Huairou Commission in Haiti: Pledging Support to Women and Groups



After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti with a magnitude of 7.0 (Tranblemanntè 2010 nan pe Ayiti), the Huairou Commission member networks pledged their support to Haitian women. We said we would invest in grassroots women's public roles as active agents and problem solvers in the recovery and reconstruction process to ensure their sustained participation in long term community development.



Toward that end, the Huairou Commission and United Methodist Church- Women's Division sent our colleague Rachel Nadelman to undertake a rapid needs assessment meeting, with the support of Stephania Louis, with 400 women from 38 grassroots groups to find out their current conditions, their priorities for reconstruction and the recovery efforts of women's organizations. (For a report on this process see: http://www.huairou.org/assets/download/Haiti-Report.pdf )



Following up on the needs assessment, a team from the Huairou Commission and GROOTS International travels to Haiti from June 18- June 24, 2010 to meet with grassroots women's groups, institutions, and partners. The trip issupported by AJWS and the team consists of Sandy Schilen (Global Facilitator of GROOTS International), Prema Gopalan (Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog in India), Carmen Griffiths (Director of Construction Resource Development Centre in Jamaica), Lily Cerat,( lead community organizer) and Stephania Louis (assistant community organizer)



The overall goal of our trip is to help facilitate a Haitian grassroots women's network that can organize collective action on community priorities and collectively monitor and influence recovery and resilience programs. These meetings will also serve as pre-organizing meetings to an exchange we are going to hold in the next two months to facilitate the transfer and implementation of recovery and reconstruction practices from grassroots women in other disaster affected countries to improve community access to resources, services and reduce vulnerability in Haitian communities.



We would like to invite any representatives of women's groups, grassroots women's groups, NGOs and their partners and allies to join the team at our meetings on Monday June 21, 2010 in Leogane and Tuesday June 22, 2010 in Port au Prince. Both meetings will be held from 1- 5 pm.



Our goals for these meetings are to help facilitate a grassroots women's network in Haiti that will:



-Build consensus and organize collective action on community priorities.
-Develop grassroots monitoring and evaluation mechanisms through which grassroots women can impact recovery programs.



At these meetings we will discuss the importance of:



-Mapping good practices and actions.
-Assessing the current needs and gaps in the recovery processes.
-Learning about how to access institutional materials and planning and agenda setting processes.
-Participating in a national information and monitoring network with links to the global Diaspora community.
-Having women be at the center of the recovery and reconstruction process.



Meeting locations:




  1. Monday June 21
    Leogane Meeting Place:
    Mon P'tit Village route nationale 2, Dampus Leogane
    right after the UN Barrack in Leogane (after the bridge). For further
    info call Jean Marie at: 509 36789256.


  2. Tuesday, June 22
    Port-au-Prince Meeting Place:
    Bureau of Ethnology
    2 Avenue Magny, Champs de Mars - PAP




"Fanm Ayisyèn bite, men li pa tonbe."



Please contact Julia Miller, julia.miller@huairou.org for more information.

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