Haiti’s women drive economic revival at HAIFEX entrepreneurship fair

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Not removed from the dialogue stage—surrounded by tables overflowing with Haitian-style clothes constructed from karabela material, straw hats, palm-fiber suitcases, and scarves adorned with vèvè symbols rooted in Haitian identification—Maëlle Figaro David welcomed guests to the inaugural HAIFEX Ladies’s Entrepreneurship Honest.

The 2-day occasion served as a robust show of how girls are utilizing creativity and enterprise savvy to construct their financial portfolios and assist breathe new life into Haiti’s economic system.

An artisan since 1982, David exhibited her work below the label “Tayino,” crafting designs infused with Haiti’s ancestral imaginative and prescient and centering on the colourful karabela material.

“I’m creating a sector centered on Haiti’s ancestral heritage via karabela, as a technique to remind us that we’re without delay Taíno, African, and Haitian,” stated David, founding father of Maëlle Création. “I’m organizing this community in order that we are able to really gown as Haitians—and that’s what I’m presenting at this occasion.”

Held July 5-6, the primary HAIFEX Ladies’s Entrepreneurship Honest spotlighted Haitian girls whose creativity and tenacity proceed to energise key sectors of the economic system. Almost 70 exhibitors, introduced collectively by EGM Strategy and Management, showcased their services to a rising viewers longing for innovation.

“Haitian girls entrepreneurs present distinctive resilience and creativity,” stated Emmanuel Grégory Morissette, founding father of the HAIFEX expo. 

“But, after supporting companies for greater than a decade, I’ve seen that fewer than 10% of Haiti’s prime company taxpayers are women-led. It’s time to alter that dynamic.”

The occasion additionally gave David the right stage to launch her “Tayino” clothes line—an open invitation for Haitians to embrace and rejoice their tradition via trend. 

Guests explored cubicles providing handmade sneakers, artisanal belts, t-shirts adorned with vèvès symbols, and pure beauty merchandise constructed from domestically sourced crops. Culinary choices ranged from packaged peanuts and pistachios, grated coconut with sugar, jars of conventional cooking spices and tamarind and cherry liqueur to breadfruit meatballs and natural roots tied to environmental preservation practices.

Among the many exhibitors, Les Délices de Vida stood out for jams, marmalades, spicy sauces, fruit akin to tamarind, quenepa, and cherry, macerated in alcohol, and chili-infused olive oil—all designed to showcase Haitian flavors and the transformative capability of ladies in enterprise.

“Our merchandise are domestically made, additive-free, and fully pure. There’s one thing for each style—wealthy in taste,” the corporate’s representatives stated.

The 2-day truthful additionally featured a trend present celebrating Haitian designers and workshops on girls’s financial inclusion and enterprise networking methods.

On the HAIFEX pitch competitors, three girls—Marie Changlais Aimé, Naichka Léonard and Laure Mendie—stood out for the power of their tasks and enterprise concepts and every acquired a grant of 1 million gourdes to assist increase their ventures.

Regardless of Haiti’s political instability and insecurity, the truthful provided moments of reflection, studying, and connection. Attendees stated it created a significant house for visibility and recognition of ladies’s initiatives whereas providing a short respite from the nation’s challenges.

“This occasion is greater than an expo—it’s a catalyst for ladies’s entrepreneurship in Haiti,” one participant stated.

Under is a show photograph of cubicles and artisans presenting their work at HAIFEX.