Ruisdaëlle Jean wins the first "Empreinte & Éloquence" speaking competition

Ruisdaëlle Jean, 18, has won the first edition of the "Empreinte & Éloquence" public-speaking competition, whose final was held on Saturday, 17 October 2026 at the Centre culturel Brésil-Haïti in Port-au-Prince, Chokarella reports.

Organised by Empreinte Média, the competition's theme was "Standing up to History: speech as a weapon of liberation". Ten finalists spoke before the jury and about 300 spectators, tasked with defending their ideas and winning over the audience. The final fell on 17 October, the anniversary of the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

The winner says she had doubts at first. "In the beginning I thought it was going to be difficult," she told Chokarella, adding: "I believed in myself, I believed in my God who gave me this ability to speak." According to the outlet, the experience strengthened her belief in her ability to speak out and raise awareness, and she hopes to encourage Haitian youth to get involved in society.

Wood Sterlin Schama Saint Fleur, who started the project, says he has been working on it since 2021. "Today it is really possible, it is really a success," he said. The competition grew out of a weekly public-speaking workshop, "L'Art de la Parole": "Through the Art de la Parole workshop, we had 72 participants," he said.

Jury member and public-speaking coach Stephan Lindor noted that "speech is a weapon, as the saying goes." He said the jury ranked the candidates on verbal, paraverbal and non-verbal criteria.

In the information available, the organisers have not made public the names of the other finalists or the nature of the prizes. (Quotes translated from French.)

Source: Chokarella