Immigrant Heritage Week Awards 2018 Program

Welcome to the 7 th Annual
BCNA Immigrant Heritage Week Awards
April 19th, 8:30 – 10:45 AM
SIFMA Conference Center
120 Broadway, 2 nd floor
New York, NY 10271
Business Center for New Americans:
Creating success through credit, community, and classes

Business Center for New Americans invites you to join keynote speaker Aline
Sara, co-founder of NaTakallam, and Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the NYC
Department of Small Business Services, to honor outstanding refugee and
immigrant entrepreneurs. The breakfast event will also feature a panel
discussion, moderated by noted journalist and photographer Nina Roberts.
PROGRAM
8:30 - 9:00 Breakfast and Networking
9:00 - 9:20 Keynote Address by Aline Sara
9:25 - 9:40 The BCNA Immigrant Heritage Week Awards
Visionary Award: Aline Sara, NaTakallam
Bootstrap Entrepreneur Award: Ahmed Mbaye, Mbaye
Transportation Service
Job Creator Award: Sharmila Sherchan, Chef & Owner of
Mustang Thakali Kitchen
New Beginning Award: Muhammad, Pema Omu Lama,
Virginie Atake
9:45 - 10:45 Panel Discussion: “How Immigrant Food Businesses Leverage
the Internet as the New Word of Mouth”
Moderator: Nina Roberts, Journalist & Photographer
Deepti Sharma Kapur, CEO of Food to Eat, BCNA Board
Member
Godshelter Kwesi Oluwalogbon, Chef & Owner of DF
Nigerian Gourmet Food Truck
Nabin Sherchan, Chef & Owner of Nepali restaurant Mustang
Thakali Kitchen
Denys Gorbatiuk, Owner of Den’s Hot Dogs LLC
Manal Kahi, Founder of Eat Offbeat
With a special thanks to our generous sponsors:

Aline Sara
Keynote Speaker & Visionary Award
Aline Sara grew up speaking English, French,
and Arabic, and after finishing her Master’s
degree at Columbia, was looking for an
affordable way to practice her Lebanese
Arabic. She had a sudden inspiration: why not
connect people wanting to practice
conversational Arabic via a digital platform with
displaced Syrians in Lebanon struggling to
earn an income. She and a team of fellow
students pitched her idea first at a Columbia
University startup competition, and later in a World Bank funding competition which
required them to pilot the program, which is when NaTakallam (“We Speak”), was born.
Since that 2015 launch, NaTakallam has helped support displaced people by pairing
them with over 1,800 language learners in more than 65 countries, engaging in more
than 18,000 hours of NaTakallam sessions. Aline Sara takes pride in the fact
that NaTakallam is providing not only a much-needed source of income for people who
have often lost everything, but also a valuable source of connection and community
through their online interactions with students and clients.
________________________________________________________________
Gregg Bishop
Small Business Services Commissioner
As Commissioner of the New York City Department of
Small Business Services (SBS), Gregg Bishop focuses
on creating equity of opportunity that will lead to
economic self-sufficiency and mobility for New York
City's diverse communities. Born in Grenada and raised
in Brooklyn, he joined SBS in 2008, overseeing a group
of programs that were designed to make it easier for
businesses to start, operate, and grow, as well as to recover from emergencies. He
later oversaw inclusive certification and capacity building to support the business needs
of City buyers and prime contractors.

Sharmila Sherchan
Job Creator Award
Sharmila Sherchan came to New York from Nepal in
2003, to join her husband Nabin, who had had immigrated
five years earlier. After working at several odd jobs for the
first few years, in 2008 she and her husband opened
Mustang Thakali Kitchen, serving authentic Nepali food
from the Mustang region.
In the beginning, with young children and very little staff, it was hard to get started. But
with Sharmila’s excellent culinary skills and Nabin managing the day-to-day business,
the restaurant not only survived, but has ten local employees. BCNA is pleased to have
provided loans, as well as digital marketing and website development, to spread the
words about this family owned business, which is now a vibrant and important part of
the community.
Competition has increased dramatically – when Mustang Thakali Kitchen opened in
2008, there were only a handful of Nepali restaurants in Jackson Heights and now there
are over 15 - but Mustang Thakali Kitchen continues to thrive and future plans include
opening a new restaurant in Manhattan.
___________________________________________________________________
Ahmed Mbaye
Bootstrap Entrepreneur Award
Ahmed Mbaye started his first business in 1985, exporting
fish from Africa to France and Spain. He came to the
United States in 2003 as a refugee and supported himself
by working in the food delivery business and offering
freelance tax preparation services. In 2009, with the help
of a microloan from BCNA, he launched his own import
business, FoodAfrik. Through BCNA’s ID A Matched Savings program he was able to
invest in inventory to grow the business.
In 2015 he began driving for Uber, and now has a growing transportation business,
Mbaye Transportation Services, with a fleet of 5 vehicles, which he operates along with
4 of his 10 children. They are now planning to transition to the trucking business and
one son has already earned his license for long distance trucking.

New Beginning Award Recipients
Virginie Atake
Virginie fled to the United States in 2011 from Togo. Within
months, she already had her own business, selling African
groceries and general merchandise in the Bronx. Unfortunately,
in 2014 an electrical fire destroyed the store. She was able to
quickly secure a microloan from BCNA through BCNA’s
Microloan Program for Refugees, and transitioned her retail
business to a home-based wholesale business. A second microloan from BCNA
allowed her to rebuild her inventory. And, by saving $4,000 through BCNA’s IDA
savings-match program, she received a matching grant of $4,000 to further invest in her
business.
________________________________________________________________
Muhammad
Muhammad first came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2014, and
worked minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. In 2016, he
began driving a yellow cab and enrolled in college classes in
order to obtain a degree and open up more opportunities for the
future. He applied to the IDA program for refugees, providing
matching grants for savings, and qualified for a grant to help pay
his tuition. Muhammad is currently driving a cab 60 hours a week while studying full
time at Queensborough Community College. In spite of his busy schedule, he still finds
time to devote to his wife and children, who were able to join him from Afghanistan in
2016.
_______________________________________________________________
Pema Omu Lama
Pema Omu Lama came to the United States as an international
student in 2008, leaving behind the political and educational
instability in her native Nepal, and enrolled at Southern Arkansas
University. The next year she moved to New York and in spite of
the pressures of a new country, a new language, and no family
support, she eventually enrolled at LaGuardia Community
College as a full-time student while working part-time as a nanny. She graduated
successfully from BCNA's IDA program and will be completing her associate’s degree in
Healthcare Management this spring, and plans to continue studying for a bachelor’s
degree.
Photo credits: Anne Saint-Pierre (Ahmed Mbaye, Virginie Atake, Muhammad, Pema Lama); Nina Roberts (Sharmila Sherchan)

Panel Discussion: “How Immigrant Food Businesses
Leverage the Internet as the New Word of Mouth”
___________________________________________________________________
Nina Roberts, Moderator
A contributing writer for Forbes, Nina Roberts is a freelance
journalist and photographer who has written about immigrant
entrepreneurship in The Guardian, Mashable, and Fortune. She
is particularly interested in how foreign-born business owners
make a lasting impact on local cultures and economies and is
currently working on a book about the immigrant entrepreneur
ecosystem in the U.S. In addition, she has covered cultural trends and international real
estate topics for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe and
has been a contributing photographer at The New York Observer, Rolling Stone and The
Village Voice. (ninaroberts.net)
_________________________________________________________________________
Deepti Sharma Kapur (BCNA Board Member) — Deepti Sharma is the creator and owner
of FoodToEat.com, a food ordering, pick up, and delivery website with a socially responsible
business model. Launched in 2011, the site uses innovative technology to enable vendors
to better service and track online customers. (foodtoeat.com)
Godshelter Kwesi Oluwalogbon — Godshelter Oluwalogbon came to the U.S. in 2011,
worked his way up to sous-chef at Zabar’s, then began selling meals out of the back of his
car by the Nigerian embassy. In 2015, he upgraded to a food truck, and he and his wife
Bisola launched the Vendy Award-winning “DF (for Divine Flavored) Nigerian”. He is a
member of the Street Vendor Project. (divineflavoredcatering.com)
Nabin Sherchan (BCNA Client) — Nabin Sherchan came to the U.S. from Nepal in 1998
and, with his wife Sharmila, opened Mustang Thakali Kitchen in 2008. Nabin manages the
daily business operations, while Sharmila creates and cooks signature dishes from
the Mustang region of Nepal. (mustangthakalikitchennyc.com)
Denys Gorbatiuk (BCNA client) — Denys came to the U.S. in 1998 from Moldova, and
gave up practicing law to pursue his dream of creating a ready-to-eat, high-quality, gourmet
hot dog. In 2011, he founded Den’s Hot Dogs, launched his first product in 2014, and Den’s
Hot Dogs are now sold throughout 19 states. (denshotdogs.com)
Manal Kahi — Eat Offbeat CEO & cofounder Manal Kahi came to the U.S. from Lebanon in
2013 and began making and sharing her own hummus which was so popular, she and her
brother Wissam started a company. It has since grown to provide jobs for talented refugee
home cooks from all over the world. (eatoffbeat.com)

Special Offers for
Immigrant Heritage Week Award
Attendees
Present this page & receive the following special deals.
hgf
dsa
Delhi Heights
37-66 74 th Street
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
718.507.1111
15% discount on lunch or dinner !
(dine-in only — no buffet, no takeout)
*** offer only valid once ***
Mustang Thakali Kitchen
74-14 37 th Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
718.898.5088
Buy 2 Nepali Thali & get the 3 rd one FREE !
(dine-in only)
*** offer only valid once — expires July 20, 2018 ***
Tone-Café Georgian Bread
265 Nepture Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235
718.332.8082
10% off ALL items !
*** offer only valid once — expires August 1, 2018 ***

BCNA STAFF from left to right: Vish Dasma, Jose Aleman, Zach Logan, Maria Paulino,
Jessica Martin, Yanki Tshering, Aaron Lackman, Francess Smith, Ervin Gega, Leonid Ostrovsky;
(front) Tshering Gurung, Asisat Adebola, Meghan McAllister
___________________________________________________________________
Business Center for New Americans
Board of Directors
Larry Rubenstein, Board Chair — Rubenstein Advisories, LLC
Colleen Galvin — Senior Vice President, Citi Community Development
Stan Kosyakovskiy — CPA, Odis Management
Larisa Ortiz — Principal, Larisa Ortiz Associates
Peter Brest — Housing & Social Services Consultant
Carolina Simon — Real Estate Development & Investment Specialist
Kwame Marfo — Managing Partner, Empowering Africa Fund
Deepti Sharma — CEO, Food to Eat
Yanki Tshering — Executive Director, Business Center for New Americans
___________________________________________________________________
translating dreams into success