Gender Equality Haiti Project #32096

Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti

by Beyond Borders

Project Report | May 14, 2020
Preventing a Spike in Violence in the Pandemic + Empowering Women & Girls with Disabilities

By Brian Stevens | Donor Engagement Director

Working to prevent a spike in domestic violence.

Thank You for Your Generosity and Solidarity

Thank you again for your generous support for Beyond Borders' Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on GlobalGiving.

Your investment in this work means that girls, women, boys and men in so many more communities than before now have the skills they need to balance power between the sexes, prevent domestic violence and ensure equality of opportunity for every girl and woman.

As we take action to prevent any spike in violence against women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic and help families protect themselves from this deadly virus, your solidarity and continued generosity mean more than we can say. Thank you again!

COVID-19 Emergency Response

Here are some of the special COVID-19 Emergency Response activities that your support is making possible right now:

Public service announcements sent via text message, Whatsapp, and other social media to raise awareness about the risk of increased violence against women and girls and violence against children during crises.
Continued accompaniment and support for survivors who report cases of abuse to our networks.
The distribution of family hygiene kits via our Girls Clubs and other networks that include soap, bleach, and a bucket with an on/off valve to conserve precious water.
Sharing critical virus-prevention educational materials about hand-washing, mask wearing, and social distancing.
Awareness-raising campaigns to encourage communities to think about what they can do to support family, friends, and neighbors who may need extra help during the pandemic (i.e.- women or girls experiencing violence, the elderly and women and girls living with disabilities).

You are making all of this work possible with your generous gift. Thank you again!

You can get the latest on all that Beyond Borders is doing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Haiti on a special website we've created: www.Haiti-Covid.org.

Safe and Capable: Preventing Violence Against Girls and Women With Disabilities

Your gift is also supporting the work of our program known as Safe and Capable: Haitian Communities Preventing Violence Against Girls and Women with Disabilities.

Created with funding from the UN Trust Fund/UN Women, the program is being integrated in communities alongside our SASA! and Power to Girls programming.

The goal of the project is to change how people in Haiti see women and girls living with disabilities and to increase their social inclusion and better protect them from violence. Safe and Capable includes a five-part introductory guide, training curriculum, theater plays, dialogue-based posters, “quick chat” sessions, and learning and evaluation guides.

While the pilot is still ongoing, our colleagues are reporting progress. A number of changes in pilot communities are being observed and recorded. In addition, many network members who previously believed disability was caused by a curse or as a result of a parent’s wrongdoing have changed their beliefs.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights of what Beyond Borders, together with our partners Pazapa, Productions Théatre Toupatou (TTPT), and the Global Women’s Institute at the George Washington University have achieved so far:

Delivered multiple days of training and ongoing technical support to multiple groups within the volunteer activism network to build their capacity to use the Safe and Capable communications materials and guides. The volunteer activism network led conversations with thousands of community members on themes that included: promoting balanced power and violence prevention in couples, building skills to prevent violence against women and girls living with disabilities and to provide support to activists and to women and girls experiencing violence.
Celebrated 16 Days of Activism to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls in November-December and International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December. During Carnival season, some special mobilization activities were held to promote the prevention of violence against women and girls with disabilities, including a float in the 2020 Jacmel carnival, though many activities had to be cancelled due to political protests.
TTPT continued popular theater programming around preventing violence against women and girls with disabilities, holding three performances that drew large crowds, despite frequently blocked travel due to political protests.

A Community Begins to Change How it Sees Women and Girls with Disabilities

Some of the major successes have come in the form of community reactions after engagement with the Safe and Capable materials and a dialogue-based process to encourage change.

A new recognition among members of the community of the inherent right to personal power that women and girls with disabilities have and the positive belief that they have a right to live without violence -- as all women do -- began to lead to positive outcomes that included:

The participation of girls with disabilities in the girls’ group soccer championship tournament organized over the winter break.
A rejection on the part of members of the community of previous stereotypes, the past use of verbal abuse and demeaning language, and the past belief that violence was not a problem in their community.
Community members began to speak out, inviting others to discuss issues like accessibility of services and other ways to ensure that women and girls with disabilities have access to balanced power with other members of the community, including their partners.

Here’s a look at some other outcomes from the work of this program that are either on-track to be fully achieved or have already been fully achieved:

One hundred percent of staff from eleven Haitian organizations we are working with now demonstrate increased awareness of the issue of violence against women and girls and its impact on women and girls with disabilities, and have developed the skills to effectively implement inclusive prevention activities and dialogue within their respective communities.
Eight pilot intervention communities in the Southeast of Haiti are on-track to successfully demonstrate new knowledge and skills and a change in attitudes and behaviors that promote the rights of women and girls with disabilities to live a life free of violence.

Powerful Impact: One Girl’s Personal Testimony

The impact that programming like Safe and Capable can have in the lives of individual girls is often powerful. Here’s one girl’s personal testimony:

“Because every day my situation gets worse, my parents said I couldn’t keep coming to the girls’ groups. I told my mother and begged her until she couldn’t stand it anymore; I told her that by whatever means possible she should ensure I go to the girls’ group because the girls’ group is the first thing I’ve had that has helped me have confidence in myself. It has helped me gain knowledge about girls’ power and allowed me to develop my capacity. It’s the place where I learn many things like how to crochet, how to understand that all people are people, that life isn’t over because you’re living with a disability. The other girls play with me and laugh with me, without seeing my disability. They pass by to get me on the way to the girls’ group meetings. My mother came to understand me, and she let me keep coming to participate with all of my friends.” - Malorie, girls’ group participant with a physical disability

Thank You Again

Thank you again for all that you do and all that you are making possible through your generous support for Beyond Borders' Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on GlobalGiving. We are deeply grateful for your solidarity in these challenging times.

You are building the movement to prevent violence against women and girls and ensure that every day more and more girls in Haiti are growing up free, educated, and empowered. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Donor Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Distributing family hygiene kits at girls clubs.

930 buckets for hand-washing stations distributed.

A Safe and Capable Training - before the pandemic.

A float in the Jacmel carnival raises awareness.

Give with confidence.

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Jan 16, 2020
You Are Building the Movement to Prevent Violence and Balance Power

By Brian Stevens | Donor Engagement Director

A rally to end violence against women and girls.

Your Generous Support is Building a Movement

You are building the movement to free, educate, and empower girls in Haiti by preventing violence against women and girls and balancing power between women and men and girls and boys. Thank you!

Creating lasting change requires broad social movements that transform the way people think about and react to injustice. Your support for Beyond Borders’ ‘Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti’ project is helping to build a Haitian-led movement to ensure that every woman and girl lives free from violence, discrimination, and inequalty.

Activists Like Jesula are Changing Minds

Your support means that activists like Jesula are able to engage people from all walks of life in the movement to prevent violence against women and girls and balance power. Here’s what one Evangelical pastor said about Jesula’s work in the community of Lavale, where she and her fellow activists also organized a community-wide rally:

"Before, I thought [they] had come to split up families, but after they invited me to a meeting, I realized [they] help women and men live better. Now, Jesula I’m extending to you a standing invitation to do activities in my church anytime you want."

The Impact We’re Seeing in Communities

Measuring the impact that activists like Jesula are having as they build the movement to prevent violence against women and girls and balance power is a top priority.

A multi-year collaborative effort between Beyond Borders’ Rethinking Power team, which leads the work that your generosity is supporting, and the Global Women’s Institute at the George Washington University to measure the impact of our movement building work that is employing the SASA!* methodology is currently underway.

Initial results indicate a more than 38% decrease in controlling behavior by men, a more than 45% decline in economic-based intimate partner violence (a male spouse or partner taking money from and/or refusing to share household economic decision-making with a female spouse or partner), and a more than 30% decline in physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence.

Researchers have also found “significant results as related to the social norms that should favor more equality between boys and girls.”

*Created by our friends at Raising Voices, SASA! (Start, Awareness, Support, Action) is a ground-breaking, internationally-recognized model of community-mobilization to stop violence against women and the spread of HIV. Engaging all actors in the community — women, men, cultural and religious leaders, local officials, police, health-care providers — SASA! fosters critical reflection on gender and power and instigates local-level activism.

A Husband Shares How SASA! Changed Him

“Before I became involved in SASA! activities, I would not give my wife money to go to market on Saturday if she did not have sex with me on Friday night. Now I recognize she has the right to say no if she does not want to have sex.”

The Movement Building Work That You Make Possible

Here's some of the movement building work that your generosity is making possible in Haiti:

Trainings for Community Activists, Health Workers, Journalists, and Girls’ Club Leaders

40 Community Activists spent three days in training to better understand the Action Phase of SASA! and Phase 4 of Power to Girls* and the kind of activities they have to facilitate (with the support of the Rethinking Power team) during these phases.
15 health workers participated in two days of training on the Action Phase of SASA!
16 journalists participated in a one-day training on the Action Phase of SASA! and Phase 4 of Power to Girls. This training helped them understand the objectives of these phases and the ways to address the subject of violence against women and girls in their reporting.
15 health workers, 26 members of organizations that respond to incidents of violence against women and girls, and mentors from Girls’ Clubs launched by Beyond Borders were trained in the Safe and Capable module to help them better understand the reality of women and girls living with disabilities and the high risks of violence (compared to women and girls who are not living with disabilities) that they face. This training equipped them with the skills they need to help ensure women and girls with disabilities live free from violence and discrimination.
Meetings to gather feedback from leaders and mentors in 16 Girls’ Clubs, and community activists and leaders were held, and a new supervisor for Girls’ Club mentors was hired.

*Power To Girls includes a complete, three-year methodology to integrate lessons on equality and preventing gender-based violence into the school curriculum, including sample lesson plans for social science, biology and language teachers. Power To Girls also includes a guide to help schools and communities create and support local girls’ groups, and a set of community organizing tools designed to create deep and lasting change among adults too.

A Girls’ Club Mentor Shares How the Safe and Capable Training Changed Her

“I’m a mentor and I always tell the girls not to hurt children living with disabilities, but, after this training, I’ve come to realize that I marginalized my younger sister who is living with a disability. Now, I’ve invited my sister to be a member of the club and she is doing well. One day, the girls had to walk to go somewhere for an activity. I was embarrassed because I thought my sister would not be able to make it, but she did better than many of the girls. I realized that my attitudes toward her were marginalizing her and that she is able to do more than I thought.”

House Gatherings, Community-Wide Rallies, Theatre Performances, and Radio Programs to Raise Awareness

Thanks to your support, the Rethinking Power team -- in collaboration with local Community Activists -- organized seven house gatherings and community-wide rallies to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. More than 170 community members joined the efforts to discuss and learn about concepts from SASA! and Power to Girls.

The Rethinking Power team organized four theatre performances on preventing violence against women and girls and balancing power between women and men and girls and boys. More than 150 people participated in discussions after the performances.

For the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec. 3, the team organized a radio broadcast to highlight the increased rate of violence women and girls with disabilities face.

To launch the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence from Nov. 25-Dec. 10, the team organized a press conference and public demonstration in the community of Lavale. More than 50 Community Activists participated.

Technical Support for Partner Organizations Working to End Violence Against Women and Girls

Demonstrations throughout Haiti made it difficult for the Technical Support team to travel, so the team kept contact with partner organizations through telephone calls and Skype, even holding a training for members of one partner organization through Skype. During the month of December, the team organized three in-person three-day trainings from Dec. 11-13, 17-19 and 27-29 for partner organizations.

Thank You Again

Your continued support and solidarity are building the movement to prevent violence against women and girls and ensure that every day more and more girls in Haiti are growing up free, educated, and empowered. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Donor Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net. Thank you again!

Students at a Jacmel school using Power To Girls.

Both women and men are joining the movement.

One of 16 Girls' Clubs in southeastern Haiti.

A poster from the Safe and Capable training.

In 2020, we've again earned 'top-ranked' status.

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Oct 21, 2019
Your Support is Expanding Innovative Strategies to Prevent VAWG

By Brian Stevens | Donor Engagement Director

You are making a difference for girls like Abi.

Thank You for Your Generous Support to Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti!

Your generous support is expanding the use of innovative strategies to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) and balance power between women and men and girls and boys, improve girls' access to educational opportunities and make schools safer, and end child slavery, which disproportionally traps girls.

Thank you again for your kind and thoughtful gift!

A Particularly Challenging Moment in Haiti.

You may have heard that this is a particularly challenging time in Haiti. A massive protest movement is demanding the resignation of the president, who has been implicated in a corruption scandal. Much of the country has been paralyzed by protests.

Our team is feeling a heightened urgency to their work, as the extreme stress of a prolonged and seemingly unending political crisis like this often contributes to a spike in domestic violence, particularly against women and girls.

I’m proud of my colleagues in Haiti who are doing everything they can to continue our work in this difficult time. They believe deeply in our mission and they are responding to the challenge of this crisis with courage and commitment. Your continued solidarity and generosity strengthens and fortifies them in their work.

You are Making a Difference for Girls Like Abi.

Despite the current crisis, your support is making a difference for girls like 12-year-old Abi. She's in the sixth grade at a school on Lagonav Island that is part of Beyond Borders' Schools Not Slavery network. Thankfully, schools on Lagonav Island like Abi’s have remained open during the current political crisis.

"I love mathematics," Abi told us just last week when we visited her school. “I want to work in a bank when I grow up,” she added.

Your generous support is expanding initiatives to increase access to quality schools for girls like Abi and make schools safer, organize communities to end child slavery, and balance power between women and men and girls and boys too.

The kinds of initiatives that you are making possible include: training for teachers in nonviolent classroom management techniques; support to train and organize Child Protection Brigades and chapters of our Adult Survivors Network; and the continued expansion of Beyond Borders' SASA! and Power To Girls programming, to equip schools, parents, and grassroots leaders with the skills they need to organize their communities to prevent VAWG and empower girls to be at the forefront of the change process.

We’re Growing the Movement to Prevent VAWG -- Thanks to You!

With your generous support, Beyond Borders has delivered short and long-term training and technical support to more than 30 Haitian human rights organizations in the last year and a half on the Power to Girls and SASA! methodologies, and printed SASA! and Power to Girls toolkits and communications resources for use by organizations.

Created by our friends at Raising Voices, SASA! (Start, Awareness, Support, Action) is a ground-breaking, internationally-recognized model of community-mobilization to stop violence against women and the spread of HIV. Engaging all actors in the community — women, men, cultural and religious leaders, local officials, police, health-care providers — SASA! fosters critical reflection on gender and power and instigates local-level activism.

This training is building the capacity of local organizations to organize communities to prevent VAWG, and ensure that women and girls live free from discrimination and inequalty.

Here’s some of what your generous support has made possible in the last year and a half:

Short courses -- Five short courses delivered to staff of more than 30 organizations working in the fields of women’s rights and/or human rights, providing 21 days of workshops. Organizations select from various training offerings, including community mobilization, the various phases of SASA! or Power to Girls, or other themes related to preventing VAWG and HIV.
Training for long-term technical support partners -- Seven capacity-building workshops delivered over 24 days to five long-term technical support partners in varying stages of acquiring, implementing, and evaluating SASA! in their communities. Workshops supported capacity building in Awareness, Support, and Action Phases, and on advocacy techniques as well as monitoring and evaluation, specifically database management.
Ongoing long-term technical support -- Ongoing technical support provided to five long-term technical support partners, including countless coaching phone calls, 16 days of site visits to coach partners and support training of community activists in their communities.
Exchange visits -- Four exchange visits facilitated for technical support partners to promote learning and network building. Visits were hosted by Beyond Borders in Jacmel and Lavale, where technical support partners learned about their roles as Local Activism staff by shadowing BB staff in community activities and also sharing experiences and challenges.
Communications materials -- Thousands of pages of Power to Girls and SASA! Communications Materials, including toolkits, posters, and Quick Chat tools printed and distributed to technical support partners to facilitate activities in their own communities.
New technical support partner prospecting -- Methodologies and technical support programming promoted with a view to recruit prospective technical support partner organizations. BB sought to identify at least four new long-term partners ready to use SASA! or Power to Girls in their own communities. In addition to short courses which serve as targeted publicity for long-term partnership, BB used radio and BB’s Rethinking Power Creole-language website to publicize the opportunity. The team also finalized a video explaining the two methodologies and the technical support opportunities. Additionally, staff travelled to Jérémie and Les Cayes in the south and southwest departments of Haiti to introduce the two methodologies and technical support opportunities to women’s organizations and coalitions.
SASA! Faith adaptation for Haiti -- SASA! Faith materials to engage religious leaders in the movement to prevent VAWG were co-created by Trócaire and Raising Voices and co-authored by Beyond Borders’ Sara Siebert in her capacity as a Technical Advisor with Raising Voices. BB began testing sermon guides with Christian religious leaders with a view to revise, adapt and finalize for use in Haiti in coming months.

Thank You Again!

BB staffer Maude leads a preventing VAWG training.

Preventing VAWG materials used at a training.

A page from the SASA! Faith guide to prevent VAWG.

We are proud to once again earn a 4-Star Rating.

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