An Assessment of Women's Current Conditions in Haiti

"Investing in women is the best investment we can make in any country. And investing in the Haitian women will fuel the long-term economic recovery and progress, not only for them, but for their families."
--Hillary Clinton, March 31st Haiti Donor's conference, United Nations, New York

The Huairou Commission, together with the United Methodist Church and AJWS supported a small team, including Rachel Nadelman from the Huairou Commission and Stephania Louis from l'Institut Interuniversitaire de Recherche et de Développement (INURED) to go to Haiti to undertake a rapid social assessment of women and women's organizations who have been directly affected by the Haitian earthquake to capture their immediate needs and priorities for recovery and reconstruction. They also visited with mixed organizations that have a mission to serve women.

Please find below the executive summary of the team's report entitled "An assessment of women's current conditions, their priorities for reconstruction, the recovery efforts of women's organizations, and identification of potential grassroots partners. " Based on this report the Huairou Commission has developed a strategic plan to organize grassroots women's groups in Haiti to take leadership in the relief and recovery processes and sustain women's participation for the long term.

On January 12, 2010 an earthquake registering 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti for 35 seconds, the most powerful quake to have hit the country in 200 years. With the epicentre near the town of Léogâne, 17 km southwest of the capital, the impacts were greatest in the capital of Port au Prince and the towns Léogâne, Jacmel and Petit Goave. 80% of Léogâne was destroyed. The destruction in metropolitan Port-au-Prince, (which includes the municipalities Port-au-Prince, Carrefour, Petionville, Delmas, Tabarre, Cité Soleil and Kenscoff) has crippled the country's economic, administrative, cultural, political, and population centers.

Click here to read on... http://www.huairou.org/knowledge/News/2010/04-16_haiti_conditions.html