About Our Market

Sanise had been raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti as a restavec – a child slave. She cooked and cleaned in exchange for a bed and a meal, but she never went to school. At fifteen, she was thrown out on the streets when she got pregnant. Many mothers in Haiti find orphanages where they relinquish their children because they do not have the means to care for them. These children are adopted by parents in the USA or Europe. Sanise got very lucky. She met Shelley, a mother who came to Haiti in the hope of adopting an orphan. When Shelley realized that mothers were giving their children up for adoption because they didn’t have the financial means to care for them, she decided jobs were the solution to the problem. Sanise began working with Shelley as a jewelry maker. Sixteen years later, Sanise has three daughters and is now the manager of the jewelry department for Papillon Marketplace. More than 200 parents work at Papillon in Haiti! Our Market is the European arm of Papillon Marketplace and we stand alongside parents who want to work and keep their families together. Your purchase of any of our beautiful fair trade Haitian products keeps children with their parents and in school. We have products you can be proud to sell! Read their story