Nasrat Khalid, CEO, and Founder of Awal LLC presents Aseel Everything Handmade to the President of Afghanistan, H.E. Ashraf Ghani June 19, 2021 On Saturday, June 19, Nasrat Khalid was invited to present ASEEL Everything Handmade at the first-ever Afghan Diaspora Virtual International

Earlier in the fall, the ASEEL team continued their support of the artisans in their network during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Though much of Afghanistan continue to operate as normally as possible, in-person markets and large gatherings of artisans in workshops remained difficult throughout the summer and fall.

Earlier this year, ASEEL was selected as one of the top 100 startups in the global Entrepreneurship World Cup. ASEEL competed with over 100,000 startups globally to be crowned as one of the top 100 startups in the world. As part of the EWC Program and to support our mission of creating 10,000 jobs in Afghanistan, EWC sponsored ASEEL to become an active Amazon Web Services (AWS) recognized startup.

Earlier today, the ASEEL HQ team hosted its long-awaited launch in Kabul. The team has been working diligently since earlier in the year to overcome challenges posed by Covid-19 and get ASEEL posed to provide delivery of handmade goods within the country itself. Having initially tested our supply chain over the past 8 months, ASEEL is ready to deliver within Afghanistan as well as to the US and Australia.

In these unprecedented times, a little kindness goes a long way. And our ASEEL community showed kind support in our first fundraiser to help artisans through the Covid-19 crisis. ASEEL provided the first round of Covid relief to our artisans from Golden Wood Productions. Stay tuned as we share more photos of the other vendors we were able to help with the donations from you, our ASEEL community.

ASEEL has made it to the final round of two different pitch competitions. Since launching in May 2019 of last year, the team has been looking for funding opportunities to further their goals. We are happy to announce that ASEEL has made it to the final round of two different pitch competitions. Since launching in May 2019 of last year, the team has been looking for funding opportunities to further their goals.

Eight months of continuous work, a soft-launch in April, and three showcases in the US set the stage for Aseel’s official launch in May 2019 at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC that included opening statements by Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the US, Roya Rahmani, as well as a panel of experts, made up of ASEEL’s Nasrat Khalid, Mr. Jawed Joya, the Afghan commercial attaché

ASEEL was invited to participate at the Rug Pop Up, and our US-based team was more than excited to attend and participate in this event. KCEC’s mission to develop the Afghanistan carpet sector aligns with our goals to economically empower Afghanistan through its handicraft center. This was our biggest event Aseel has been a part of thus far. ASEEL strengthened our partnership with KCEC and USAID and established new relationships with a network of designers, carpet importers, journalists, and, of course new customers.