The founder and CEO of British Orchard Nursery, the Middle East’s only ISO certified nursery chain, recently received the Emirates Woman Award for business excellence.

With this, Vandana Gandhi has become the first ever Indian woman entrepreneur to receive such an honour for excelling and providing innovation in preschool education.

The Emirates Women’s Award 2013 (EWA) honoured local and expatriate business achievers from diverse fields, however amongst several hundred entries she was chosen to be the “Overall Winner in Business Category”.

Organised by the Dubai Quality Group, the award ceremony selected the winners based on their leadership skills, strategy and financial planning, achievement levels, community contribution and innovation.

“It is a very special honour and I feel proud to be part of this great initiative by the Dubai Government, it certainly motivates and encourages women from different walks of life to excel in their respective fields,” said Gandhi.

“I am thankful to all my staff at British Orchard Nursery who have helped me accomplish this today. I have always felt very welcomed and part of the country, even though I am an expatriate; I truly feel the UAE Government provides excellent opportunities for business growth and innovation.”

“British Orchard Nursery is a trusted name in the region and over the last decade we have established our credentials as the region’s leading Nursery chain providing quality education and nurturing care to the young ones,” she continued.

“We are the first nursery chain to be ISO 9001:2008 Quality certified, and have won many awards from the UAE government for quality childcare and partnerships. Having 10 facilities across UAE including Government franchises, we now plan to expand into GCC and India,” she added.

British Orchard Nursery provide a holistic approach to learning, working on cognitive, physical, creative, personal, social and emotional development.

The highly trained staff look after the children, and the facilities include in-house specialised  children’s Gym- ‘GYMJUNIORZ’ , a library, a role play area to develop social and imaginative skills, a construction area where children recreate real life situations, a painting area to nurture creativity, as well as other educational and recreational offerings.

For children who stay beyond the usual nursery hours, educational programs are pre-planned and structured to provide learning experiences, relaxation and socialization. – TradeArabia News Service