Please help us to support Haitian women’s protection and security by viewing a short film produced by our partners at the New Media Advocacy Project, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and Partners in Health on sexual violence in the camps following the January earthquake.
Haitian Women Testify from Adam Stofsky on Vimeo.
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteCheck out this companion piece to what Alice posted about rape in camps. Full story at url below!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/the-urgency-of-housing-in_b_562917.html
THE URGENCY OF HOUSING IN HAITI:
FIRST PRIORITY IN ADDRESSING WIDESPREAD RAPE (PART I)
By Beverly Bell
May 4, 2010
The 7.3 earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12 was only the start of Haiti's most recent catastrophe. It has been followed by an ever-deepening social and economic crisis for those whose survival was precarious before the quake, especially among the 1.3 million who were left homeless or displaced.
For this group, who are now packed into camps or squeezed into the most marginal of open spaces, some daily elements of life include the following:
- Rape and other violence against women and girls, at high levels since the earthquake, appear to be rising;
- Poverty and social destabilization are worsening. They find no relief in an environment where people lack dignity, privacy, the fulfillment of basic needs, or control over their lives;
- The Haitian government has recently commenced violent evictions of internally displaced people from their camps, with a plan to relocate them in other vast and sometimes distant tent camps. Some survivors have now lost everything a second time, this time due to police smashing their belongings. Others live in fear that this will soon be their fate;
- While drenching, all-night rains have been a constant since the earthquake, the rainy season commences in earnest in June, with hurricane season just behind. In this context, the tarps, tents, and rickety housing which internally displaced peoples have scraped together become life-threatening.
All of these social crises require the same first redress: housing. Deeper structural solutions are imperative, especially if Haiti is to have a future based on justice and equity, but in the immediate, earthquake survivors must have permanent, sturdy, and dignified homes. These must offer water, electricity, sanitation, and proximity to services.