Entrepreneurship can be a driving vehicle for hope and reconciliation. After experiencing a tragedy no parent or human should face, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish turned to entrepreneurship as a way to advocate for peace, while empowering a generation of women and girls. “Businesses can play active roles in the prevention, settlement, transformation and stability of communities… It can lead to social, human impact. It should be based on moral human principals and that’s what I fully believe. [Entrepreneurship] is about exposure and connection and messages of peace and humanity.” Dr. Abuelaish is a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor, teacher and an internationally recognized human rights and inspirational peace activist. Born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Abuelaish is a four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and is known as the “Gaza Doctor” who has dedicated his life to using health as a vehicle for peace. In memory of his daughters, he established Daughters for Life Foundation. Believing that lasting peace depends on empowering girls and young women, it provides scholarships enabling young women of any Middle Eastern nationality or faith to pursue studies otherwise inaccessible to them. In this week’s #StartupPodcast, we’ll talk to Dr. Abuelaish about the power of peace and how he’s working to distinguish the rising acts of hatred around the world.

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