http://www.huffingtonpost.com/berlotte-israel/building-back-better-a-ne_b_489908.html

Berlotte Israel and Mar­garet Satterthwaite

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of Hait­ian fam­i­lies are sleep­ing on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Each night, women rock their babies to sleep, hush their chil­dren, and try to rest. Many nights, wor­ries keep these women awake: the chil­dren are hun­gry; the rains are com­ing; the baby is sick.

In this bro­ken city, women also fear vio­lence. Hus­bands, broth­ers, and neigh­bors patrol the makeshift camps to pro­tect them from strangers. But, for some women, the very men stand­ing over them are the ones to fear: who can these women turn to for hope and protection?

Three women-Myriam Mer­let, Anne Marie Cori­olan, and Mag­a­lie Marcelin — could have pro­vided the answer and some refuge. These women rights’ advo­cates cre­ated sup­port ser­vices and fought on behalf of women fac­ing domes­tic vio­lence, rape, and exploita­tion. All three lost their lives in the earth­quake. In their absence, we must carry on and pro­vide hope through sol­i­dar­ity with the women of Haiti.

Sol­i­dar­ity must start today, Inter­na­tional Women’s Day. It can begin with an effort to join forces across the gulf of expe­ri­ence to learn about each other’s lives. For Hait­ian women today, sol­i­dar­ity means seek­ing an end to the gender-based vio­lence that can flour­ish in dis­as­ters. It also requires coun­ter­ing the struc­tural vio­lence of hunger, con­t­a­m­i­nated water, and unsafe hous­ing — vio­lence that was part of the daily lives of many Hait­ian women well before the earth­quake struck.

Ensur­ing women’s imme­di­ate needs in these des­per­ate days is not enough; women’s voices must also be heard for the long term. Gov­ern­ment offi­cials in Port-au-Prince, Wash­ing­ton, and donor coun­tries around the world must ensure that women are empow­ered to change the future of their coun­try. Empow­er­ing Hait­ian women now will mean bet­ter out­comes in the rebuild­ing efforts.

Today, women face enor­mous obsta­cles, espe­cially when they have been raped or sex­u­ally harassed. Long treks to col­lect water often keep girls out of school and stymie their oppor­tu­ni­ties to escape poverty. Women die dur­ing preg­nancy and labor at a rate far higher than any­where else in the region. Plans for Haiti’s future should ensure access to jus­tice for women who have suf­fered rape or sex­ual harass­ment. They should reduce the time women and girls spend col­lect­ing water each day by build­ing acces­si­ble pub­lic water sys­tems. Pub­lic health sys­tems should be strength­ened with the aim of improv­ing mater­nal health. Healthy moth­ers trans­late into healthy fam­i­lies. And the right to edu­ca­tion — pro­tected in the Hait­ian con­sti­tu­tion — should be made a real­ity for every lit­tle girl across Haiti. Edu­cated women are dri­vers of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment around the world.

For the women who lost their lives in the earth­quake, for the women sleep­ing in the streets, and for the women who seek a brighter future, we must stand, side by side, and demand results. We, who live in wealthy coun­tries like the United States, must demand that our gov­ern­ments keep their promises to the women of Haiti. Keep­ing these promises could help Haiti’s women change the future of their coun­try, for good.

Berlotte Israel is Human Rights Advo­cacy Coor­di­na­tor and Chair of the Sur­vivors’ Advo­cacy Board at Dwa Fanm, a Hait­ian women’s orga­ni­za­tion in Brooklyn.

Mar­garet Sat­terth­waite is a Fac­ulty Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Human Rights and Global Jus­tice at New York Uni­ver­sity School of Law.