Mercado Libre's entire ecosystem of solutions pursues the same goal: to encourage commercial, digital and financial inclusion in the countries where we run our business. We have set out to create opportunities including diversity at all levels, strengthening the technological and entrepreneurial DNA of the communities. For this reason, we encourage African entrepreneurship growth in Colombia and Brazil to strengthen Latin America's ties with the heritage of the African diaspora. Together with our partner PretaHub, we help color and indigenous businesses in the region to position themselves in the digital era.

Through our AFROLAB initiative, we stand side by side during the creative process and marketing of products, strengthening their entrepreneurial efforts through technologies and certain pedagogical components, providing them with technical, legal, anc accounting support. In this way, We also generate a common market for products and services that not only contributes to improving their incomes but also to valuing the existence of black and indigenous entrepreneurs as a creative and entrepreneurial power.

Since 2018 we have been bringing resources and training in online sales strategies to enterprises in handicrafts, design, cosmetics and other areas that promote the cultural identity of the Afro and indigenous community in Brazil. We highlight their stories and products in an official and exclusive store of Feira Preta, an event that was born in 2002 as a face-to-face fair and that today is a festival in our marketplace, the most important in the region.

In 2021, we brought the project to Colombia. And in 2022, in partnership with PretaHub and the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival, we launched a call aimed at Afro, indigenous and Afro-indigenous entrepreneurs to boost the growth of their businesses, offering them the possibility of accessing training and advice in self-knowledge, creativity, business management and digital marketing.

So far, 275 Afro entrepreneurs have obtained training by Mercado Libre in Brazil and Colombia. At the official store of Feira Preta on our site, there are around one thousand products available.