The following report by Maria Suarez Toro from the Feminist International Solidarity Camp, “Myriam Merlet, Anne Maria Coriolan and Magalie Marcelin,” (named after the three Haitian feminist activists killed in the quake) that has been set up in Haiti is re-posted with the kind permission of the author. To learn more about the camp and the work that they are doing click here and here.

GUARDIANS OF HISTORY
By María Suárez Toro, and RIF-Fire Communications
Center Feminist International Camp
Translation by Amandla Gigler, Executive
Director at CALALA Fondo de Mujeres / Women’s FundLise

Marie Jean, a feminist leader from SOFA in Haiti, warned us about the situation of buried historical records, during a gathering of over three dozen Latin American and Caribbean feminists, in the Dominican Republic on January 26-27. She told us that Haitian women grieve over the irreparable loss of many lives, “but also because buried under the rubble of what was EnfoFam¹s office, is the historical record of the origins of feminism in our country, as this was the first [feminist] organization.”

She told us about the damage to Kay Fam, another feminist organization, the national library buried in the center of the city and the documentation centers on culture, human rights and other issues.We went to Port au Prince to honor the thousands of people, including feminist leaders, who had died, to show solidarity with the people who had survived, to bring humanitarian aid and to alleviate other needs, and to see what more could be done.

And while we covered the news from our feminist gaze, we knew we had to say farewell to our historical memory in Haiti, also.Feminists in the region had already agreed at the meeting that all of the communication networks will excavate Haitian interviews and documents that they have in their own records of the past 30 years.

The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Journalists, the Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) and the Center for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) are launching a call to others. Upon reaching the city, we ask Lise Marie to take us to the ruins of EnfoFanm¹s locale, to document the reality. It was a two-story house in a suburb near the city.

Our gazes cloud over at the site of the old sign with the name of the organization that sways in the Caribbean breeze, hitting the shattered cement.We find ourselves against the grain of the first guardian of history.

Madame Lisie comes over from the house across the street to tell us that we cannot enter. But she knows Lise Marie, who is accompanied by Flavia Cherry with RIF’s camera. I arrived later. They filmed to tell the world. When I arrive, I’m reluctant to make my farewell. “They are there, intact, look at them! “We must make an appeal to UNESCO and UNIFEM to come recue them. The building, although it is destroyed, still has its frame standing, although it is extremely vulnerable. Some things inside are visible. There are the
files.

We return the next day with Silvie from the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights. The guardian comes out like a friend, but we explain ourselves and she speaks with us. We thank her for her vigilance and go on to our next encounter with the present and the past. We see that the Executive Secretary of the organization arrived this morning. This makes us glad. Whatever can be saved should be placed in her hands; this is the legacy of the protagonist-guardians.

We go to the second locale, Kay Fanm¹s office. Again we are intercepted immediately. This time is a young Canadian man – Etienne Cote-Paluck – who is protecting the locale, this one not completely destroyed, but not habitable. All of the activists were unharmed, except the organization¹s director, Magali Marcelin, who, when the earthquake struck, had just stepped out of a building where she was in a meeting.

He asks us for identification and explanations. He lets us in and tell us what has happened. He breaks down in the middle of the story. “Magali was a second mother to me. I am the son of a Canadian feminist and the truth is that they raised me! “He tells us that he already knows about the International Feminist Camp and is working to provide coverage to MSNBC in Canada, and he wants to interview us. He carries out his journalism from his position as guardian of memory. Magali lives among us and the new generation of young people who were marked by her. I am encouraged.

The third visit is the office of the “Ministry for the Status of Women and the Rights of Women”. All that remained standing was the sign that faces the street.

The view is horrible. Not one stone is left to support another.The silence embraces us, the rubble shakes us, legs falter, instincts are incite, although if the ground were to tremble there’s nothing that could fall. Two floors of concrete lying on the floor like paper watered by the wind.

At the entrance there is no guardian. Myriam Merlet, one of the feminists who passed, who with others founded Enfo Fanm, had put so much political strength to that Ministry. The Minister and many staff had also died.

I pick up a page, out of all the scattered material between pieces of concrete. It is an invitation dated 10 May 2007, addressed to the Minister, for a “National Forum on Education for All”.

The Minister of that time was Marie Laurence Lassegue, the current Minister of Culture, one of the survivors.

My hand shakes. It seems incredible that a piece of paper can suddenly be charged with so much meaning. I don¹t know if it is the first piece of history that is recovered, but I’m taking a Haitian women’s organization for their museum, or perhaps I¹ll look for the Minister of Culture when the time is right, to request assistance from UNESCO and UNIFEM to recover the memory.

A deep sadness mixes in me with the wind on a road toward the recovery of memory. I pay tribute to those missing from history, so that we do not lose them.

The following provides additional news and comments about the particular needs of women in the aftermath of the the  earthquake in Haiti:

From the Washington Post:

(A)s health and safety conditions in the capital city worsen, putting Haitian women and children at particular risk for disease and sexual exploitation.

Reports show that violence against women and girls was already common in Haiti before the earthquake. In a 2006 study by the Inter-American Development Bank, one-third of women and girls said they had suffered physical or sexual violence, and more than half of those were younger than 18.

“We have to keep in mind that disasters make existing inequalities even worse,” said Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo, an expert on gender issues for the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. “Those who are stronger and more powerful, whether physically or psychosocially — or both — are going to have better access to scarce resources. But when women are deprived of resources, entire families are likely to be deprived, too.”

About 37,000 pregnant women affected by the earthquake are in desperate need of food, clean drinking water and access to health care, said Franck Geneus, who directs health programs in Haiti for CARE, an Atlanta-based nonprofit group that helps women and children around the world. As many as 10,000 of the women could give birth in the next month.

Workers in the battered town of Leogane carefully planned the distribution of hygiene kits by first sending in an assessment team and coordinating with local leaders to ensure that the neediest women would be helped, officials said. The goal is to prevent the aid from ending up in the hands of people who try to sell it or force women to trade sexual favors for food and supplies.

“Stand in line! Stop pushing!” officers yelled as others handed out bags of rice, corn, sardines, sausages and beans. There were separate lines for men and women. But only men were at the front, clawing for the food; women and children waited behind in longer lines that did not move.

In an interview by Anne-christine D’adesky with promminent Haitian journalist Liliane Pierre-Paul published in World Pulse,

“From the minute the buildings fell,” Liliane informs me, “women were there and everywhere. They were leading the way into buildings; leading stunned children into safety; tending to the wounded; screaming and demanding help; speaking to the foreign media and CNN; setting up instant street kitchens and camps; singing, witnessing, praying.”

“There’s no doubt that the earthquake has had a massive impact on Haitian women,” Liliane confirms, “in ways that we as feminists and women leaders have yet to really take in—we haven’t been able to analyze this. It’s just survival now. We’re so busy trying to cope right this minute, to just get through this day. But we know… I know… it’s huge.”

Erica Guevara-Rosas, Program Director for Americas for the Global Fund for Women:

There has been a lot of concern that the humanitarian aid is currently lacking in gender-sensitivity – not just in terms of what is being distributed, but also how it is distributed. In isolated areas, the aid is distributed by air, leaving women and children vulnerable to abuse. The reports we have heard so far about the plight of women and girls on the ground affirms our fear that risk of gender and sexual violence escalates during times of such grave crisis. It is very important to give visibility to the needs of women and girls, as well as to the importance of including women in the decision-making of all reconstruction efforts and aid distribution.

The resource mobilization to respond to the tragedy has been impressive. UN agencies, governments, cooperative agencies, relief organizations, individual donors and other actors are raising funds from all over the world to address the immediate needs of Haitians. Equally important and impressive has been the response of international women’s movements. Feminist and women’s organizations from around the world are sending support or offering technical assistance to help Haitian women with the reconstruction of their communities. The Latin American and Caribbean women’s movements have quickly mobilized resources to prioritize the distribution of gender-sensitive assistance, as well as to revitalize the Haitian women’s movement. While the response has been encouraging, the needs are increasing and the conditions are increasingly chaotic. Thousands of Haitians, mainly women and children are crossing the border to seek assistance on the Dominican side or are trying to leave in small boats, risking their lives in order to get to the US. The government of Dominican Republic estimates that more than 10,000 people are already across the border, where conditions are not suitable to establish camps with basic services.

Besides the much-needed humanitarian aid, we need to ensure that long-term support for the reconstruction phase and to protect women and children from violence, as well as support to ensure that women will be participate in decision making are crucial in the following months. The Latin American and Caribbean feminist movement is coordinating efforts in an unprecedented manner. Coalitions to respond to the crisis, e-mail lists, blogs, joint statements and other actions have been established to coordinate and organize long-term strategies to support women and children. (Continue reading here.)

Madre’s Yifat Susskind:

Right now, there is a window of opportunity to ensure that Haiti’s reconstruction process upholds the full range of women’s human rights and uses gender awareness as a starting point for successful recovery efforts. Nothing less than the future of Haiti is at stake.

Eve Ensler on the sad death of Haitian feminist leader Myriam Merlet:

And CNN with more on Merlet as well as 2 other prominent Haitian women, Anne Marie Coriolan and Magalie Marcelin.

Finally, Cynthia McKinney has written an excellent piece addressing the implicit racism and militarism in the U.S.government’s response to Haiti,

President Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working–saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.

The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered “to help restore order,” when the “disorder” had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence the led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.

It’s a thought-provoking piece and I recommend it in its entirety.

The following is excerpted from a statement by INCITE! regarding the ongoing needs in Haiti and is an excellent blueprint of the analysis required  to provide  support that is responsive to people in need.

Right now, there are many people, organizations, and governmental agencies mobilized to provide immediate aid relief and rescue operations in Haiti. However, there tends to be more readiness to donate supplies and money in the “immediate” time when things are very chaotic and before we know what the conditions are on the ground and have identified the long-term re-development needs as articulated by those most impacted. The long-term vision is critical because, when the dust settles and the big international relief organizations have left, people’s lives will still be devastated, and the need to rebuild will still be there.

We are researching if and how we can develop an intentional political relationship with local women so we can help mobilize the INCITE! network to support just and sustainable development of a sovereign Haiti, both during the interim and the long term recovery process.

As many of us work to figure out appropriate strategies to support the people of Haiti, it’s important to note that the people most vulnerable–namely, women, LGBT folks, people with disabilities, incarcerated people, children, and elders–can experience a slower unfolding of specific crises that are consequences of the original disaster and the social conditions that preceded the disaster.

For example, women experience the most negative consequences of catastrophic events, particularly with regards to higher rates of injury and death, displacement, unemployment, increased incidents of HIV rates, sexual and domestic violence, increased poverty, and the disproportionate responsibility for caring for others. This is especially true for women marginalized by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, health, ability, age, housing, and legal status. Additionally, in times of crises and environmental emergencies, poor and marginalized women, who are least responsible for the horrific conditions in which they live, are often blamed for their poverty and become subjected to regulatory population control policies through family planning, poverty reduction, and so-called environmental protection programs.

So, given what we have learned from Hurricane Katrina and the disasters of war, occupation, neoliberal economic dominance, and neglect that continue to plague and pathologize many of our families and friends internationally, we would like to use this time to organize an effective and accountable response during this interim phase of the crisis.

Kudos to INCITE! for this nuanced analysis of what a real aid policy should look like.

The following provides more information ( see also Providing Gender Responsive Aid in Haiti)  about addressing the needs of Haitian women in the aftermath of the earthquake:

Donations to the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s Profamil program will help them get their clinics and mobile health units in Haiti back to being fully operational.

Since 1984 PROFAMIL has provided low-cost, quality sexual and reproductive healthcare. As a leader in the field, PROFAMIL meets regularly with the Minister of Health to develop strategies for increasing access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.

Programs that Profamil offers include:

* Sexual & Reproductive Health Services: PROFAMIL clinics provide family planning, early detection of breast and cervical cancers, high-quality sexual and reproductive health clinical services for men and women, and pre-and-post natal services.

* Mobile Health Clinics: PROFAMIL brings health providers directly to the rural communities where the people are totally isolated. Approximately 200 men, women and children are provided with basic health care services at each visit.

* HIV/AIDS Prevention: PROFAMIL conducts voluntary testing and counseling for HIV/AIDS, educates the public about prevention and ensures widespread access to condoms.

* PROFAMIL Youth Program: PROFAMIL provides youth-friendly clinical and educational services to young people aged 10-25.

* Health Education: PROFAMIL covers issues such as promoting family planning and presenting various methods; cervical cancer and the need for routine pap smears; relationships; gender issues; domestic violence; HIV/AIDS prevention with regular condom demonstrations. In 2006, PROFAMIL educated over 225,000 people.

Peacewomen has a list of numerous organizations that are working with women in Haiti here.

The UNFPA has launched a flash appeal to fund programs that will allow them to:

• Refurbish maternity wards to handle emergency obstetric care and other life-saving health services;
• Deploy skilled health professionals, such as midwives, obstetricians and nurses, to affected areas to provide maternal health and emergency obstetric care;
• Provide emergency safe delivery and reproductive health medicines and supplies to temporary clinics and health facilities being set up;
• Help safeguard the personal hygiene and dignity of women and girls by providing related sanitary supplies;
• Facilitate access of affected populations, especially young people, to psychosocial counselling and other services; and
• Carry out interventions to prevent gender based violence.

The Women’s Refugee Commission has a list of the ten most pressing needs that must be met to ensure the well-being and safety of those displaced in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Amnesty has issued a statement regarding the need to protect women against sexual violence and exploitation in the wake of the earthquake.

The Global Fund for Women is  asking Haitian women to help them formulate long-range responses and to inform the fund of their perceptions of need.  (Note–while this perhaps sounds non-specific, I particularly like that they are asking what is needed, rather than telling those whose  lives have been impacted what they see as the needs.  Given that women are hugely under-represented in the organizations that organize aid in response to disasters, this is a very important shift  in formulating response policy.)

AWID has an excellent piece by Masum Momaya on the role of women in the Haitian Economy, a subject that is the basis for the film Poto Mitan:

And WomenArts has this wonderful page about Haitian women in the arts including a poem entitled Mud Mothers by Lenelle Moise, here are just a few lines from the poem which I urge you to read in its entirety.

Mud Mothers

the children of haiti
are not mythological
we are starving
or eating salty cakes
made of clay

because in 1804 we felled
our former slave captors
the graceless losers sunk
vindictive yellow
teeth into our forests

what was green is now
dust & everyone knows
trees unleash oxygen
(another humble word
for life)

Please also see Providing Gender Responsive Aid in Haiti.  H/t to Change.org for pointing to many of the links provided here and Sue Katz for pointing to the WomenArts link.  Also, although not women-specific, h/t to Global Voices for providing updates from independent voices on the ground in Haiti.

In Haiti, as is always true in the aftermath of a major disaster, in addition to the urgent need for what we traditionally consider the pillars of immediate aid–food, water, shelter, medical care–there are  needs that are specific to women, particularly for pregnant women and mothers with new babies and the need to address the added vulnerability to violence that women face when government infrastructures are dysfunctional. According to the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):

(W)omen of reproductive age face limitations in accessing pre-natal and post-natal care, as well as greater risk of vaginal infections, pregnancy complications including spontaneous abortion, unplanned pregnancy, and post-traumatic stress. An increase in violence against women was also recorded…

…(I)n natural disaster situations and in post-disaster recuperation, the cases of violence may increase. “Given the stress that this situation caused and the life in the refuges, men attacked women more frequently.

Additionally as the MIndanao Commission on Women and Mothers for Peace Movement points out:

women suffer most from the impact of climate change and natural disasters because of discrimination and poverty. The same happened to women victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami as documented in a report on “Gender and Climate Change.”

Tracy Clark-Flory addresses these issues relative to providing aid in Haiti in a piece on Salon’s Broadsheet:

It isn’t just that women often require special care and resources post-disaster; human rights organizations say that they could also play a critical role in distributing much-needed aid. Women “are central actors in family and community life,” says Enarson, and are more likely to know “who in the neighborhood most needs help — where the single mothers, women with disabilities, widows and the poorest of the poor live.” Diana Duarte, a spokesperson for MADRE, an international women’s rights organization that has joined the relief effort, put it this way: “Women are often more integrated and more aware of the vulnerabilities of their communities.”

Even beyond the initial emergency response, there lies a long road to recovery that holds other unique challenges for women and girls. They are “at increased risk of gender-based violence, especially domestic violence and rape but also forced marriage at earlier ages” due to their increased dependence on men for protection and support, says Enarson. After a disaster of this magnitude, there will also be scores of “newly disabled, widowed or homeless women” in need of help. MADRE’s Duarte points out that women’s generally higher “level of poverty negatively effects their ability to access resources to rebuild.”

Clark-Flory also points to the work of the Gender and Disaster Network which calls for a gender-responsive approach to aid in Haiti and has a wealth of resources on the topic here.

Madre’s Marie St. Cyr and Yifat Susskind offer this excellent view of what such an approach needs to look like in Haiti,

All Haitians are suffering right now. But, women are often hardest hit when disaster strikes because they were at a deficit even before the catastrophe. In Haiti, and in every country, women are the poorest and often have no safety net, leaving them most exposed to violence, homelessness and hunger in the wake of disasters. Women are also overwhelmingly responsible for other vulnerable people, including infants, children, the elderly, and people who are ill or disabled.

Because of their role as caretakers and because of the discrimination they face, women have a disproportionate need for assistance. Yet, they are often overlooked in large-scale aid operations. In the chaos that follows disasters, aid too often reaches those who yell the loudest or push their way to the front of the line. When aid is distributed through the “head of household” approach, women-headed families may not even be recognized, and women within male-headed families may be marginalized when aid is controlled by male relatives.

It is not enough to ensure that women receive aid. Women in communities must also be integral to designing and carrying out relief efforts. When relief is distributed by women, it has the best chance of reaching those most in need. That’s not because women are morally superior. It is because their roles as caretakers in the community means they know where every family lives, which households have new babies or disabled elders, and how to reach remote communities even in disaster conditions.

Moreover, women in the community have expertise about the specific problems women and their families face during disasters.

Unfortunately, in big relief operations, already-marginalized people are usually the ones who “fall through the cracks.

None of this sits too well with the men’s rights movement.  Robert Franklin, Esq. has this to say at Men’s News Daily:

(A)ccording to Clark-Flory, ”women in general will be in need of ‘hygiene supplies…”  Men and boys apparently will not need those things.  And “women often require special care and resources post disaster.”  Men and boys don’t need those things either.  Is that because men and boys are supermen who don’t need help?  Or is it because they’re less deserving of it than are women and girls?

First of all, the piece did not say that men and boys don’t deserve aid, it said that women have some needs that men don’t have  that  also need to be addressed.  Secondly (having hopefully given female readers time to pick themselves up off the floor from laughing)–apparently Mr. Franklin, Esq. does not go to the grocery or drug store very often or he would know that hygiene is our oh so clean euphemism for sanitary products–oh wait, that is a euphemism too–okay, excuse my indelicacy–it means tampons and pads that women use when they MENSTRUATE (there, I said the word). As a general rule, most of the people who use those products are FEMALE.  But if Mr. Franklin, Esq. really feels that he needs them, I’m sure we can send him a box with explicit instructions on where to shove them.

As for special care, unless men get pregnant and have babies, they probably do not require that assistance either.

Over at Spearhead (they’re not subtle are they?), they also object to Gender and Disaster Network’s “Elaine Enarson (probably a Swedish woman)” saying that,

They are “at increased risk of gender-based violence, especially domestic violence and rape but also forced marriage at earlier ages” due to their increased dependence on men for protection and support.

with this,

So now when men provide women with protection and support they are suspected rapists, child molesters and batterers? Are these strange, foreign women more trustworthy than Haitian girls’ fathers, brothers and grandfathers? I try to refrain from inserting my opinion when I am writing these news pieces, but Ms. Enarson is making one of the most offensive insinuations possible with the above statement, and she is dead wrong. It is matriarchal societies where women cannot rely on men for support in which women face the most danger.

Really?  Name one matriarchal society where this is or was so.  And yes, women who are in general more likely to be victims of intimate violence are far more likely to be victimized when they suddenly become more physically vulnerable.

International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) offer this framework for re-prioritizing the way we offer aid:

In the face of obstacles and the needs that have been identified, the evaluation proposes a series of concrete recommendations, amongst which are to: improve the sexual and reproductive health of women and adolescents in natural disaster situations and in post-disaster recovery; ensure access to contraceptive measures, particularly condoms for the prevention of transmission of HIV; provide post-natal care; medicine to combat infections and post-traumatic stress; provide an adequate response to cases of violence against women, girls and boys; include the provision of health and legal services; and improve the security situation of shelters to prevent cases of abuse of power by guards.

The UNFPA is currently working to rush maternal health supplies to Haiti.

As Bill Quigley puts it so eloquently, we need to:

Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.

There are several organizations that are working to provide aid to meet women’s specific needs in Haiti.  The women’s human rights organization Madre is,

working to send support to women’s human rights defenders. We are hearing reports of a horror that often accompanies disasters like this – namely, an upsurge of violence against women. It’s critical that women human rights defenders in Haiti have the support they need to help survivors and reach out to women who are trying to keep themselves and their children safe in the chaos that has gripped Port-au-Prince.

You can make a donation to help their efforts here.

In addition, the U of t Feminist Law Student’s Association reports that,

V-Day is trying to reach our sisters in Port au Prince who run the V-Day Haiti Sorority Safe House, which provides shelter to women survivors of violence and their children, as well as psychological, legal and medical support. While we have not been able to reach the staff at the Safe House, it is clear that increased help will be needed for women survivors of violence in the aftermath of the earthquake. Reports state that over 50,000 lives have been lost, and that Port Au Prince has been “flattened.”

You can donate to VDay’s Haiti Rescue Fund here.