Latina-owned businesses that emerged from entrepreneurship program to be featured at Christmas market
Entrepreneurs Elena Camarta (left) and Sindy Leon (right) will take part in a Christmas Market Saturday. Mabel Del Valle (center) manages the Avanzando Juntas program.
Emil Moffatt/WABE News
Elena Camarta was inspired to start her own business when she saw someone wearing a Panama hat with an ornate design. But instead of buying one, she made her own, taking a plain hat and adding beads and jewels and colorful fabrics.
That caught the attention of her friend.
“And she said says ‘could you please make one for me,’ and I said ‘yes, of course,’ and I started like that,” she said.
Camarta came to Atlanta five years ago from Colombia, with little idea of how to start a business.
But then, she discovered the Latin American Association’s woman entrepreneurship program called “Avanzando Juntas” — moving forward together.
The program started in 2014, but this weekend it will launch something new: a Christmas market, hoping to connect these businesses with customers.
Mabel Del Valle oversees the program, which she says has attracted thousands of women through the years. She says the number one challenge for many who sign up is the language barrier.
“That’s why we can provide them classes to learn how to learn how to speak English, so they can be more successful,” said Del Valle. “Other than that, they are trying to learn the laws.”
Those laws – like how to register a business – can be complicated, says Sindy Leon who started a company with her sister and mother.
“I know how to start a business in Colombia, but I didn’t know how to in America, in the United States,” she said.
With the help of the entrepreneurship program, Leon is now selling jewelry online. This weekend at a Christmas market on Buford Highway in Northeast Atlanta, she’s looking forward to actually meeting customers face to face.
“Actually, I love talking with people, so that would be great,” said Leon.
The event is set to feature dozens of businesses offering not just goods but services too, like photography and real estate services. It all happens Saturday at the Latin American Association Outreach Center.
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