An Open Letter to UNIFEM Director Ines Alberdi and other emergency responders in Haiti

Dear Colleagues:

I wish you all the best with your meeting today and wish I was there.  CAFRA now has two members (from the French and Creole-speaking islands) in Haiti and they have been sending the usual disturbing accounts of the situation there, after meeting with many of our Haitian members who survived the earthquake.  Some of the most critical points to raise with Director Ines Alberdi are as follows:

1)  Please let her know that there are many areas where distribution of aid is not reaching women and children. They pointed out to the lack of respect for the dignity of victims because of the way victims are allowed to run and walk long distances to get relief.  Those who survive the long lines are sometimes given only one bottle of water and asked to share it.  They point to a major calamity faced by grass roots women who are the worst affected in this scenario.  Areas like Cite Soleil, Croix-des-Bourgetts and Jacmel are some examples.  In some areas, there is still a major rush for supplies, which places women and girls at risk.

2)  They came across women who are literally dying because of the lack of medical supplies and in some cases no refrigeration for critical medication required for diabetes etc.  They pointed to several perfectly treatable conditions which are now life threatening because of the situation.  Pregnant women are especially at risk and something needs to be done urgently about the situation.  Because there are so many women and children who are unable to move because of injuries, disability etc. something needs to be done to reach out to them where they are

3)  The increase in rape and sexual abuse in the camps is frightening and needs to be addressed urgently.  Our members met with some of the victims but they are generally reluctant to report it.

Regards,

Flavia

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Flavia Cherry is the Interim Chairperson and National Representative for Sta. Lucia of CAFRA (Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action). She also shared the following photos and text showing the chaotic queues for food and supplies leaving women injured in the process:

In Haiti, the lack of respect for human dignity and basic human rights standards is astounding

They leave people without food for days and then throw the relief supplies in all directions, so that desperately hungry people can fight for it. Women who dare to get food for their children are crushed in the struggle.

Women can hardly survive this indignity for food supplies.

It is always the women who are least able to survive the long and agonizing hours on the lines

Some improvements have been made but even when they provide supplies for women only, in most places, they make no effort to create orderly lines, but instead they create a mass of confusion with desperately hungry women pushing each other against barbed wire, to get food for themselves and their children.

This is not only genocide, it is racism in its purest form.

(Photos are from CAFRA)

Links from Flavia’s other reports:

http://www.creative-i.info/2010/02/05/haiti-from-the-front-lines-by-flavia-cherry/

http://www.normangirvan.info/cherry-it-is-genocide-flavia-cherry/

http://womenoftheafricandiaspora.com/2010/02/02/from-the-front-lines-flavia-cherry/