International Women's Day

International Women’s Day (March 8) has long been an important holiday in Haiti. At this year’s celebration at Terraine d’Acra settlement, more than 400 women gathered to reflect upon loss, grief, strength and hope.

Speeches were given by women and teens, from a wide range of backgrounds. Many had lost their parents, and some had lost their children to the earthquake. Custodians, nurses and teachers spoke of their work, and the struggles they have had to get training and respect in the work place. They read poetry about women’s struggles and women’s power. Single mothers who had lost their homes spoke about the difficulty of keeping families together. Praise was given to the lives of those who died in “le catastrophe.”

Others spoke of their daily difficulties living in displacement. They spoke of their fear and uncertainty for the future. One woman told how she is regularly beaten by her husband, and how the abuse has worsened since her family moved into the displacement camp. A group performed a skit about a mother who asserted her children’s rights when her husband tried to punish his daughter with a beating.

A teen sang a song with the chorus “women hold up our families and communities.” Together, the entire group sang of their hopes for recovery and rebuilding the new Haiti.

Tony Hoffman is a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is serving in Haiti as a Child Protection Technical Advisor for the American Refugee Committee.

The celebration was organized by Cynthia Barrella. She leads ARC’s child protection team in Haiti and is a part of the local organization Aimer = Servir, highlighted in this blog on January 24th.

Songs and Ice Cream

Pictures (top to bottom):
1) Animators created songs to teach kids about using the latrines. It makes the topic just a little more fun.
2) Tony Hoffman, a child psychologist and lecturer at UCSC, is volunteering with us. This week he taught Animators how to teach children to use the new latrines.

It’s now been four weeks since I first arrived in Haiti. Today was very exciting for me because we did our first training with the Animators in the child-friendly spaces. A professor and child psychologist from UCSC in California is here for a visit and to support the program. He helped do a training with the teachers and explain to them the standards we are trying to reach.

It was very well received and the Animators were happy to be a part of making the spaces better and more accessible for children. They also felt more valued by the organization. We gave them name tags, t-shirts, and some plastic sheeting to thank them for their commitment. Each and every one of them really appreciated the gesture and that we are trying to professionalize the team.

One activity that went over very well was when we showed them how to teach children to use a latrine. We put a slab on the floor and demonstrated how to correctly stand and aim in order not to miss the hole in the ground. Everyone found this very amusing and fun, so afterwards we asked the Animators to create songs for teaching children how to correctly go to the bathroom. By the end, each of the centers came up with their own jingle that they are going to teach to the children.

This will surely be an easy and quick way for them to learn about a very important issue in the camp, hygiene and sanitation. Today gave me a bit more energy and made me excited about the team that I am working with and all we have been able to accomplish.

Plus, I was able to get some ice cream this afternoon in celebration of our driver’s birthday. It was just what I needed to get me through the end of the week.

Facing Challenges

Now that we have created routines in the child-friendly spaces, we are starting to do more outreach in the community. It is an effort to get them more involved and start to think of the spaces as their own, not structures that were built by the American Refugee Committee. We also want to understand the community’s protection concerns and how we can address them together.

For instance, this week we were getting more reports of abuse and of children who have been abandoned by their families. Specifically, we had two unaccompanied children that were left at the camp. It was a very difficult situation. The community was initially hesitant for us to get involved because of the prior incident where foreigners were caught trying to take Haitian children out of the country.


In the end, some of our staff helped report the case to the police and find a temporary place for them to stay, but the whole situation was challenging. The government is currently very weak and the systems and protocols that existed before the earthquake are not entirely applicable now. Some service providers are no longer there, or they don’t have adequate staff or supplies. All of this makes it difficult to know what to do in situations such as child abandonment, which is a serious and sensitive issue in Haiti at the moment.

Right: This week we hired many more teachers at the child-friendly spaces. Now, there are two for every 25 children.

The Rainy Season

Above: Teachers at the child-friendly spaces taught children how to make origami flowers. The kids loved it!

The rains have started to come to Port-au-Prince and it is creating new frustrations and fears amongst the population. Many of our teachers are coming to school in the morning saying they haven’t slept because the rains flooded their shelters the night before. Since the camp is muddy, parents keep their children home.

All of this makes it difficult to support children and families through the child-friendly spaces. We are working closely with other organizations to speed up the digging of latrines for children. It is becoming even more critical for them, the girls in particular, to have a clean and easily accessible place to go to the bathroom.

The Animators (teachers) in the child-friendly spaces are quickly getting the hang of the schedule and structure that is being put into place. Today they separated the children by ages and created specific classrooms for each. We also hired many more teachers to ensure there were 2 for every 25 children.

Some of the Animators have gotten very creative. They are working with the kids on interesting and engaging activities that keep them busy and their minds active until they can go back to school. For example, it was exciting to see the children making origami flowers. This was a very popular activity and we made sure all of the Animators knew how to do it so all the kids could learn.

Child-Friendly Spaces

This week we finally started and opened our child-friendly spaces. Thursday was very exciting and chaotic, with lots of accomplishments and lessons learned. Early in the morning, the entire camp was wet and muddy since it had rained the night before. Many people I spoke with were upset and worried about how the rains would affect their living situation and environment. In addition to that, there were few children that actually showed up at 9 a.m.

So we started raising more awareness, and by 10 we were ready to start with a small group of children. It didn’t take long before we were inundated with parents wanting to enroll their kids. We actually had to turn away many cute 3- and 4-year-olds that wanted to join in activities but were just too young to participate and not yet ready to be separated from their parents.

The sun came out in the late morning and it got hot inside most of the tents that the children were using. Nonetheless, they danced, sang, did a few informal educational activities, drew pictures, and then finally went out to play. Play time became quickly overwhelming, since there is very little open space and all of the kids got very excited about the balls and jump ropes.

It was challenging to keep all the little children organized, but they all had fun and the community sat around watching and enjoying the activities from afar. However, after play time the kids became very thirsty and hungry. We had difficulty feeding all the children, but they seemed content with the small crackers and water we were able to give to them until we have a more formal system in place for providing full meals.

After the day was over, when all the Animators sat down and reviewed their progress, they said the families and children were all very happy and that the day had been a great success.

Protecting Women and Children

Today we worked with the leaders of the teachers associations to introduce them to the American Refugee Committee's child-friendly spaces and explain the purpose and intent of the program.


There were a lot of questions and concerns about the lack of formal education and vocational training after the earthquake. We explained that we were intending to set up structures that could provide some immediate support to children but that we did not want to be in competition with the formal education system. The hope is that schools will be rebuilt and running again soon.


Everybody was happy to work with us and excited to get the activities started. They were tasked with going back to their communities to ensure parents were informed about the activities.


We also decided where to build three child-friendly spaces. We are building them in central locations to help bring the communities together to mobilize around major concerns -- food, water, shelter, and sanitation. We had planned to build five spaces (one in each zone in the settlement), but land is hard to come by. People are quickly building their temporary shelters in every available space.


In the coming weeks, I want to focus more on women's protection issues and see what we can do to prevent sexual violence. Gangs move around in the evening and are causing issues for those that are easily exposed, which is most of the population. One of the most alarming things for me continues to be women having to bathe in the open or in the evenings. It is dangerous for them when they are outside or on the streets.


There are many women-headed households in the settlements we are working in. There is a great need to tells them about available services and what to do if something does happen. I am also learning that the stress these women are under is immense. They need basic support and assistance, which they haven't been able to get so far.