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 comprised of 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 Girls’s Entrepreneurship Truthful.

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

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

“I’m growing a sector centered on Haiti’s ancestral heritage by means of karabela, as a solution 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 will really costume as Haitians—and that’s what I’m presenting at this occasion.”

Held July 5-6, the primary HAIFEX Girls’s Entrepreneurship Truthful spotlighted Haitian girls whose creativity and tenacity proceed to energise key sectors of the financial system. Almost 70 exhibitors, introduced collectively by EGM Strategy and Management, showcased their services to a rising viewers looking forward to 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 high company taxpayers are women-led. It’s time to alter that dynamic.”

The occasion additionally gave David the proper stage to launch her “Tayino” clothes line—an open invitation for Haitians to embrace and have fun their tradition by means of style. 

Guests explored cubicles providing handmade footwear, artisanal belts, t-shirts adorned with vèvès symbols, and pure beauty merchandise comprised of regionally 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 equivalent 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 regionally made, additive-free, and utterly pure. There’s one thing for each style—wealthy in taste,” the corporate’s representatives stated.

The 2-day honest additionally featured a style 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 energy of their initiatives and enterprise concepts and every obtained a grant of 1 million gourdes to assist broaden their ventures.

Regardless of Haiti’s political instability and insecurity, the honest 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 quick 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 picture of cubicles and artisans presenting their work at HAIFEX.