Support Rape Survivors in Haiti Displacement Camps
You can help meet the immediate needs of rape survivors in makeshift camps for displaced people in Haiti. Your donation will also support community-based anti-violence strategies that uphold the full range women's human rights. You can provide hygiene matierals to women who have been raped to help prevent infections along with peer counseling from other survivors. You can also sponsor daily trainings where women learn how to stay safe, manage stress, care for traumatized children and maintain family health and hygiene in the hazardous environment of the camps. Peer-counseling groups of rape survivors who empower one another to heal and rebuild their lives are also offered.
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The Need
The January 2010 earthquake caused catastrophic destruction in Haiti, which was already the hemisphere's poorest country. More than one million people lost their homes in the disaster. They are traumatized, bereaved and packed into filthy, makeshift camps. Unfortunately, due to the conditions in the camps, sexual violence is rampant. Camps are overcrowded, without secure shelter, lighting or police. The social networks that normally provide protection have been destroyed. Women are raped in their tents, on the way to the latrine and while trying to bathe behind bits of plastic sheeting. With barely enough room to walk between the tents, there is no space for people to gather: the social isolation compounds people’s sense of despair.
About MADRE
Partner since January, 2009
MADRE is an international women's human rights organization that works in partnership with community-based women's organizations worldwide to address issues of economic and environmental justice, women’s health and violence against women, and peace building. MADRE provides resources, training, and support to enable our sister organizations to meet concrete needs in their communities and develop long-term solutions to the crises they face. MADRE addresses the negative impacts of US actions abroad and empowers people in the US to challenge and change destructive government policies. Since its inception in 1983, MADRE has delivered 25 million dollars worth of support to community-based women's organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and the United States.
