Haiti

I just read two articles about post earthquake Haiti.  One was in the February 2012 Marie Claire magazine    and the other in the February 2011 Mother Jones magazine.  It’s shocking to me that these pieces were written a year apart and yet they express the same thing: sexual violence against women and girls in the camps in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and rape births are shockingly high.  Why didn’t I know about this?  500,000 people still living in camps?   So what are we to do?  Do we wait and hope that the new government can make the protection of its girls and women a priority?  Do we wait for all the aid money to trickle down and then re-launch donation campaigns?  This is a tough one, but as Oprah would say, one thing I know for sure is that rebuilding a community cannot happen while there is widespread sexual victimization of women and girls.  Something has to be done and I believe it will take the efforts of individuals and small organizations like ours to do it.   It all starts with turning over one question over and over in our minds, ‘what can I do?’.  I am asking myself that question.  Will you?