About Us
Fanm Limye Association believes that empowering women and girls changes everything.
The mission of the Asosyasyon Fanm Limye, which means Illuminated Women’s Association in Haitian Creole, is to promote women's rights and entrepreneurship, through awareness raising, training, production, research, and advocacy.
Our History
The Fanm Limye Association was organized as a Haitian nonprofit association in 2013 with help from Prosperity Catalyst, Inc. a US NGO. Since then, the Fanm Limye Association has built the capacity of 72 artisan groups in Port-au-Prince, including candlemakers, metal, stone and horn workers, and seamstresses, providing them training in business planning and financial management. It also helped them design and produce high-quality handicrafts for international and local markets. These products are currently sold in North America by Dandarah https://www.dandarah.ca/collections/haiti-collection, a Fair-Trade Certified seller of artisan products. To date, Fanm Limye has produced and sold tens of thousands of beeswax candles to large wholesale buyers including GlobeIn and Cost Plus World Market. Due to the insecurity in and around Port-au-Prince, Fanm Limye has scaled back its program with artisans.
Our History
Difficulty finding good quality beeswax for candle production led Fanm Limye to invest in training 1,108 small holder farmers, 65% women, in beekeeping in the communes of Arcahaie, Cabaret, Leogane, Grand Goave and Petit Goave of the West Department and in the communes of Petit Trou, Petite Riviere, and Paillant in the Nippes Department. The beekeepers are organized in 32 women-led groups and four regional associations. They have since received training in agroforestry and maternal and child health and nutrition practices. More details on our work in included in the Our Work section of this website.