| Special Issue: Focus on Haitian Women & Artists
Found in Woman Arts: Create. Connect. Change the World. About WomenArts WomenArts is a community of artists and allies dedicated to celebrating and supporting art by and about women. For an overview of our programs and services, please see the About Us section of our web site at www.WomenArts.org/about.(Note: WomenArts is the new name of The Fund for Women Artists, Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti this week, and our thoughts are with all the members of our community who are in Haiti or who have family and friends there. The tragedy hit home here at WomenArts since our Advisory Board Member Lenelle Moïse was born in Port-Au-Prince and is still awaiting news about her extended family members there. Lenelle is a contributor to the WomenArts News Room, and she often writes about Haiti. In our sidebar we are sharing her poem, “Mud Mothers” which was written prior to the earthquake. Understanding the Haitian Cultural Context One of the best known Haitian writers is Edwidge Danticat, the Miami-based author of “Krik? Krak!” and “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” and the winner of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. For an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, she compiled the list below of books and music to help people put the current disaster in a broader context of Haitian history and culture. As the Wall Street Journal points out, “The country’s culture is far deeper than the bleak reports currently blanketing the news.”
Writers and activists Kevin Powell and April R. Silver have also compiled a list of resources at: http://www.akilaworksongs.com/helphaiti that includes books and films to give you more background about Haitian history and culture. They point out that you can text “501501″ then type “Yele” to make a $5 donation ASAP. Yele is a foundation created by famed Haitian-American GRAMMY Award winning rapper/musician Wyclef Jean (formerly of The Fugees). Visit www.yele.org for more information. Relief Efforts Focused on Women and Girls As Linda Basch, President of the National Council for Research on Women, points out, “As terrible as the situation is for all Haitians, women and girls face the additional burdens of trauma that will complicate pregnancy, motherhood and the nursing of children, as well as vulnerability to rape and sexual assault, not to mention needs related to personal hygiene and privacy that are often missing from relief work.” According to Doctors Without Borders, “Haiti has the grim distinction of having the highest maternal mortality rate in the western hemisphere.” In 2007, Eve Ensler and V-Day helped establish the first shelter for women survivors of violence in Haiti: the V-Day Haiti Sorority Safe House. As they work to reach the women of the Safe House, V-Day reminds us that “at this critical time, we cannot forget the women and girls of Haiti–women who already suffer some of the worst poverty and gender-based-violence in the world.” They have initiated a V-Day Haiti Rescue Fund (www.vday.org/node/1781) for the Safe House and community of women it serves. UNIFEM and CARE have both pledged to pay special attention to the needs of women and girls in their relief efforts. Recommendations from the Ms. Foundation As you seek ways to share your own solidarity and support, below are recommendations-based on the Ms. Foundation’s experiences in the U.S. and around the world-to help guide your giving, as well as a preliminary list of social justice, community-based organizations that are accepting donations. Consider Funding:
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Lenelle Moïse Mud Mothers the children of haiti because in 1804 we felled what was green is now they took off we are a living dead example during carnival where there is vodou but when the makeshift & we sigh is haiti really free can we be free we are a proud resilient people we are hungry this asthma - Lenelle Moïse |
| Here is a preliminary, but by no means exhaustive, list of groups organizing an immediate and long-term response to the crisis in Haiti that the Ms. Foundation recommends:
The Global Fund for Women (www.globalfundforwomen.org) is trying to assess the extent to which their five Haitian partner organizations have been affected by the disaster. You can donate to support their long-term work to address gender-specific needs resulting from the earthquake through their Crisis Fund. Grassroots International (www.grassrootsonline.org) supports global movements for social change. They work with four main groups in Haiti and have a long history of providing emergency relief. Their Haitian partners, closely connected to the needs of their communities, are in a “key position to rebuild.” Lambi Fund of Haiti (www.lambifund.org) strengthens civil society by channeling resources to community-based organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people. They are currently helping peasant groups get food and essentials for their families and will help rebuild over the long-term. Partners in Health (www.standwithhaiti.org) has worked in Haiti for over two decades to bring sustainable, community-based health care and social justice to Haiti’s poor. They’re mobilizing their more than 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants in Haiti, setting up field hospital sites in Port-au-Prince, bringing in supplies through the Dominican Republic, and ensuring that field sites beyond the capital are equipped to address the needs of those fleeing the city. |
About WomenArts
WomenArts is a community of artists and allies dedicated to celebrating and supporting art by and about women. For an overview of our programs and services, please see the About Us section of our web site at www.WomenArts.org/about. |
| Please feel free to reprint any portion of this newsletter, but please give credit to WomenArts. (©WomenArts.org 2009)
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