By Jen­nifer Bakody, UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_52939.html

© UNICEF Haiti/2010/Bakody

Myr­line Antoine, an out­reach offi­cer for the Hait­ian women’s rights orga­ni­za­tion Famn Deside (Women Decide), dis­cusses last-minute prepa­ra­tions for events com­mem­o­rat­ing Inter­na­tional Women’s Day in Jacmel.

JACMEL, Haiti, 9 March, 2010 – Women have been hit hard by the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake that struck Haiti on 12 Jan­u­ary. But they are not alone.

As the world cel­e­brated Inter­na­tional Women’s Day yes­ter­day, Hait­ian author­i­ties and lead­ers from the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity reit­er­ated their sup­port for the women of this quake-scarred country.

Haiti’s Min­istry for the Sta­tus of Women and Women’s Rights marked the day by hon­our­ing the tens of thou­sands of moth­ers, sis­ters, wives and activists who lost their lives in the disaster.

‘Women are engines of devel­op­ment’
On Sun­day, 7 March, at least 500 sup­port­ers – many of them the mem­bers of small women’s col­lec­tives from neigh­bour­ing com­mu­ni­ties — took to the nar­row streets of the south­ern port city of Jacmel as part of a pub­lic march orga­nized by Famn Deside (Women Decide), a locally based orga­ni­za­tion with a 20-year his­tory of pro­mot­ing women’s health and human rights.

Marie-Ange Noel, coor­di­na­tor of Famn Deside, walked with a card­board sign that read: ‘100 years we’ve been work­ing to give the women’s move­ment strength.’ She noted that the dev­as­ta­tion wrought by the earth­quake will test the strength of Hait­ian women and girls as never before.

“Women are engines of devel­op­ment in this coun­try,” said Ms. Noel. “They form a major­ity in many key sec­tors – in busi­ness, at the mar­kets, as teach­ers and as health professionals.”

© UNICEF Haiti/2010/Bakody

Sun­day is no day of rest for two women car­ry­ing goods through the ruined and dusty streets of Jacmel. Through­out Haiti, this year’s Inter­na­tional Women’s Day under­scored the vital role that women will play in the country’s reconstruction.

Pause for reflec­tion
In addi­tion to the march, Famn Deside orga­nized what it called a ‘pause for reflec­tion.’ One by one, par­tic­i­pants who had gath­ered in a local hall offered tes­ti­mony about their lives, losses and strug­gles fol­low­ing the earth­quake. They shared mes­sages of hope, as well as their ideas on advanc­ing women’s rights.

UNICEF is work­ing with Famn Deside to dis­trib­ute emer­gency sup­plies for women and chil­dren in Jacmel, includ­ing cook­ing and hygiene kits, and tar­pau­lins for shel­ter. Along with its part­ners, UNICEF is also advo­cat­ing for women’s and girls’ rights through improved access to health care, psycho-social coun­selling and legal assis­tance in cases of rape and sex­ual assault.

“Sup­port­ing the women’s move­ment in Haiti is essen­tial to sus­tain­able devel­op­ment,” said UNICEF Gender-Based Vio­lence Spe­cial­ist Cather­ine Mater­nowska. “By doing this, UNICEF pro­vides the funds needed to build strong gender-based vio­lence pre­ven­tion and treat­ment programmes.”

Pro­vid­ing sup­port to women in the quake’s after­math gives a voice to more than a 100 years of social movement-building, she added, “but also to the girls and women of Haiti who are left to rebuild this shat­tered country.”

The gov­ern­ment, the UN fam­ily and its part­ners, includ­ing many grass­roots women’s orga­ni­za­tions, have also hon­oured the long­stand­ing work of three promi­nent Hait­ian fem­i­nists – Anne-Marie Cori­olan, Mag­a­lie Marcelin and Myr­iam Mer­let – all of whom died in the earthquake.