http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-frederica-wilson/stand-in-solidarity-women-haiti_b_2618956.html
The country of Haiti is an environment without adequate housing, police protection and the ability to petition the courts for justice; This a country with limited medical access. This is also a country that is plagued with the constant fear of sexual violence. Imagine being sexually assaulted and essentially having no where to turn. The women of Haiti cannot even reach out to a medical facility to get their basic physical needs met, let alone their emotional needs. Nearly half of the victims are girls under 18, and many cases involve the use of weapons, gang-rape and death threats for seeking help from authorities.
This issue is coupled with the aspect that natural disaster is not a distant memory for Haiti. Approximately 293,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged, leaving 1.5 million people in insecure living situations including camps with high levels of violence. For the women to be living in such an insecure means of shelter, they have minimal defenses to protect their bodies from sexual violence.
However, there has been recent efforts from the Obama care administration and international NGOs that have aided in the restoration of Haiti. However, there still remains severe issues surrounding gender-based violence.
As daughters and sons, mothers and fathers , grandmothers and grandfathers, sisters and brothers, how can we work to help end gender-based violence in third world countries? Is this a matter that is out of our hands, due to the gender-based violence in our own countries? What do you guys think?
Morgan Simpson