My name is Erika Vaval Rosenthal. I was born in New York in 1979, but Haiti raised me. I came here at age three, and from that moment, this country shaped everything I am: wife, mother of four, executive, and above all, a woman deeply committed to the people who built me.

I fell in love with Haiti early: our culture, our warmth, our resilience. But I also saw what was missing: strong infrastructure, fair opportunities, respect, education, health, compassion. We have the potential, the talent, the traditions. What we lack is the bridge that turns resilience into progress.

In 2023, life forced me to confront that truth in the harshest way. I suffered a catastrophic aneurysm and aortic dissection. I should not have survived. I died and came back.

When you return from that edge, you stop negotiating with purpose. You act.

My second chance came with a responsibility: to build something that would outlive me. Something that honored the women who carry this country on their backs with almost no support.

That is why I created United for Women Empowerment (U4WE).

U4WE was born to address the gaps we can no longer ignore. I spent years in the private sector, believing in work, discipline, dignity, and the values that hold a society together. Yet I saw too many Haitian women fighting alone, without proper tools, without resources, without anyone opening a door for them. When women fall, families fall. When women rise, nations rise.

U4WE is not charity. It is structure, training, reintegration, economic opportunity, and long-term stability. We focus on the women who hold households together. The ones rebuilding after deportation, displacement, violence, or crisis. The ones who only need a fair chance to stand on their feet and create generational change.

This organization is the promise I made when I woke up in that hospital room:

If I was given back my life, I would use it to strengthen others.

Today, U4WE stands for the future we owe our daughters, rooted in responsibility, respect, resilience, and hope. We build pathways, not band-aids. We invest in the Haitian woman because she is the backbone of every community.

This is our story. It began with mine, but it continues with every woman we lift, every family we stabilize, and every generation we refuse to abandon.

And this is just the beginning.