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‘Caribbean Girls’ an online enterprise bringing your ‘Pinterest Board’ to Life Nov 09, 2025 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine, Young entrepreneurs “Young entrepreneurs are critical for generating new employment opportunities, which are vital to the country’s growing economy, something we hope to contribute to one day.” By Allyiah Allicock (Kaieteur News) – Dedicated to providing quality, trendy, and yet affordable products that you think are out of reach in Guyana, is an online-based small business by the name of ‘Caribbean Girls’. Caribbean Girls which is founded and owned by two cousins, Shirisa Da Silva, 22, and Monifa Da Silva, 21, of New Amsterdam, Region Six, is that business which brings your Pinterest Board to life. For those not familiar, Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where people can search for, save and shop for ideas. Before we get into how this business turned from an idea to reality, let us first share that Shirisa and Monifa Da Silva both attended President’s College and then onto the University of Guyana. Monifa graduated with a Bachelor’s of Finance and is currently pursuing her ACCA while Shirisa did an Associate of Biology and is now pursuing a Bachelor’s of Optometry at the university. Speaking about their entrepreneurial journey with this magazine, Shirisa Da Silva shared that it all began on December 13, 2024. “We were inspired to start because we are surrounded by family and friends are in business and who encouraged us to take the leap. We wanted to learn how to make money and, more importantly, we wanted to fill a gap in the market,” she explained. According to the young woman, Caribbean Girls is the business that dares to bring people’s Pinterest ideas to life. “We are a retail venture focused on providing quality, aesthetically pleasing, and unique items—things that might be trendy overseas but are either inaccessible or too expensive here,” she elaborated. Some of the items they have in stock include stylish designer bags and purses, phone cases, and purse charms just to mention a few. The business which will soon celebrate its one year in existence, Da Silva said has been receiving tremendous love and support which they are thankful for. “Since we are online-based, we have the luxury of serving our customers ourselves, ensuring they have the friendliest convenient and personal shopping experience. We’ve been shown the most love from Georgetown and are slowly seeing the same type of love from our hometown, New Amsterdam,” the co-owner highlighted. Navigating this journey, Da Silva mentioned it was not all smooth sailing since there were challenges they encountered that they learnt from and overcame. Sharing briefly about some the challenges, she noted there was the uncontrolled issue of increased tariff and import costs, and the time it takes for shipments to be delivered. “We do stand strong on affordability and no high price mark ups or exploitation, however when running low on stocks to restock fast costs a pretty penny, and when we read that the government has extended a measure to adjust freight charges for calculating import duties, I felt some relief, as this is an effort to resolve these issues to some extent. We are hopeful that this and other announced measures in the future will make our dream of mass affordability easier to achieve,” she stated. Another she mentioned was, “The first thing we learnt about business is how high the prices are for a lot of items in Guyana. With continued support, we aim to solve that problem.” Committed to revolutionizing local shopping in Guyana, Da Silva related that their long-term goal is to listen and learn from the community they’re building. “We love our business and we love threating our customers well, we look forward to providing items, whether currently inaccessible or not as affordable and make them so. We aim to do this on a large scale with time, making a noticeable difference in product accessibility and pricing across Guyana,” she told this magazine. Aiming to make a noticeable difference in the business arena, the duo is of the belief that young entrepreneurs are Guyana’s most important resource because they create jobs, enhance self-sufficiency, and drive innovation. “Young entrepreneurs are critical for generating new employment opportunities, which is vital to the country’s growing economy and something we hope to contribute to one day,” Da Silva pointed out. She further expounded that by driving innovation, small business owners bring fresh ideas and energy to the business sector, pushing for new trends and more efficient, modern ways of doing business in Guyana. “Enhance Self-Sufficiency: They initiate projects that cut down on high importation costs. For example, by focusing on local manufacturing—like making coconut oil instead of importing it—they help to reduce overheads and keep money within the country,” Da Silva relayed. While noting small businesses contribute meaningfully to our society, the young entrepreneurs are of the view that more can be done to improve and uplift them. For example, they suggested that the relevant authorities start a National Digital Skills Voucher Program. “If the government, maybe through the Small Business Bureau (SBB) and those big oil-and-gas companies can generously distribute vouchers to small business owners and their workers. These vouchers would be coupons you can only use for top-notch digital training,” they informed this magazine. If this approach is to ever be considered, they highlighted that certified courses can be offered in E-commerce logistics (how to get your online sales shipped smoothly), advanced social media marketing, cybersecurity (keeping your business safe online), and financial software. “This plan directly fixes that problem where local businesses can’t access good digital training. It makes that specific, expert knowledge—whether from overseas platforms or local pros—totally free for registered businesses. This would quickly level up our workforce, turning businesses from just surviving into globally competitive powerhouses ready to take on Guyana’s fast-growing digital economy,” they explained. Looking to find out more about ‘Caribbean Girls’ and what they have to offer, feel free to contact them on (592) 715-7003/613 0487, or via Instagram/Facebook @shopcaribbeangirls. Caribbean Girls, Monifa Da Silva, online enterprise, Shirisa Da Silva, Young entrepreneur
