Ms. Foundation for Women - Haiti Earthquake

http://ms.foundation.org/our_work/earthquake-in-haiti


Broad Change Areas \| Policy and Culture Change

Earthquake in Haiti

The Ms. Foundation for Women expresses our deep condolences and solidarity with the people of Haiti in this moment of unbelievable crisis.

As you seek ways to share your own solidarity and support, below are recommendations—based on our own and our colleagues’ experiences in the U.S. and around the world—to help guide your giving, as well as a preliminary list of social justice, community-based organizations that are accepting donations.

Consider Funding:

Community-based organizations with strong relationships on the ground that are best positioned to mobilize humanitarian relief for those who need it most. Grassroots groups with decades of experience in local communities have an intimate understanding of people’s needs and often know best how to navigate local politics and infrastructure to deliver aid. Supporting them leverages their unique expertise and better ensures that relief reaches those disproportionately affected: namely women, children, the elderly and the sick. Disasters can also have a devastating effect on social justice infrastructure; donating to community-based organizations strengthens their ability to organize for change over the long-term.

Local organizations with a social justice-lens that are more likely to deliver effective, immediate relief within the context of a long-term strategy to rebuild. Grassroots, social justice groups often best understand the connections between immediate relief and the need to continue organizing to address longstanding political, social and economic inequities that make people—and a country—more vulnerable to disaster in the first place.

Grassroots organizations with a gender lens that know how women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by disaster and can identify the best ways to meet women’s needs and elevate women’s solutions as they work within their families and communities to recover and rebuild.

A preliminary, but by no means exhaustive, list of groups organizing an immediate and long-term response to the crisis in Haiti:

Global Fund for Women: The Global Fund advocates for and defends women's human rights by making grants to support women's groups around the world. They are currently trying to assess the extent to which their five Haitian partner organizations have been affected by the disaster, and are asking them for guidance on how best to provide immediate relief to women and girls. You can donate to support their long-term work to address gender-specific needs resulting from the earthquake through their Crisis Fund.

Grassroots International: Grassroots International supports global movements for social change with a particular focus on advancing the initiatives of peasants, family farmers, women and Indigenous groups to protect human rights to land, water and food. They work with four main groups in Haiti, two of which have offices in Port-au-Prince and networks throughout the country. They have a long history of providing emergency relief and their Haitian partners, closely connected to the needs of their communities, are in a “key position to rebuild.”

Lambi Fund of Haiti: The Lambi Fund’s overarching goal is to strengthen civil society by channeling financial and other resources to community-based organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people; support for women’s organizing is a core focus of their work. The Lambi Fund’s first step in emergency response is to help members of peasant groups get food and essentials for their families to re-establish their lives; they will also help rebuild over the long-term.

Partners in Health: PIH has worked in Haiti for over two decades to bring sustainable, community-based health care and social justice to Haiti’s poor. Its partner organization Zanmi Lasante is now one of the largest nongovernmental health care providers in the country; women’s health has always been a strong component of their outreach. In response to the earthquake, PIH is leveraging the skills of Zanmi’s more than 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants, setting up field hospital sites in Port-au-Prince, and ensuring that field sites beyond the capital are equipped to address the needs of those fleeing the city.

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Read About Our Gulf Coast Work

In 2005, immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, the Ms. Foundation established the Katrina Women’s Response Fund (KWRF). Through KWRF, we worked to meet the urgent needs of those we knew would be disproportionately affected by the storms—low-income women, women of color, their families and communities.

Demetra Tennison is the peer advocacy coordinator for the Women Rising Project -- an organization devoted to addressing the needs of women and children affected by HIV and Aids. Hear about her rise to advocacy and her continued fight against stigma and fear. Learn more and view the slide show

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Ms. Foundation for Women, 12 MetroTech Center, 26th Fl, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Telephone:(212) 742-2300|Fax: (212) 742-1653|Email: info@ms.foundation.org