-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Haiti Reborn Update - May 25, 2007

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Tom Ricker, Quixote Center/Haiti Reborn"
haiti-list@quixote.org

May 25, 2007

Dear friends,

Thanks to everyone who helped out with phone calls to Congress on H Res
241 ? demanding the immediate cancellation of Haiti?s debts. There are
now 45 co-sponsors. At the beginning of May there were only 11.
Getting 34 co-sponsors in a matter of weeks is quite an achievement and
due to lots of hard work by many different people. We will continue to
press for more co-sponsors, hoping to get to 60 very quickly. So
please keep passing the word to family, friends and colleagues to make
a call to their Congressional offices. We will also start doing more
targeted calls to the Financial Service Committee members, hoping to
move Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) to hold a hearing and/or get a vote on
the committee.

KOFAVIV is in Nicaragua

After nearly eight-months of delays over visa issues and other
logistical complications, five women Kofaviv (Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou
Viktim; or The Commission of Women Victims for Victims) arrived in
Managua, Nicaragua on Wednesday to begin their delegation. The
delegation will bring Kofaviv together with women organizing on similar
themes in Nicaragua, to share strategies and stories, and to develop
transnational linkages to better advocate for an end to violence
against women. The participants will be returning to Port au Prince on
Wednesday, May 30.

Kofaviv is a Haitian women's group formed in late 2004 by a group of
women from poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince who were raped during
the 1991-94 military dictatorship.

The political and social instability that followed President Aristide's
removal in 2004 sparked a new wave of political violence, lawlessness,
and related gender-based crimes. Few services exist for survivors of
rape in Port-au-Prince, and organizations providing these services
often lack relationships with or the confidence of women from poor
neighborhoods. As an organization established by survivors, for
survivors, Kofaviv combines support for individual survivors of rape
with grassroots women's organizing and advocacy, to transform the
social and political conditions that allow sexual violence against poor
women.

This is a crucial time for Kofaviv?s work. In the current context -
even when overtly political, or partisan, crimes seem to be on the
decline, violence against women continues at an alarming rate. This
March Kofaviv provided services and counseling to more victims of rape
than any other month since it?s founding. They recently completed a
series of 20 workshops for young people in neighborhoods throughout
Port au Prince on violence against women, and HIV prevention. They
have also developed a special outreach program for young men.

We hope the delegation will provide some insights and inspiration to
women from Nicaragua and Haiti. Impoverished women in both countries
face very similar structural constraints in confronting violence. Yet,
the histories of Nicaragua and Haiti are different as well. The
women?s movement in Nicaragua has been quite successful in constructing
national advocacy campaigns ?which is direction that Kofaviv would like
to move in. At the same time, Kofaviv has created a very unique
vehicle for women that links direct service, and counseling with
community human rights documentation and advocacy.

More and More Trees

The main tree nursery for the reforestation program in Gros Morne is
loaded with seedlings ? which will soon be making journeys to sites
through out the parish, and beyond. Several agencies in Gros Morne
have committed to planting 500,000 trees this year! The nursery in
Grepin ? which many of you support ? will be responsible for 100,000 of
these trees. You can see pictures at our website: haiti.quixote.org

A new nursery in nearby David is being launched right now as well.
The basic structure is in place, and the shade covering will be heading
to David from Gros Morne soon. In preparing the seedlings we are using
a combination of plastic bags and ?tach banann? containers. Made from
banana bark, these containers hold the seedlings until ready for
planting. Then they are simply planted right into the ground with the
trees. A local women?s organization is preparing the first 2,000 tach
banann for the program.

For Kofaviv and the reforestation programs Haiti Reborn in an important
funder. In Gros Morne, we are the primary agency financially
supporting operations at the nursery and for organizers who work
throughout the region training local groups on agro-forestry. If you
can ? please consider a donation to Haiti Reborn. We do not normally
do such appeals by e-mail, but as we near the end of our fiscal year
every little bit helps!

You can donate online: https://www.quixote.org/haiti_donate
Or through the mail: Haiti Reborn, c/o Quixote Center, PO Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20782

Thank you for your continuing support. We will be sending out a
newsletter next month with more information on all the programs. If
you are not on our regular mailing list and would like to be, lets us
know by responding to this e-mail.

Have a great week, and a safe weekend for those traveling.

Peace,
Tom

=============================
Haiti Reborn
a program of the Quixote Center
PO Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782
301-699-0042
http://haitireborn.org
=============================

*
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFGWb9Eiz2i76ou9wQRAplfAJ9WO84kYeZd7WVmW+0xCasLuvI1bQCgtnPQ
3ZycTF5nAL3p1xUF4BJ/KBs=
=sR18
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----