Relief and Recovery for Haiti Disaster Survivors

Tatie grew up in a family of seven children, and wanted to own her own business since she was a little girl. While just a young student, Tatie's mother passed away and Tatie began raising her younger brother and god-daughter. She made them fried fritters to take to school for lunch, which were so delicious that they would sell them straight out of their lunchboxes. Seeing the potential in her culinary talents, Tatie began slowly building Tatie's Home, her bakery and catering business. After a number of years as a small, informal enterprise, Tatie's Home began to expand and land larger customers.

Then the January 12 earthquake hit, and everything changed.

The building that housed Tatie's bakery collapsed during the earthquake, forcing her to eventually open in a new location across town. Soon after opening in the new building, Tatie attended a business training class from Zafen, a program that provides training, financing, and individualized assistance to small and medium businesses throughout Haiti supported by Mercy Corps and Western Union Foundation. Her business has thrived since — the new bakery is in a central location for delivering her goods to markets and customers, she has increased her weekly flour order from one to 15 canisters, and she now employs seven people. Many of Tatie's employees are young and ambitious so, among other perks, she offers a flexible work schedule to enable them to attend school.

Because of donors like you, this loan will allow Tatie to purchase a new oven and increase her production of baked goods such ascoquignol, bonbon siwo, wheat cookies and her signature product, the petit pain sec. This increased productivity will allow her to meet the demand of her customers, and increase her revenues and profits. When asked what advice she would give to other entrepreneurs in Haiti and around the world, Tatie says: “Keep the faith and know that you have to work hard. Pick something that you really love.”

Entrepreneurs like Tatie are searching for business mentors. Through MicroMentor, an initiative of Mercy Corps, we are able to provide her with experienced mentors. Because mentoring takes place over email, phone and Skype, if you are interested, you can volunteer from anywhere. Learn more at www.micromentor.org/haiti.

Thank you for your continued support, your donations help make projects like this possible. 

-------------------------------

To support more projects like this, we recommend that you donate on October 19th. Here is why:

Starting at 12:01 am EDT on October 19th/9:01 pm PDT on October 18th, GlobalGiving is matching all donations at 30% up to $1,000 per donor per project. GlobalGiving has $100,000 available in matching funds. Matching will last until funds run out or 11:59 pm EDT/ 8:59 pm PDT (whichever comes first). Get your donation in early, as funds are known to run out.

Donations made on www.globalgiving.co.uk or any GlobalGiving corporate sites (including Nike, Global Action Atlas, etc) are NOT eligible for matching. But often gifts made through the corporate sites are matched by the employer, so don’t feel left out – you can still donate!