Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 16:40:03 PM EST
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| I shortened this statement which was released today by INCITE. From INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence:
How can we intentionally support the long term sustainability and self determination of the Haitian people? When crises of this magnitude occur, we all understandably want to act quickly, but we must also figure out how to act thoughtfully in our efforts to develop a comprehensive, sustainable, and accountable transnational radical feminist response….
…We urge INCITE! members/chapters/affiliates and the broader social justice community to:
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| Mae Singerman :: INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence Statement on What We Can Do |
EDUCATE YOURSELF & YOUR COMMUNITY!
* Research Haiti’s amazing history of resistance, resiliency, and self-determination
* Educate your community on the colonial history of deliberate impoverishment, control, debt, dependency, and neglect in Haiti
* Educate yourself and your community on the intersections of gender, violence, and disaster vulnerabilities
* Examine how the crises of disasters and gender-based violence are connected to the social, political, environmental, and economic issues you may work on
* Analyze how the violence of disasters and colonial legacies (and realities) undermines the sovereignty and self-determination of a people
* Identify patterns of how women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities are particularly impacted by disaster and conflict situations in, for example, Haiti, New Orleans, Palestine, Afghanistan, the Congo, the U.S./Mexico border, Native reservations
ORGANIZE!
* Convene organizing teach-ins on the history of Haiti, its historical connection to New Orleans, and the role the U.S. government has played in the underdevelopment of Haiti through invasion, occupation, and neoliberal supported policies
* Reach out to Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans in your community who may need support
* Support progressive democratic and human rights movements in Haiti and campaigns calling for debt cancelation and those to eliminate foreign aid restrictions that privilege US based contractors over Haitian labor
* Support the capacity of the Haitian government to rebuild its institutional and physical infrastructure and provide sustainable and equitable public and relief services to its own people free of neoliberal mandates
* Ensure that gendered perspectives are mainstreamed within humanitarian programs and long term recovery, both in recognizing the leadership roles and facilities of women and other marginalized communities to guide these processes and the specific vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in times of crisis and national emergency
* Mobilize women of color & queer/LGBT people of color in your community to develop and share organizing strategies to address crises like these both abroad and here at home
* Share organizing models and build skills to strengthen our grassroots organizing
* Connect online using:
o the INCITE! facebook page: http://tiny.cc/incitefacebook
o the new INCITE! blog: http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/
o Stay tuned for other online tools...
DONATE!
* The Global Fund For Women currently funds and partners with five Haitian women's organizations. The list of these organizations is below. GFW has a crisis fund they've set up to support their local partners. Contributions to GFW’s Crisis Fund will be directed to the re-building of women-based organizations and their communities after the disaster to ensure long-term equitable and sustainable development.
* If you would like to contribute to GFW, you can do so here: https://www. globalfundforwomen.org/ donations/crisis-fund.php
* GFW Haiti Solidarity Statement is here: http://www.globalfundforwomen. org/cms/campaigns/campaigns/ solidarity-with-our-sisters- in-haiti.html
Other groups to donate include:...
* Partners in Health: http://www.pih.org/ inforesources/news/Haiti_ Earthquake.html
* Partners in Health’s Sister Organization in Haiti – Zanmi Lasant Clinic: http://www.pih.org/where/ Haiti/Haiti.html
* Dwa Fanm (meaning "Women's Rights" in Creole): http://www.dwafanm.org/
* The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC): http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/ iowa/article/takeaction/ globalactionalerts/1074.html |
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