Haiti-based Deux Mains shows how entrepreneurial spirit and determination can combine to support a community ravaged by disaster and poverty. Founder Julie Colombino-Billingham tells World Leather about a new mission: producing leather school shoes while navigating the team’s most dangerous working conditions yet.

From the rubble of a country where more than 60% live below the poverty line, Julie Colombino-Billingham helped to build a Fairtrade leathergoods brand from a solar-powered factory providing income and a lifeline to employees. Haiti has endured natural disasters, covid shutdowns and economic hardships, but now a new brutal regime is creating conditions that are the toughest yet. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, street gangs have joined forces to take control of Haiti’s towns and ports and preside over a culture of lawlessness and violence. Now, more than ever, supporting the business is imperative, as jobs equal life, Julie tells us. “Pay cheques from Deux Mains are the difference between families accessing basic necessities and having nothing, as gangs continue to increase the cost of living while terrorising the streets.”

It was a different kind of disaster that brought her to the country 16 years earlier. As a trained responder, Julie was accustomed to precarious situations and arrived after the deadly earthquake that killed more than 250,000 in January 2010. The conditions on the ground were tough, with people sick, and living in tents, afraid of the aftershocks. While giving out water supplies, a lady tapped her on the shoulder and said, “I don’t need water, I need a job.” The comment stuck with Julie.

Shortly after, she became friends with Jolina Auguste, who was looking after children orphaned by the earthquake. Her need was the same: “How can I feed these children without income?” she asked. Julie went back to the US briefly to sell her possessions and returned determined to find a longer-term solution to helping the people who were so clearly passionate about rebuilding their lives.

Thinking back to a previous disaster relief trip to Malawi, she remembered sandals made from old tyres; there were plenty of these being burnt in Haiti. Early prototypes of the shoes were ugly and uncomfortable, she recalls – but they had sparked the embers of the idea of working with leather. Deux Mains means “two hands” in French, meaning the products are hand-made with care and that everything is built with what they can make with their hands. Her charity Rebuild Globally was established to run alongside the business and support schools and training programmes.

A few years after launch, the company moved to a factory, “the saving grace”, in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Solar panels supply 100% of the energy, insulating it from the regular energy shortages, and investors and loans enabled the team to buy more machinery to increase product quality and efficiency. To export to international markets, they needed to be competitive on quality and cost, she says; they didn’t want charity purchases. 

Deux Mains provides maternity leave, childcare and healthcare insurance: this has already saved three lives, including one worker who contracted malaria and another who was involved in a motorbike accident. Two children supported by Rebuild Globally have risen through education and training to become operations manager and HR manager at the factory, which is co-owned by Julie, Jolina and two other female managers.

Tannery of the Year finalist

The Deux Mains collection now includes a full range of leathergoods: totes, cross-body styles, shoulder bags, purses and accessories, including keyrings, passport holders and sunglasses cases. A man’s bag has been designed by Julie’s husband, Mark Billingham, former SAS leader and TV personality.

Many of the designs use goat leather, supplied by a Haitian tannery. “By supporting this tannery, we are able to support the local economy and boost the supply chain in a country where an estimated 80% of the population is formally unemployed,” says Julie. The staple leathers are sourced from a tannery in Mexico, where solar power provides a third of the energy and three-quarters of the tannery's waste is recycled. Many of the vibrant leathers for limited collections are made from surplus leathers that were destined for landfill.

She has also now formed a partnership with Bojos Tanning in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, a regional winner of the Tannery of the Year programme, created by World Leather, in 2014. “Our goal is to source all of our leather from certified, traceable tanneries and reduce material waste in our Haiti production facility to near zero,” Julie tells us. “We believe responsible leather is not just about chemistry, but it’s about transparency, longevity, and ensuring the entire supply chain creates dignified work.”

The business was picking up pace when in 2020, covid shutdowns “changed everything again”. It was only allowed to operate at 30% capacity and many of the boutiques it sold to temporarily closed. But the team used this downtime to reskill, practising leather-weaving techniques that they could later use for the higher-priced bags. The shutdown also meant imports to the country slowed – including footwear. “We spent the next few years designing school shoes and working with NGOs and churches, persuading them to buy from us rather than importing them,” says Julie, and this became the beginnings of the School Shoes Fund. For every Deux Mains handbag  sold, a portion goes toward producing these durable, handmade school shoes. 

Gang control

On top of the natural disasters it has endured over recent years, Haiti is now facing overlapping humanitarian, political, economic and security crises. The United Nations estimates that since 2022, 16,000 people have been killed, 1.5 million have been displaced and more than half do not have enough food to eat. Without a government, gangs control vast swathes of territory and infrastructure, abetted by trafficked arms and drugs. 

Their control of the airports mean Julie has not been able to visit the business for 16 months, and she closed the factory temporarily after the presidential assassination, fearing for the workers’ safety. “After about 10 days, the leadership team called to inform me that I had to reopen,” she explains. “The solar-powered factory provided people with access to electricity, the radio, clean water and, of course, their craft. The influx of gangs only exacerbated the need for stable income generation, and the team pleaded with me to reopen. I decided I did not have the right to solely make decisions for our team from the safety and comfort of my home.” Today, the Haitian leadership team decides daily whether it is safe to be at the factory, based on which areas the gangs target. 

But the gang warfare has other consequences. It has dramatically increased the operating cost of the facility. Nearly every other business in the area has shut down and it is the only shoe manufacturer left on its side of the island. A 30% "tax" has been added to the bill to import raw materials from the Dominican Republic as drivers must navigate extremely dangerous areas. “I am grateful I have patient investors who have continued to stick with me as we refuse to leave Haiti,” she says. “It's an impossible and extremely dangerous situation, and only because of the leadership team in Haiti are we still able to operate.”

Thoughtful buying

One of the messages she wants to relay strongly is that purchases matter. Deux Mains bags have been stocked in Nordstrom, and US brand Kenneth Cole has co-created a collection. “We believe in the power of leather craftsmanship to change communities and environments when done with integrity,” she says. “Deux Mains works hard to give each client who wears our goods that peace of mind, as well as the pride that goes along with supporting a business that values these production ethics.”

A big focus will now be on making school shoes, the fastest growing part of the business. The aim is to supply every child in the country. “The pressure to sustain is massive and we can only pray for peace soon,” concludes Julie. “The heroes of our story are the artisans and leadership team who have defied the odds for years, continuing to make beautiful leathergoods amid such chaos.”

To help tell the story of the business, the workers and the country, Julie has written a book, ‘From Loss to Legacy: How a fashion business rose from Haiti’s rubble’. All proceeds go to support Rebuild Globally and its educational and job creation programmes.

“I’ve learnt hurricanes and earthquakes will come and go, but if we create jobs, communities will be better able to protect themselves against these disasters,” says Julie Colombino-Billingham. Credit: Deux Mains 

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