Real Estate Agent Samina Chowdhury on Entrepreneurship

When it comes to helping others, real estate agent Samina Chowdhury doesn’t believe in handouts.

She is all about empowerment.

An immigrant who is from Bangladesh and lives in the Baltimore region, Samina founded her own business and works to inspire other women to discover their own entrepreneurial spirit.

Samina’s strategy for assisting others relies heavily on the nonprofit organization she founded—Women4Empowerment (W4E). Samina and her W4E team help women and girls who have suffered trauma by teaching them new skills, which empower them to overcome obstacles placed in their path by others. Keeping a focus on how access to affordable, quality health care allows communities to thrive economically and socially, W4E is helping women launch successful businesses and reclaim their futures.

Through it all, Samina’s overriding goal is allowing women to maintain dignity as they chart their path forward.

“Our goal is to educate women and help them dream,” she said. “These people have been victimized, they’ve stopped dreaming. We want to give them hope so they can get back on their feet, get their confidence back, get their dignity back. We can give them the support to move forward—and no matter what happens, we are behind them.”

Among the top 4% of real estate agents in Maryland, Samina has been featured on Forbes.com and in Baltimore Magazine. A member of the Bob Lucido Team, Keller Williams Lucido Agency, Samina has more than 18 years of experience as a real estate agent and the worldliness she embraces while helping others is illustrated by the languages she speaks fluently—Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic.

The many awards she has won—Top Agent (2006-2020); KW Bronze award (2006); Triple Platinum Award (2006); Quadruple Platinum Award (2007); and Keller Williams’ most coveted award, the Millionaire Agent Medal (2014-2020)—show how her strategies for achievement pay off.

As a successful entrepreneur, Samina works to help women find the successful entrepreneur in themselves. She has found her own key to success through harnessing her own skills to chart her own path. And this is the philosophy behind W4E, which empowers women in self-reliance.

“We work to help women globally gain their dignity with pride,” Samina said. “We want to give them learning power and make them entrepreneurs, whether they are a victim of an acid attack on their face, or a victim of sex trafficking. As they lose their confidence, they lose their power to fight. We want them to give them that dignity back, telling them that it’s OK to get back on your feet, learn a new trade and start your own business. They can all be entrepreneurs.”

Affiliated with the United Nations, W4E successes include:

In the U.S., rescuing women who are victims of sex trafficking. W4E provides shelter, training in a new trade and microcredit loans with a 6% interest rate.The goal is to help women get back on their feet with dignity and launch their own businesses within six months.
In Bangladesh, helping more than 5,000 women, including victims of acid attacks. W4E also teaches women working in the garment industry data processing and other functional skills, as well as catering, floristry, jewelry making, art and painting. These skills have more than doubled their income and allowed these women to gain their dignity and confidence back.
Rolling over microcredit loan money among women, rather than seeking funding from outside sources.
Helping women start successful businesses, such as catering and flower making endeavors; and assisting them in the purchase of food trucks.

“We want to empower those we help to be change agents for the future and improve one community at a time,” Samina said. “Soon enough, they will have an impact big enough to transform the world. Every human being can be ‘A Source of Change.’”

Visit w4e.org for information.