Two years ago, Dd launched programming focused on Women and gender issues in Haiti, a country where women make up 52% of the population but are largely excluded from formal decision making and have historically been the subjects of disproportionate rates of violence. Following the earthquake in 2010, violence was exacerbated (Read the recently released NYU Law study reflecting on the alarming rise in sexual violence post-earthquake and how it has effected women’s lives). Dd’s work aimed to highlight our partners agency and empower them to use their voices and share their expertise in new ways, as part of a systemic address to gender-based violence (GBV).

In the wake of the January, 2010 earthquake, we began collaborating with KOFAVIV, FAVILEK and other women’s groups in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, providing trainings in photography and digital literacy. These trainings were aimed to give women new tools to share their stories and perspectives on life in displacement camps and poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince with a national and international audience. You can see some of their photos here.

Over the past two years, our collaboration has grown and evolved, as new digital tools and increased technical capacity have strengthened the organizing and advocacy efforts of our partners in Haiti. Other aspects of our work in Haiti include trainings to enhance digital literacy, technical skills, mapping and digital security. Following these trainings, our partners in Haiti have created a blog of anonymously posted stories reflecting their voices from the ground in PaP.

We have worked with KOFAVIV to develop a secure database to digitize & streamline information as part of a comprehensive approach to helping women survivors of gender-based violence access needed  medical, legal and psychological services. With the database, KOFAVIV can analyze and track trends in cases received. This improves their ability to report on GBV and leverage their expertise on the ground to push local, national and international power players to implement concrete measures to address the security of women and girls in Haiti.  (read more about the database in Wired here) and follow up on our progress here with a recent report on our work.

We have also worked with KOFAVIV and the two largest mobile carriers in Haiti, Digicel & Voila, to set up a FREE emergency response call center for GBV. In Haiti there is no effective 911-like system. By dialing 572, callers are connected to our partners who provide support and resources over the phone, directing them to  the nearest treatment centers, educating them about basic rights and legal recourse and stressing the importance of medical care in the first 72 hours after rape to prevent HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. (Read more about the call center here.)

Our work in Haiti is part of a larger constellation of work to amplify and support women as leaders in Haiti. In the Huffington Post, Stephanie Foster highlights  one of the current national initiatives to unite women as a driving force in the reconstruction and development of Haiti.

This effort has been supported by Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, United Stated Department of State. In the Ambassador’s supporting remarks, she highlights the universality of this commitment: “You know well that no country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind, if it fails to tap the potential, experience, talents and vision of its women. You also know that when women progress, all of society progresses.”

We agree. In solidarity with women working from the grassroots around the globe, those working with technology to help build tools to unite those women and enhance their work, from our women-led team at Dd, we wish you all a very happy, celebratory and empowering International Women’s Day 2012.

At crossroads in my life, I bike across countries. Nine years ago, I biked across the United States. Today, I find myself at another transition: I am moving on from my role as President of Digital Democracy. In honor of that change, I’ll be crossing the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the island of Hispaniola.

Haiti faced a crossroads when it was devastated by the 2010 earthquake. Digital Democracy had a team on the ground at the time, which meant the event shook me to the core as well. The Dd team sprang into action, contributing to humanitarian aid efforts to map where people were in need to help save lives.

Yet once Haiti disappeared from the headlines, the real work to rebuild the country began. In response to increased levels of rape post-earthquake, we worked to empower women as key actors in Haiti’s reconstruction with a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative. This year we worked in Haiti to launch the 572 call center, the country’s first rape-response hotline (a sort of 911 for violence against women), connected to a secure database and interactive mapping system. Next we’re working to scale these solutions nationally.

Now I’m at a crossroads too. Over the past three years Digital Democracy has grown from an idea to an accomplished nonprofit. With Dd a sustainable organization, I’m ready to move on and am looking to explore opportunities that allow me to pursue innovative projects with larger enterprises. I’ll still be involved in Digital Democracy, in a guiding role to support the work of my co-founder Emily and our amazing staff.

Since Digital Democracy launched, I’ve been able to draft policy in Iraq, securely document crimes against humanity in Burma/Myanmar, develop an international education initiative, work with government heads and active citizens in the Caucasus, host trainings with Secretary Clinton in the lands that my family fled from, and speak at US Congress and at the White House. It’s meant the world to me to work on these initiatives with such incredible people over the past few years. When I biked across the US I learned that people can achieve anything they put their minds to. I’m excited to see what this new trip will teach.

Tune in to Bike Hispaniola to join my friend Rob Munro & me on the journey. Follow the blog, featuring a live map that updates our location, twitter feed, photos and more. Please ask us questions, share tips and ideas, and let us know of people and sights to see. I’ll be sharing stories and stopping by our partners’ offices in Port-Au-Prince to see the call center staff and further explore how technology can continue to make a difference in Haiti and around the world.

You can sponsor my 500 mile ride by contributing to Digital Democracy’s end of year matching campaign in honor of the trip. All donations will go to Digital Democracy core programming in Haiti and beyond in 2012 – not the ride itself – and be doubled by generous matching donors.

Happy holidays to you and thank you for your support over these years. I look forward to hearing from you and keeping in touch wherever my travels take me and where yours take you.

Sincerely,
Mark Belinsky

Today we announce the launch of the only phone-based emergency response system dedicated to rape and sexual assault in Haiti. Together with our partners at  KOFAVIV, the Commission for Women Victims for Victims, we at Dd have designed, launched and tested the Call Center that is helping bring emergency care to victims in Port-Au-Prince. The KOFAVIV Call Center is supported by mobile-service providers Digicel and Voila, major phone providers in Haiti, where there is no 911 or similar system for reporting emergencies. Now, free calls to the number “572” connect victims to critical emergency care including medical, psychological and legal support.

The Call Center is one of four components of the Dd commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to use technology to address rape and gender-based violence (sGBV) with women in Haiti. Dd and KOFAVIV are seeking $150,000 to support the Call Center and expand its reach throughout Port-Au-Prince, announced Dd at the CGI Annual meeting today.

“When we first started working with Haitian women leaders, there was no accurate information on the increasing rates of sexual violence in the tent-camps,” explains Emily Jacobi, our Executive Director. “The Call Center is a key component of an information management system we built with KOFAVIV to accurately capture data on the real scope of the problem, and get urgent preventative care to the most vulnerable cases.”

A recent report from Human Rights Watch observes that earthquake recovery has largely failed Haitian women and girls, noting, “Emergency contraception and other post-rape care is available in some health facilities, but many rape victims don’t have access to this care for the same reasons that women and girls have difficulty accessing other health services: they lack basic information about what is available and where, or they have difficulty paying for transportation to reach the services.”

Our partnership with KOFAVIV directly addresses this lack of information. Women who contact the Call Center receive urgent personal care, but the information collected also contributes to the macro-solutions for the problem. KOFAVIV collects data on cases and uses a system built by Dd to generate monthly reports, maps and data visualization to share with government and international bodies that provide critical security and lighting.

“The technology trainings that began in 2010 have brought about a major change in the capacity of grassroots women, particularly us, the women of KOFAVIV,” say Malya Appolon and Eramithe Delva, co-founders of KOFAVIV. “They have given us more confidence in ourselves, and have given us tools to help more people understand the reality of those living in the camps, a reality that gets harder everyday.”

KOFAVIV and Dd first partnered in April 2010, building a comprehensive system that uses technology to improve the fight against sGBV in Haiti. The partnership is the cornerstone of Dd’s commitment to CGI, promising to provide Haitian women’s groups the technical tools and training needed in their work to create a comprehensive approach to prevent rape in Haiti with a coalition of lawyers, health and psychosocial service providers, and strong networks of Haitian women and girls.

KOFAVIV & Digital Democracy Database System

“572 not only provides support to victims, it represents urgent medical care. When a woman calls our number within 72 hours of an incident, we ensure she gets the medical care she needs to prevent transmission of disease, HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy,” says Jocie Philistin, a Project Coordinator for KOFAVIV. “Medical support is the first step to receiving ongoing legal and psychological support.”

Through the first month of testing, the Call Center was promoted in 24 tent camps and communities by KOFAVIV’s network of 65 Community Outreach Agents, some police precincts and the General Hospital. Ready to accept calls from throughout Port-Au-Prince, the Call Center needs financial support to spread awareness across the city.

The Abundance Foundation, United States Institutes for Peace (USIP), the Channel Foundation, USAID/OTI and individual donors have supported Dd’s work in Haiti to date.

Press Release: Dd & KOFAVIV Launch Only Emergency Response System Dedicated to Rape and Sexual Violence in …

Mark & I first met Abby through her work at the Global Justice Center, where she was organizing an international campaign for justice in Burma. Our collaboration began then – as Mark helped her produce a video advocating for global justice in Burma, and we connected her to contacts in New Delhi, who participated in the B8 worldwide day of action on 8-8-08.

Abby & I also bonded early on from our shared experiences in Cuba – she had studied abroad there, and I had traveled there as a youth journalist – and the lessons we had learned from the island, which defies stereotypes. We began collaborating on ideas of how to harness technology to promote dialogue & break down barriers between Americans and Cubans, and Abby worked with Dd more broadly to help us hone our vision and prioritize programming in our first year, signing on as one of the first members of our Advisory Board in early 2009.

From our early days as an organization, Abby has been someone who just gets it – who understands intuitively that the world is changing, and believes in the importance of harnessing digital technologies for social good. Her entrepreneurial spirit has also been an enormous asset, contributing to critical decisions as the organization has grown from an all-volunteer endeavor to applying for our own 501(c)3 this spring.

In 2010, Abby moved from our Advisory Board to our staff, working to develop program ideas for work in Latin America & the Caribbean and also honing her own skills and understanding of the tech space. Our work early in the year was heavily shaped by the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Because we had colleagues in Port-au-Prince at the time, the Digital Democracy team became involved in the Ushahidi Haiti response. As the response transitioned from the emergency phase to rebuilding, Abby played a critical role in shaping our Haiti work by recognizing the importance of working with Haitian women. After attending the Commission on the Status of Women in early March, Abby recognized how little women were being consulted as part of the redevelopment plan. As she examined this further, combined with the alarming rates of gender-based violence occurring in the camps, she worked on adapting Dd’s existing Handheld Human Rights program to address the needs of women in Haiti.

Abby conducting training in Port-au-Prince

In multiple trips and trainings over the past year, Abby helped bring this vision to life. From our first photography training with Haitian women’s groups in April 2010 to election trainings in the fall and BarCamp Port-au-Prince in the spring, we’ve had many high points in our collaboration with Haitian women. One of the greatest came at the end of April, however, for the launch of the Jan Nou We L/The Way We See It photography collection at Splashlight Studios in Soho. Working in close collaboration with ELK Studios who curated the collection, Abby spearheaded benefit and steering committees, resulting in at least 350 visitors that evening, and more than $17,000 raised, proceeds of which are going to support our partner women’s organizations in Port-au-Prince.

Although this marks a transition, and Abby is no longer part of our day-to-day work, she remains an integral part of the Digital Democracy story, and we remain inspired by her vision & dedication to creating a positive impact in the world. Follow her on twitter or contact her via LinkedIn to follow her next endeavors.

Malya & Eramithe talk about their portrait

The photographs were installed by a team of volunteers the morning of the show and told the stories of Haitian women through their own eyes.  Each 20 x 24 archival print was mounted with an accompanying caption in both English and Haitian Creole and titled by the women in Haiti.  Wall text was posted near several of the prints that were direct quotes from photographers taken from interviews conducted in Haiti in March 2011.

Our goal for the launch was to generate momentum around the collection, visibility for the issues, and to raise support for the women and Digital Democracy’s photo program in Haiti.  This was no small task.  The event went smoothly thanks to the contributions of our 15 member benefit committee, 22 member steering committee, 23 volunteers and four translators, and would not have been possible without the support of ELK, SplashLight Studios, and other sponsors and donors who underwrote the event. We are grateful to all for their hard work and generosity!

Steering Committee members Stanley and Marjory

More than 350 people came to the event from communities ranging from representatives of UN Women, to the Haitian American community in NY, including the Haitian American Nurses Association (HANA) and  the Haitian Physician Association (AMHE – Association des Medecins Haitiens vivant a l’ Etranger) – both represented on the event’s steering committee  - to artists and collectors and even a favorite Haitian food spot in Brooklyn – Kombit – who provided the delicious snacks.  And of course, our two guests of honor from Haiti – Malya Villard-Apollon and Eramithe Delva, co-founders of the Commission of Women Victims for Victims, KOFAVIV, who came to New York to represent the 30 women photographers from four grassroots women’s groups in Haiti that were represented in the Collection. Many of these photographers were also online in Haiti that night, where they were engaging with the NY audience at one of three blogging stations that were set up for the evening to communicate with the photographers in Haiti.  There was Haitian music, and even Prestige Beer!

Prestige Beer!

The energy surrounding the collection was palpable from the moment viewers stepped off of the elevator. Thanks to the outpouring of support and print purchases at the launch, we far surpassed our expectations – we raised more than $17,000 with proceeds going to benefit Haitian women and Digital Democracy’s photography program. Several articles and tweets were published about the collection and launch, and more than 30 prints were purchased as part of the silent auction. But there are more available in this limited edition Collection.

Posting comments for the photographers in Haiti

It’s not too late to purchase prints and catalogs of the Collection – with essays from the women in Haiti, the curators, and me – to support the women.  Also please visit ELK Studios and Digital Democracy’s website pages about the project for more information including links to the Haitian partners and press – and please help us to spread the word!

Malya & Eramithe are now back in Haiti and the community of women they work with look forward to continuing the conversation with each of you!  You can follow the project and continue to engage with our women partners in Haiti via their bi-lingual blog: Fanm Pale (“Women Speak” in Creole) and the Jan Nou We L/The Way We See It Facebook page where the photographers in Haiti and audiences abroad can continue the conversation.

Thank you from Dd, the photographers and ELK to all who made this possible!

Participating in BarCamp Haiti was a welcome experience, but more exciting was that all of the six presentations were given by Haitians, one by three of women representing Digital Democracy’s partner, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), and all in their 20s.  Their presentation sent shock waves through the crowd as they shared their work to leverage technology for empowerment, and improved coordination, response, and information for prevention of sexual violence in Haiti.

KOFAVIV is a grassroots women’s organization working in Port Au Prince and one of Digital Democracy’s partners in Haiti. Their 3000+ members throughout the country and 60 community outreach agents make them a key force in the battle against sexual and gender based violence in Haiti. Dd has been working with KOFAVIV for the past year and most recently, we have focused on the launch of a new database and call center, which will improve data collection and create digital records that can automatically generate more detailed and specific reports for use by the Haitian government, donors, and advocates to address the epidemic of sexual and gender based violence in Haiti. Importantly, these files will be housed in a secure, virtual database, which cannot be destroyed in future disasters.

The event took place at Canne à Sucre, a small “national park” maintained in great condition – an anomaly in Port Au Prince. Still, the BarCamp symbolized a promising new trend in Haiti rebuilding with a new generation of Haitians ready to innovate for change and take the reigns of their future. Plus, unlike the UN meetings, where French and English exclude the majority of Haitians who only speak Kreyol, this Barcamp was bilingual in Haitian Kreyol and English (with many conversations taking place in French, too). It was a best practice worth examining and modeling after.

The morning session began with a presentation by a young man from Cité Soleil, one of Port Au Prince’s toughest neighborhoods, about Open Street Maps Haiti (OSM)– an online platform that uses GPS coordinates to enable citizens to map their communities. OSM was a critical tool in the humanitarian response post-earthquake, beginning with the search and rescue period, and was later used to map other types of risks and resources, including voting sites and Cholera.

Like many of his fellow presenters that day, he reiterated throughout the presentation how technology is “changing his life” and something “anyone can learn.”

Then came our three KOFAVIV ladies. Wismide introduced KOFAVIV’s work and spoke about the photography and video trainings with Digital Democracy that have helped women from her community share their perspectives with the national and international community. Elmita followed with an explanation of the Fanmpale/Women Speak blog, created for women to be able to share their photos and begin blogging about their realities. She described the blog as “a place where women can talk about social problems, problems with democracy, and their lives” and “interact with the national and international community.” She related the story of her 5-year-old cousin who came into the Center after being raped by a 14-year-old neighbor while her mother was at the hospital, and her personal experience of using the blog as an outlet to share her story. In her words, “I didn’t know what to do so I wrote a post to show the international community this is not something that just affects women but also affects children.” She invited the audience to visit the blog and shared the importance of comments from the international community to let them know people are listening.

The presentation ended with Fania, a high-energy member of the new Dd team at KOFAVIV working on the new database, who talked about the human rights dossier that the agents currently use for intake and how the database will replace their paper intake process. “I and my fellow presenters are responsible for the human rights reports that come in and for creating monthly and annual reports,” she said. “The new system will help communicate with national and international groups working to address gender-based violence and rape in the camps by providing better and more regular information.” She ended by sharing next steps in the program and plans to establish a small call center to help reach more victims.

After the KOFAVIV women, a journalist and communications officer at the International Migration Office (IOM) spoke about their work to leverage new media to provide Haitian citizens with an outlet for sharing their realities. He emphasized how “internet and communications technologies – new and old – enable us to communicate what we are feeling, what we want, and what we need.”  Tools like community radio, Internet, T.V., newspapers, and a website, CitizenHaiti, provide a space for this information to be aggregated and shared with Haitians as well as an international audience. He said: “It’s our voice – it’s the voice of Haiti, for everyone who doesn’t have a voice.”

Steven Bruno presented a USAID project called “HIFIVE” (Haiti Integrated Finance for Value Chains & Enterprises) that encourages the growth of mobile financial services in Haiti. He discussed the problem of cash payments in Haiti as well as the long distances some must travel – on average 4-5 hours – to access financial services. He shared two projects that won the first round of competitions and have since launched new programs – Digicel’s “Tcho Tcho Mobile” and Voila’s “Ti Cash,” and the new focus of their program in looking for ways to bring these activities and their impact to scale.

The following presentation was about Radio Boukman, a community radio program that works with radio stations to leverage Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and other social media to reach new audiences and spread information among Haitians and to the world. He said that Radio Boukman hopes to expand their program to rural areas but that Internet access and speed pose complications to program growth. He hopes to develop media centers in these harder to reach areas and closed with his feeling that “thanks to the internet we can access free tools that can help us reach rural areas and the world at large and I believe these tools can not only help us communicate but also develop as a nation.”

The last presentation was a “Twitter 101” for an audience that was largely unfamiliar with the tool. Jean Bernard Pierre [@bernard1804] spoke about Twitter as a means of instantaneously finding and spreading information, not only online, but through SMS, and to share radio and T.V., for example. In his words, “for me, Twitter is radio, tv, audience.” He used the example of Obama using Twitter during his presidential campaign to reach new audiences. Pierre was tweeting throughout the day, and told the crowd “Twitter can help anyone with their work and projects.”

Though there were many highlights of BarCamp Haiti, the most meaningful for me was to witness the praise and encouragement for the KOFAVIV women, and to watch the younger participants in their first real networking situation, as they spoke to their fellow presenters as well as representatives from UNICEF and JPHRO (founded by Sean Penn).

For me the greatest moment was when one of the BarCamp organizers expressed how happy she was to have the KOFAVIV women present.  She shared a story about when “one Haitian staff member of a local technology group had explained that ‘women are lazy’ when asked why there were not more women working in technology in Haiti.” She said she thought that the BarCamp already helped to dispel that misconception. Moments later, Jocie (Dd’s local project coordinator who joined later in the day) told me the same organizer had also expressed her enthusiasm about KOFAVIV’s presentation, and then gave me a high five and said, “Haitian Women are Starting A Revolution, a Tech Revolution!” They already have! Jocie arrived in the United States on Wednesday, for the first time, with KOFAVIV co-founders Malya Villard and Eramithe Delva to testify at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in Washington DC this Friday, March 25th, about protection for women living in camps.

As always, I was and continue to be so impressed by the tireless work and dedication of our team, our partners, and especially KOFAVIV, and their agents now working to develop a cutting edge process for information collection, response, and prevention of gender based violence by empowering the women most directly affected by this problem. As we are seeing across the world, the combination of belief in the power of people to make change, tireless work and dedication, and the use of new technologies and social media are making a difference.

Let’s hope that these revolutions are not only for democracy in Northern Africa and the Middle East, but also for women in Haiti, and beyond, seeking empowerment and protection of their basic human rights, even when they have long been ignored.

Last September we made a commitment to harnessing technology to address gender-based violence in Haiti, working with legal, medical & psycho-social providers to document, respond to and prevent sexual violence against women. Since that time we have continued our multi-media trainings, worked with women to monitor violence around the elections, and launched a blog – Fanm Pale – Women Speak.
Since January, we have focused on supporting our partners to build a digital database to track and respond to incidents of rape & sexual violence in the displaced person camps of Port-au-Prince. In January, we received support from the Channel Foundation, which promotes women’s human rights throughout the world. Channel’s support enabled us to send Emilie to Haiti where she will be living for the year, providing training and technical support to our partner organizations including women’s organizations, IJDH/BAI and the We-Lead Center.

We have also just received a grant from Development Alternatives IncAI/USAID, over the next three months we are piloting a secure, localized database and call center/hotline to respond to gender-based violence. Dd’s software developer Dennis Cahillane has been working with Mark, Emilie & our local staff to establish the database, which has been localized into kreyol.
In this work, we have learned so much from our incredible partners, who have suffered from rape and violence in the camps first-hand, and put everything they have on the line to provide services to women and girls at risk of violence.
Today I arrived in Haiti with my colleague Abby Goldberg & Digital Democracy Advisor Sean McDonald. We’ll be working with our partners, conducting a strategic planning session and holding workshops on the database and the blog. On Saturday, we’re also participating in BarCamp Port-au-Prince, a gathering of technologists, community groups and international organizations gathering to support Haitians solutions to challenges in Haiti, focusing on unique and innovative ways that technology can be leveraged.
This month of March, when women around the world are reflecting on the challenges they face & celebrating victories that have been made in the fight for our human rights, Digital Democracy is so grateful for the support that has made our work possible, and inspired by the women not only in Haiti but throughout the world who are using the tools at their disposal – whether mobile phones, blogs or marching in the streets – to fight for a better future for us all.

“Einstein was a refugee, but he could still do great things.”

Since those humble beginnings, our digital literacy program has grown to now be in Bangladesh, Thailand, Haiti, Kenya, South Africa, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, and in the USA to Indiana and New York City.

I’m excited to now offer our curriculum free for download. Working with IREX International on the Kazakhstan project, we were even able to have it translated into Russian and Kazakh languages. I hope that you find this helpful and please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in future issues so that we can incorporate it. As always, it’s Creative Commons license, so feel free to share and add to it yourself also! Just let us know so we can follow the awesome.

Project Einstein Manual

Fanm Pale, which means “Women Speak” in Kreyol, is one result of months of digital trainings and collaboration with grassroots women activists in Port-Au-Prince. The blog connects them to the world, reporting with their own words on topics ranging from the election to horrifying accounts of rape and suffering in the camps.

As a communication specialist, I am inspired by the work Dd does in Haiti. It is based in what I call “true communication” where ideas are articulated, listened to, processed, and lead to action. It incorporates the complexity of language, silence, and empowers by listening across cultural and linguistic barriers. Learning digital tools and gaining access to the internet offers previously silenced voices to speak up and out.

In a place like Haiti, where Kreyol is the cultural language, French the colonizing language, and where English inserts itself as a force of globalization, linguistic layers are complicated. Words and language — alone — can carry messages of power or subordination.  The complexity, though, also gives way to the clear power of non-verbal communication, the power of words, and the chance for a larger understanding by engaging all these elements.

Earlier this fall, Eramithe Delva — co-founder of KOFAVIV, one Dd’s partners in Haiti — visited the United States. A grassroots activist for years, Eramithe fights gender-based violence in poor communities every day. She has successfully organized against violence and was amongst those who advocated for rape to be made illegal in 2005 and to empower thousands of victims to find strength in a society that has worked to silence them.

Dd brought Eramithe to the United States for this first trip to help bridge the communication voids only someone with her expertise and experience can help fill. During her two-week stay, Eramithe presented alongside Dd staff and other activists, lawyers, and organizers working in Haiti. Not only her words, but the full experience of hearing her voice, watching her expressions and listening to her words translated was a lesson in fighting oppression.

Eramithe spoke about the history of words like “camp” in Haiti. She explained, before the earthquake “camp” had connotations of happiness, education, sharing with family, celebration, and positivity. Now, the word describes the over 1,000 plots of land holding displaced families and people in the Port-au-Prince area, sleeping under plastic and living in fear for their safety everyday. There, the rain falls on them, the mud engulfs them, women and girls are raped at astronomically high rates.

In the name of those families, billions of dollars in international aid has been pledged – the most humanitarian aid ever pledged. Yet, the money hasn’t reached them, and Eramithe’s stories and the trick of translation shine light on one of the reasons why.

During her US trip, she spoke to Congress and discussed the situation in Haiti with international aid organizations that have claimed to be her partners. They had taken money in the name of real people living the camps, but never shared that funding with them. Eramithe discussed how Big organizations and Big women receive prioritized funding.

How? In part, protected by translation, the cycles of racism and classism continue.

What does Big mean in this context? Large organizations and heavy women? No. Lighter-skinned, richer women, French-speaking women, who are those with access to land: these are Big women. Women living in the camps, the women of KOFAVIV, poorer women, darker-skinned women, they are the Small women in Haitian society. Big women have more access to land, more of a voice in politics, more connections in the diaspora, more recognition from the international aid organizations.

Eramithe and KOFAVIV’s hard work on the ground has been acknowledged by these organizations, but by not really listening to them —the leaders on this issue — the organizations reinforce the idea that Big women know more than Small ones.

Conversation amongst these groups will mean more than words. These are complex issues that will take time to unravel, but just a few days of truly listening to Eramithe helped me understand how much these long-standing prejudices are fortified by language, and can be broken with deeper and more complex understanding. The women and Dd are working together to keep these conversations alive, through Dd-organized live-Skype conversations between Haiti and groups in the United States.

I wonder: could the earthquake shake this structure of discrimination so hard it falls? Could listening, engaging, and acknowledging the rights of the poor women and those who have been similarly ignored for centuries create a stronger society? That conversation has the potential to “rebuild” Haiti.

Sometimes communication happens amongst words – as with Eramithe and Fanm Pale. Sometimes it happens without them, like in the powerful photos that emerged from Dd’s photo training with Haitian women earlier this year.

Women of KOFAVIV speak out in Port-Au-Prince

The process has started. Every day brings new realities on the ground in Haiti. If all parties communicate, listen effectively, build partnerships with the most affected women and voices and inform their actions with the testimony of those living on the ground, there is hope.

Please read Fanm Pale and comment on the women’s reports. Give testament to their words and the translations they approve. Join the true communication here.

This week, I’m in Port-au-Prince to launch this initiative along with my colleagues Abby Goldberg & Emilie Reiser. Over the next few days we’ll be training 50 Haitian women as well as meeting with key partners including the Haitian tech company Solutions, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and representatives of the UN & Government ministries. Although Abby and I are only here for the week,  Emilie will be staying on in Haiti to provide ongoing training and support through the elections.

The training will include a discussion of electoral rights, identifying barriers to civic participation in the upcoming election and training the women on how to use tools to report on the elections and electoral-related violence. The training on tech tools includes how to use the Noula platform, FrontlineSMS and how to upload blog updates.

In addition to producing a report on this initiative and the findings of our citizen reporters over the course of the next month, this training will help us meet the first part of our commitment to Clinton Global Initiative, to empower Haitian women in the use of tools that will help them organize and respond to gender-based violence.

It is a challenging but important time for us to be doing this work. All of our Haitian partners are working to respond to the devastating news of a cholera outbreak, and our coalition of partners including the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti and Madre have filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Sexual Violence in Haiti’s displaced persons camps. Amidst this very serious news, we’re reminded of how great the stakes are for our Haitian partners, and the critical role of technology to help them address these problems.

As I write, two of our partner organizations have just finished a meeting with a song. It’s also a reminder of the human capacity for joy and the need to connect with one another. We hope you’ll follow along on our trip, through blogs, multi-media and micro-blogs – our twitter feeds: Digidem, Abby, Emilie and me.