Katie Kane, Week of May 17:

Things are busy in the BAI com­pound today.  Hait­ian women and their fam­i­lies con­tinue to stream into to BAI offices to speak about gen­der vio­lence with Jayne Flem­ing and her seem­ingly tire­less legal team, who are inspired by the brav­ery and per­sis­tence of Hait­ian women.  Last night there was a meet­ing between mem­bers of FAVILEK and KOFAVIV and Jayne, Nicole Phillips, the human rights lawyer who is here work­ing on the issue of forced evic­tions and dis­place­ment.  The women of the two Hait­ian groups dis­cussed the needs of women in Haiti, pri­mar­ily those who are now liv­ing in camps.  Their vision for the future was a broad and cre­ative one that included requests for ser­vices and struc­tures that women in the United States take for granted: shel­ter, secu­rity, edu­ca­tion, eco­nomic oppor­tu­nity. They spoke of these needs in very con­crete terms.  The women would like money to pay the mem­bers of the infor­mal but effec­tive Secu­rity Brigades that patrol the some of the camps in shifts that last through the night.  Right now, in a coun­try that suf­fers from 80% unem­ploy­ment, these peo­ple work as vol­un­teers.  Some small, pay­ment, the women argue, is nec­es­sary to build a sta­ble secu­rity infra­struc­ture in the camps.

The women spoke too of want­ing to have an office for their orga­ni­za­tions, safe houses for women under threat, a pro­fes­sional school that could train and retrain women in a vari­ety of fields, a cen­ter to which rape vic­tims could come for psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­sel­ing, a clinic, and other things.  In short, in cre­ative and pow­er­ful ways, Malya Vil­lard, Erim­ith Delva, Marina Julien, and Yolande Baze­lais, all artic­u­lated a dream for a just and socially demo­c­ra­tic Haiti where women’s human rights would be at the cen­ter of a newly orga­nized soci­ety.  The long-term vision these women have for the devel­op­ment and secu­rity of Hait­ian women was incred­i­ble: a sign of their per­sis­tence, hope and trans­for­ma­tive creativity.

Today a protest that has been banned by the gov­ern­ment will take place in the face of that injunc­tion.  Var­i­ous orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing labor rights activists, will march to protest eco­nomic and hous­ing con­di­tions in Haiti.  There is a sense of right­eous anger in the air and a fear con­cern­ing the safety of the marchers.  Today’s march, will be fol­lowed by activ­i­ties for Haiti’s flag day, May 18.  Pres­i­dent Pré­val will go to Arc­a­haie, the city of the flag for the offi­cial cel­e­bra­tion of Flag Day, but peo­ple in Port-Au-Prince, through­out Haiti, and in the Hait­ian Dias­pora will cel­e­brate in ways that demon­strate both their con­cern about the chaotic and puni­tive present in Haiti and their invest­ment in a bet­ter future.  L’Union fait le force.

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