arts, Translation Department, Beni Suef University and, in 2011, successfully graduated. She didn’t stop after getting a bachelor’s degree in English translation; she was keen on developing herself by getting several accredited courses and training in various fields, e.g., she received training in entrepreneurship from the American University in Cairo, international export specialist training from the World Trade Organization Institute (WTOI) www.wtoi.org, training for quality management qualification from Shell Corporation, another QMQ from the Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, export logistics and many other training courses on the ISO 22000& HACCP-food safety management ,ISO 9001 and Organic EEC, NOP systems. Besides that, she successfully passed trainings in the preparation and practice of exporting from the Foreign Trade Training Center (FTTC) of the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry www.fttceg.org. Moreover, she got raining in computer, human development, TOT, etc.
Radwa’s ambitions did not stop right there. In addition to her work, she continued to do post-graduate studies and, in July 2021, she got a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Faculty of Commerce, Beni Suef University. She is currently doing a PhD in Business Administration (DBA) at the same university. https://www.bsu.edu.eg/
Working Experinc
Radwa works as a consultant for the emerging companies in the field of export of medicinal and aromatic plants. Her role is to prepare them for the labor market in terms of good management, marketing, the art of dealing and negotiating with customers. This is in addition to product pricing, shipping methods, papers and permits necessary to export the shipment to the importer. Furthermore, she helps them in drafting payment terms, delivery terms, banking transactions, and qualifications that are necessary to get the international certificates that the company needs to achieve a competitive advantage in the global markets as well as supervising all departments of the company, following up on quality procedures, and preparing and packing products according to the international requirements.