CAFRA Team From Saint Lucia Heading To Haiti by Monday
A team from the local arm of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, CAFRA, could be in Haiti as soon as Monday to assist with relief efforts there.
Regional Chairperson and National Representative for Saint Lucia Flavia Cherry, returned from Haiti on Wednesday evening. While there she assisted with the setting up of an International Solidarity Camp the Haitian border with the Dominican Republic.
“The
objective of the camp is to facilitate relief supplies from our members from
the region and outside of the region. All the supplies are being sent to the
Dominican Republic through the camp and then dispatched to Haiti through the
Dominican Republic border.” Cherry said “ I spent a week in Haiti mobilizing
and organizing for CAFRA’s intervention in that country. It was a very difficult and painful
experience because the condition of women and children in Haiti is very terrible
and what we consider to be totally unacceptable.”
Flavia Cherry says CSAFRA is concerned about the entire Haitian situation but more especially so about the women and children of the country. Experience has shown that women are at increased risk of gender violence in the aftermath of disasters, and the Haiti experience has been no different.
“We really consider these conditions to be totally unacceptable as well as the fact that several young women in Haiti many of whom were already vulnerable before the earthquake happened are even more vulnerable because of rape and sexual abuse that is happening in those camps. So overall I would say the situation of women and girls in Haiti is totally unacceptable, “ Cherry said.
The St. Lucia team will leave early next week for the solidarity camp in Haiti. That camp has been named after CAFRA’s representative in Haiti Muriel Merlet who died in last month’s earthquake in Haiti