From the United Nations Devel­op­ment Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1046

The voices of Hait­ian women and their fam­i­lies were high­lighted at a side event in rela­tion to the Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women on 3 March, hosted by the Per­ma­nent Mis­sion of Haiti to the United Nations along with UNIFEM, UNDP and the Huairou Com­mis­sion. The panel addressed Hait­ian women’s chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties, offer­ing the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity first­hand knowl­edge of their sit­u­a­tion and needs in the after­math of the 12 Jan­u­ary earthquake.

Fol­low­ing an intro­duc­tion by the Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Haiti to the UN, Léo Mérorès, the open­ing address was deliv­ered by Mar­jorie Michel, the Hait­ian Min­is­ter of Women’s Affairs. The Min­is­ter led a minute of silence in hon­our of the vic­tims of the earth­quake, includ­ing a num­ber of women’s rights activists who lost their lives, and thanked the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity for show­ing sol­i­dar­ity with the peo­ple of Haiti. She empha­sized that the Min­istry of Women’s Affairs was work­ing to ensure that all gov­ern­ment pro­grammes to deal with the after­math of the earth­quake would take the spe­cific needs of women into con­sid­er­a­tion and pro­mote women’s equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in the rebuild­ing process.

Elvire Eugene, Coor­di­na­tor of the Asso­ci­a­tion Femmes Soleil d’Haiti (AFASDA), described some of the chal­lenges that women and girls were fac­ing after the earth­quake, liv­ing in makeshift shel­ters with­out ade­quate sup­plies, san­i­tary facil­i­ties, pri­vacy or secu­rity. She stressed that the goal was to rebuild Haiti with a new com­mit­ment to the prin­ci­ples of human rights and equal­ity. To that end, the work of women’s orga­ni­za­tions must be strength­ened, as well as col­lab­o­ra­tion with inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing UNIFEM.

Colette Lespinasse, Direc­tor of the Groupe d’Appui aux Rap­a­tries et Refu­gies (GARR), pointed to the fact that over 40 per­cent of house­holds in Haiti are headed by sin­gle women and that women play a key role in pro­vid­ing for their fam­i­lies and car­ing for depen­dents. There­fore, the lack of ade­quate food, shel­ter and secu­rity affected them dis­pro­por­tion­ally. She expressed con­cern about the pro­tec­tion of orphaned chil­dren, who were at risk of being sold into forced work or pros­ti­tu­tion, espe­cially girls. Another chal­lenge was the increased risk of sex­ual vio­lence and the lack of insti­tu­tional struc­tures to address it, as well as the lack of ser­vices for women sur­vivors of violence.

Flavia Cherry, Interim Chair­per­son of the Caribbean Asso­ci­a­tion for Fem­i­nist Research and Action (CAFRA), described dif­fi­cult con­di­tions in hos­pi­tals that lacked refrig­er­a­tion and med­i­cine. She high­lighted the issue of mater­nal health, as preg­nant women had in many cases been turned away from hos­pi­tals and had no option but to give birth in the tem­po­rary shel­ters. How­ever, she stressed that the pos­i­tive aspects should not be for­got­ten. For exam­ple, it had been amaz­ing for her to see women orga­nize them­selves in the camps to coor­di­nate aid dis­tri­b­u­tion and secu­rity arrange­ments. Hait­ian women were incred­i­bly resilient and were doing their best to cope with the dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances and assist each other.