BUFFALO, N.Y. — The female business owners at the West Side Bazaar on Grant Street in Buffalo are getting ready to celebrate International Women's Day. About two-thirds of the businesses in bazaar are owned by female entrepreneurs, many of them are refugees.
"I used to do macrame as a teenager, and never got a chance to do it as a business," Nadin Yousef told 2 On Your Side.
She moved to Buffalo from Iraq five years ago. Yousef launched her business just two months after moving to the United States, and has since become a citizen. She sells her macrame on Etsy, as well as at the West Side Bazaar.
"You get money for something you enjoy to do, that's amazing," she said.
With everyone coming from different cultural backgrounds, Yousef and her fellow business owners all learn from and help other.
"It's so nice to have people like family to support you and believe in you," she said.
In honor of International Women's Day on Sunday, the West Side Bazaar will have special discounts and events on Saturday afternoon.
Zelalem Gemmeda, a Buffalonian since 2005 who owns one of the bazaar's restaurants, will perform a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. She is originally from the African country, and arrived as a refugee from Yemen.
"I love to present my culture for Buffalo community," she said.
The West Side Bazaar is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, with the International Women's Day activities taking place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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