Solidarity with the People of Haiti

WIDE´s Belgian platform le monde selon les femmes has set up a Solidarity Fund to support Haitian women´s rights organizations ENFOFAMN and Sofa, destroyed by January´s earthquake.

Le monde selon les femmes has opened an account for donations to help rebuilding offices of these organizations. On behalf of WIDE and LMSF we ask you to send your donations to:

                         TRIODOS Bank account of Le monde selon les femmes :
                                                
                                                 BE33523041425846
                                                   BIC TRIOBEBB    
                                             Reference: HAITIFANM

Haitian Feminist Movement has been left without their leaders - Myriam Merlet (ENFOFANM), Magalie Marcelin (Kay Fanm) and Anne Marie Coriolan (SOFA), founders of three of the country's most important advocacy organizations working on behalf of women and girls, are confirmed dead -- victims of devastating 7.0 earthquake. Other members of ENFOFANM, an NGO striving to protect and improve the rights of women in Haiti are reported dead as well.

Myriam Merlet: an author as well as an activist, fled Haiti in the 1970s. She studied in Canada, steeping herself in economics, women's issues, feminist theory and political sociology. After returning to her homeland, Merlet worked closely with ENFOFANM, an organization that raises awareness about women through media, collects stories and works to honor their names. She has been Executive Director of the organization for three years before her death. tMyriam served as a top adviser to the women's rights ministry of Haiti.

Mireille Anglade: Born in Nice, Mireille did her PHD studies in economic in Paris. As a researcher, she was an active member of ENFOFANM, a president of LIPOUFANM and a consultant at PNUD.

Gina Porcena: Gina studied Geography in France. Was a president of Geospatial National Information Centre of Haiti, a journalist and an active member of ENFOFANM.

Magalie Marcelin: Magalie Marcelin, a lawyer and actress who appeared in films and on stage, established Kay Fanm, a women's rights organization that deals with domestic violence, offers services and shelter to women and makes microcredits, or loans, available to women working in markets.

Anne Marie Coriolan: Together with Merlet, Anne Marie served as a top adviser to the women's rights ministry of Haiti. Coriolan, who died when her boyfriend's home collapsed, was the founder of Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women, or SOFA), an advocacy and services organization for women. Coriolan was a political organizer who helped bring rape "an instrument of terror and war," to the forefront of Haitian courts.

In this time of sorrow, the women, men and children of Haiti need our support! WIDE calls on the international community to provide immediate relief to the victims of the earthquake.

WIDE, together with the other women´s organisations and social movements demands that the EU allocates necessary resources and gender-sensitive policies, which will be needed over the near and medium term to support the Haitian people´s efforts to reconstruct their country and future, free of the domination and dependency that have so marked life on the island.

WIDE expresses its condolences to the families, friends, colleagues and confederates of the deceased.

ENFOFANM was a member organization of WIDE in Haiti.