Gender Equality Haiti Project #32096

Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti

by Beyond Borders

Project Report | 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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Jul 24, 2019
Power To Girls Changed Her School - You Made it Possible!

By Brian Stevens | Donor Engagement Director

You're making school safe for girls like Selimene.

Your Generous and Thoughtful Support is Creating Lasting Change for Girls

Thank you again for your generous and thoughtful support for Beyond Borders’ Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on Global Giving. We are so grateful!

Your generous support is expanding work to improve access to educational opportunities for girls’ and make schools safer; end child slavery, which disproportionately traps girls; and train and mobilize activists in communities across Haiti to prevent violence against women and girls. Thank you for making this work possible!

You are Making School Safer for Girls Like Selimene

Today, girls in Haiti are more likely to experience sexual violence than to enroll in high school. Your gift is changing this for girls like Selimene though, reducing the risks they face by expanding our Power To Girls programming to reach more schools, more communities, and more girls.

Through your generous gift, you are joining Selimene, girls like her, and Beyond Borders’ Rethinking Power Team in building the movement to prevent violence against women and girls, to balance power between women and men and girls and boys, and to ensure that every girl lives free from violence and inequality. Thank you again!

Power To Girls Puts Girls at the Forefront of the Change Process

Selimene is a senior at a Catholic high school in southern Haiti. She remembers the day when Beyond Borders’ Rethinking Power Team held a meeting for parents about the Power To Girls program.

“At first my parents didn't understand what Rethinking Power and Power To Girls was about,” Selimene said. Then they went to a meeting organized by Beyond Borders and afterwards they said they that I could participate in Power To Girls.”

Power to Girls recognizes schools as institutions with both power over girls’ lives in the here-and-now and the power to shape future social norms in a community.

Beyond Borders created Power To Girls to put girls at the forefront of the change process, and to help boys become key allies.

A Toolkit Designed to Create Deep and Lasting Change in Schools and Communities

To do this, Power To Girls includes a complete, three-year methodology to integrate lessons on equality and preventing gender-based violence in to 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.

By equipping girls and boys and school and civic leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to influence attitudes and behaviors related to girls’ safety and voice, schools and communities can address the root cause of violence against women and girls: gender-power imbalances.

“Once we started using Power To Girls at my school, things started to change.”

“Before Power To Girls came to our school, neither boys nor girls understood how to use their power -- and we girls didn't even think we had any power,” Selimene said. “There was an inequality between girls and boys. Once we started using Power To Girls at my school, things started to change.”

Power To Girls understands that boys have a role to play in the change process too. By actively engaging boys through Power to Girls, they are learning how to balance power with girls and treat them with respect.

“This is how girls can build power,” said Wesley, a classmate of Selimene’s who also takes part in Power To Girls. “The Power To Girls program at school is a good initiative … for all students.”

Thank you again for making the work of Power To Girls possible!

30 Girls and Boys Freed From Slavery and Brought Home by Their Parents

Your support is also making the work to end child slavery, which disproportionately traps girls, possible. Thanks to the community mobilization and intervention work of Child Protection Brigades and Adult Survivors of Child Slavery groups that you help make possible in 16 communities, 30 girls and boys were freed from slavery and situations of abuse and reunited with their families in the past three months. Thank you!

More than 500 Activists Trained to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

Your gift is also supporting training for activists throughout Haiti who are working to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG). From April through June, a total of 534 activists received technical support training to engage their fellow community members in conversations to promote balanced power and to prevent VAWG.

On Lagonav Island, five communities – Bouziyèt, Masikren, Fonnèg, Chenkontan, and Gransous – continued their work in the Awareness Phase – the second of the four phase program we use to balance power between women and men known as SASA!*

A total of 420 SASA! activists (215 women) were trained in these five communities. We are now preparing to conduct rapid assessments to gauge these five communities’ readiness to enter the third phase –the Support Phase.

In two additional communities on Lagonav Island – Nan Kafe and Matènwa – Beyond Borders continues to support 114 community activists and network members to conduct VAWG prevention activities as part of the Action Phase – the fourth and final phase of SASA!

Thank you for making the work to prevent violence against women and girls possible!

Thank You Again!

Thank you again for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on Global Giving. You are building the movement to prevent violence against women and girls in Haiti through your generous and thoughtful support. We are grateful for your generosity, your care, and your concern. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please feel free to contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders Donor Engagement Director, at b.stevens@beyondborders.net or at (305) 450-2561.

Power To Girls is in more schools thanks to you!

Boys like Wesley can help balance power in school.

A preventing VAWG local activist at work.

Adult survivors talk about ending child slavery.

We are proud to be recognized by Global Giving!

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