Myey Flores-Moens is a female entrepreneur with an immigrant background. She uses Belgian chocolate-making expertise to produce tableya, a traditional Philippine chocolate delicacy.  This expertise gave a boost to her start up, which has been supported through a loanfinanced by  the European Programme for Social Innovation (EaSI).

Based in Ghent, Myey sells her products worldwide via ecommerce.  Myey’s entrepreneurial spirit comes from her childhood: being the eldest daughter, she became a breadwinner for her family at the age of 18, after her father passed away. Later on, she found starting up her own business when she moved to Belgium in 2018 a different sort of challenge. ‘It was hard finding someone to believe in the idea,’ she admits, ‘but contact after contact, I eventually found someone who shares my interest in sustainability and that helped to get the business off the ground.’

The start-up also supports employment in the local area, by outsourcing packaging to a social packaging workplace. Myey was able to start the business with help from her husband. Within three months she was able to reimburse him and looked for additional financing to boost production. This came in the form of an EU-guaranteed loan from microStart, backed by the European Investment Fund -   with financing from EaSI Guarantee Instrument for social entrepreneurship. Her idea is now a successful company.

‘As a female entrepreneur with an immigrant background, sometimes it feels like people make assumptions about what I can and can’t do and it might feel like the odds are stacked against you. But right now I’m doing great. I’d love to be a champion for female entrepreneurs.’