Tatie’s Home, a bakery in Port-au-Prince

Tatie (at right) with her brother in front of her bakery. Tatie's Bakery is helping to rebuild Haiti. Join MicroMentor and grow more businesses like Tatie's in the U.S., Haiti, Nicaragua and more. Photo: Jinell Smithmyer/MicroMentor

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.

When the earthquake struck, Tatie was taking public transportation to drop her brother off at the airport. Walking from the airport to the tap-tap (public bus), she heard a deafening noise and felt the ground rumble under her feet — her first thought was that a plane had crashed. Shaking and worried for her brother, who was about to board a plane, Tatie turned and ran back to the airport. She spotted him running out of the airport as she arrived, unharmed. Others were not so lucky.

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. 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.

A loan through the Zafen program, supported by Mercy Corps and Western Union Foundation, will allow Tatie to purchase a new oven and increase her production of baked goods such as coquignol, 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. Because mentoring takes place over email, phone and Skype you can volunteer from anywhere. Learn more at www.micromentor.org/haiti.

For more information about Tatie, click here.