Sint Maarten: How Local Women Entrepreneurs Are Flourishing

Though entrepreneurs Yumi Lake-Alie and Rowana Jean Pierre operate in different sectors, both women share a common goal: building businesses that expand services on the island while creating new job opportunities. With help from the Sint Maarten Trust Fund’s Enterprise Support Project, they are turning these ambitions into reality. DESIGNING AFFORDABLE LOCAL HOMES For Yumi, architecture is a lifelong passion influenced by her family. “I’ve always loved design,” she says. “My dad has been in construction for years, and that’s what inspired me to study architecture.” After earning a university degree in architecture in the United States, she returned home eager to start her career, but opportunities were limited. So, she started doing freelance work and gradually built her own client base, which evolved into a growing business. When her father retired from his construction company, Yumi decided to revive the business and combine it with her architectural services to give support in both areas to her clients. Yumi’s aim is to make professional architectural services more accessible to residents. Many of her clients are young couples looking to build modern houses suited to the island’s environment and their budgets. She is helping more families make these dreams come true while supporting local construction workers who collaborate on her projects. Financial support from the project allowed Yumi to purchase essential construction tools and a high-performance computer needed for architectural design and rendering. “The tools I purchased through the project are what I’m using now,” she says. “The new computer has much higher specifications than the one I had before. Design and rendering programs require a lot of memory, and now I can run them more efficiently.” With improved equipment, she can produce detailed designs faster, helping clients better understand their future homes and enabling projects to move quicker. As her business continues to grow, she hopes to expand her team: “I want my company to grow to the point where I can hire more people and create more opportunities.”