By Jen­nifer Bakody

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_53204.html

ANSE-A-PITRE, Haiti, 29 March 2010 – The effects of the earth­quake that struck Haiti some two and a half months ago have rever­ber­ated across the coun­try. Both in and beyond the cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince, progress made in tack­ling long-standing human rights issues – includ­ing the prob­lem of gender-based vio­lence against women and girls – seems a dis­tant memory.

In too many cases, the most vul­ner­a­ble have been the vic­tims of exploita­tion and abuse.

The small and iso­lated town of Anse-a-Pitre, located at Haiti’s most south­ern bor­der cross­ing with the Domini­can Repub­lic, has suf­fered largely beneath the radar of the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity. Although the community’s mod­est, one-room houses and schools all remain stand­ing, a pop­u­la­tion influx mea­sur­ing in the thou­sands – com­bined with secu­rity pres­sures at the bor­der – is break­ing the back of fam­i­lies’ abil­ity to cope.

Busi­ness in Anse-a-Pitre is any­thing but boom­ing. To make mat­ters worse, pre-existing aid and resources have been diverted to address post-quake needs elsewhere.

Few women and girls feel safe

Such dire con­di­tions help to explain why five grass­roots advo­cates trav­elled many miles recently for a chance to speak with UNICEF Haiti Gender-Based Vio­lence Spe­cial­ist Cather­ine Maternowska.

The six met in the back­yard of small cement house located off a res­i­den­tial dirt road. Despite the impor­tance they attached to this meet­ing, each of the three men and three women in atten­dance was patient and respectful.

Seated in the shade on a cir­cle on wooden chairs, they spoke and lis­tened in turn.

By the meeting’s end, the sit­u­a­tion report was bleak: Like the capital’s over­crowded set­tle­ments for dis­placed peo­ple, the mod­est homes of host fam­i­lies in this rural region are under increas­ing duress. Daily life in the close quar­ters of a tent or one-room house has taken away any sem­blance of pri­vacy. Come night­fall, poorly located latrines – or the com­plete lack thereof – require women and chil­dren to steal away to unlit areas. Few peo­ple feel safe.

“Since the earth­quake, as the pop­u­la­tion here has increased, so have we seen an increase in cases of vio­lence against women,” said Anse-a-Pitre Jus­tice of the Peace Marc-Anglade Pay­oute. “The police and the jus­tice sys­tem, we’re doing every­thing pos­si­ble. We’re con­tin­u­ing to pur­sue arrests.”

Sex­ual vio­lence is not inevitable

Ms. Mater­nowska first came to Haiti in the 1980s, work­ing along­side local activists to advance women’s issues. She speaks flu­ent Cre­ole and knows the issues.

For her, the prob­lem isn’t new or sur­pris­ing: Emer­gen­cies increase the vul­ner­a­bil­ity of girls and women to gender-based vio­lence. She stresses, how­ever, that such vio­lence can be avoided. Local women’s, men’s and non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions; the jus­tice sys­tem; all UN actors; and the media all have cru­cial roles to play.

“Sex­ual vio­lence is not inevitable,” says Ms. Mater­nowska. “Haiti’s women’s move­ment has worked long and hard to change archaic Hait­ian laws that put women and girls at a grave dis­ad­van­tage from the day they are born. Today in Haiti, sup­port groups are teach­ing both men and women how to pre­vent vio­lence, as well as how to cre­ate safe spaces for their daughters.”

Pre­vent­ing abuse, sup­port­ing survivors

In the after­math of earth­quake, UNICEF staff mem­bers have met with nearly a dozen groups in south-eastern Haiti, work­ing to cre­ate an effec­tive refer­ral sys­tem for sur­vivors of vio­lence. Small plastic-coated refer­ral cards, printed in Hait­ian Cre­ole, instruct vic­tims on where to go for med­ical care and sup­port. The cards were devel­oped by UNICEF, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment, the Inter­na­tional Res­cue Com­mit­tee, and UNFPA.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0361/Noorani

A girl braids a woman’s hair out­side rows of makeshift shel­ters for Haitians dis­placed by the 12 Jan­u­ary earth­quake. Over­crowded con­di­tions in homes and camps are increas­ing the dan­ger of gender-based vio­lence against women and girls.

“Infor­ma­tion is key,” says Ms. Mater­nowska, “and plac­ing that infor­ma­tion in the hands of a sur­vivor can save her life. The refer­ral cards we’ve devel­oped pro­vide infor­ma­tion on how and where to access essen­tial med­ica­tions to pre­vent preg­nancy and HIV. And of course, the pro­vi­sion of timely infor­ma­tion gives sur­vivors access to full med­ical treat­ment, psycho-social sup­port and justice.”

In part­ner­ship with NGOs and other UN agen­cies, UNICEF sup­ports the Hait­ian Government’s push to include gender-based vio­lence ser­vices as part of a com­pre­hen­sive approach to women’s and girls’ health. Plans to develop ded­i­cated health cen­tres for women and girls are cur­rently in the works in the areas hardest-hit by the earth­quake – includ­ing Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel.

The part­ners’ goal is to expand these ser­vices to even the most remote cor­ners of Haiti, includ­ing Anse-a-Pitre.

Safe spaces for women and girls

UNICEF is equally com­mit­ted to the pre­ven­tion of future vio­lence through the estab­lish­ment of child-friendly spaces, with activ­i­ties designed to edu­cate girls and boys about gender-based vio­lence and help them develop life skills needed in the new and chal­leng­ing camp set­tings. Work­ing with an estab­lished local Hait­ian part­ner, Sol­i­dar­ity for Hait­ian Women, UNICEF has plans to cre­ate women-centered friendly spaces, as well.

Safe spaces for women and girls will address issues related to gen­der roles and vio­lence through a locally pro­duced cur­ricu­lum based on gender-based vio­lence pre­ven­tion and basic rights. Group activ­i­ties such as these pro­vide the community-based psycho-social sup­port that Hait­ian women and children need.