Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti

We Are Grateful for Your Generous Support

We are so grateful for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Free, Educate, & Empower Girls in Haiti project. Thanks to you, the work to train and mobilize activists in communities across Haiti to build the movement to prevent violence against women and girls; improve girls' access to educational opportunities and make schools safer; and end child slavery, which disproportionately traps girls, continues to expand.

You Make School Possible for More Girls Like Loudamise

Loudamise is a sixth-grader on Lagonav Island. At 16, Loudamise is five years older than most girls and boys in the sixth grade. She almost never got the chance to go to school at all. But thanks to your support, her school is one of 25 in Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery Network where teachers are trained in a government-approved curriculum called Accelerated Education that helps students who start school late - because they were enslaved or because their parents couldn’t afford to send them to school -  to make up the grades they missed and complete their education. “My favorite subject is French, and I want to be an agronomist when I grow up,” Loudamise told us. Thank you for making an education for her and many more girls like her possible!

You Make Critically Needed Work to Prevent Violence Against Girls & Women Possible

Your support is also making critically needed violence prevention work possible in Haiti, where girls and women face high levels of violence and discrimination. One in three Haitian women has experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, and one in three girls has already experienced violence by age 18. One in five girls in Haiti reported their first sexual experience was forced. These experiences have acute and long-term consequences for survivors, as global research shows that violence against women and girls affects the mental and physical health of survivors, including an increased risk of injuries, death, unwanted pregnancy, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, mental health problems, and maternal health problems. Overall acceptance of violence against women as normal is also common, with 80% of Haitian men reporting that they think violence against women and girls is justifiable in some situations. But your support is making the work to change all this possible.

More Than 67,000 Women and Men Reached by Community Activists Since 2010

With support from you and people like you, since 2010, more than 1000 community activists and civic and religious leaders from 20 communities have engaged neighbors in a multi-year community mobilization process to balance power between women and men, prevent violence against women and girls, and ensure equality of opportunity for girls and women. This programming has reached more than 67,000 people with dialogue and messages to transform the ways that families and communities share power between women and men, and the way that they think about and address violence against women and girls.

Building a Grassroots-Led Movement to Create Lasting, Sustainable Change

The programming that your support makes possible is designed to be led primarily by grassroots community activists trained by Beyond Borders who work completely as volunteers. By using participatory approaches that build community capacity and shift social norms, Beyond Borders engages the community itself in taking responsibility for transforming attitudes and building local movements. Communities continue to organize themselves to defend the rights of children, prevent and reduce violence against women and girls, and teach others to do the same without continued dependence on Beyond Borders.

For example, community activists and network members trained in the four-phases of the SASA! methodology that Beyond Borders uses to prevent violence against women and girls (Start, Awareness, Support, Action) seek to influence others in the course of their day-to-day lives, to teach others how to balance power between women and men, and prevent violence against women and girls. So, pastors are preaching sermons that encourage balanced power and nonviolence; teachers are transforming how they use their power in the classroom to create balanced spaces for girls as learners; health workers are changing how they serve survivors of violence; and couples are sharing how they’ve transformed the balance of power between women and men and girls and boys in their own homes.

By training and accompanying these volunteer community activists to use tools in the SASA! methodology to engage a community process, Beyond Borders is employing an ecological model to ensure engagement from people in all walks of life and from all different circles of influence. Your support makes this strategy of infiltration possible!

Your Support Makes ‘Power to Girls’, an Innovative, School-Based Violence Prevention Effort, Possible

Your support is making innovative school-based initiatives to prevent gender-based violence and balance power between women and men and girls and boys possible in Haiti. The goal of these initiatives is to increase access to school for girls and achieve a measurable reduction in violence against girls through increased knowledge and skills and changes in attitudes and behavior among teachers, school directors, and students themselves.

Power to Girls includes a school-wide process of change, recognizing schools as an institution with power over girls’ current lives and with the power to shape future social norms in a community.

The school-wide process of change includes:

• policy shifts such as a school Code of Conduct signed by all school personnel;
• training of and meetings with school personnel, including identification and capacity building of focal points to conduct school-based prevention activities
• integration of the Power to Girls school curriculum in lesson plans by social science, biology and language teachers.

Highlighted Achievements From the Third Quarter of FY19

Ending Child Slavery, Which Disproportionately Traps Girls - During the quarter, Beyond Borders’ Lagonav Island Child Rights team continued mobilizing 16 communities to protect children, including working with local Child Protection Brigades and local chapters of the Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network. 27 children (17 girls, 10 boys) were rescued from child slavery situations in these partner communities.

The National Day to End the Practice of Restavèk (Child Slavery) was observed on November 17, 2018. This important day was marked and celebrated in multiple communities with joint activities organized by Child Protection Brigades and branches of the Adult Survivor Network. More than 4,200 people participated in awareness-raising activities.

On the occasion of national day, in the Lagonav Island community of Nan Sema, Child Rights Activists conducted household visits to raise awareness about the dangers of the child slavery and to promote prevention of violence against children. They closed a week’s worth of events with a town hall meeting to invite community members to share their ideas on the situation of children and how they can become more involved in promoting children’s rights.

During the quarter, BB continued technical support programming and a funding partnership with other organizations to implement child rights mobilization in their communities. This included:

• Refresher training held with 14 Child Rights Training facilitators,
• Training on roles and responsibilities held with 235 individuals (195 women), including members of the Adult Survivor of Child Slavery Network and local Child Protection Brigades,
• Four days of awareness-raising visits were conducted with 671 adults (547 women) to strengthen the Adult Survivor Network,
• BB also continued supporting other organizations with technical and financial support to implement child rights mobilization strategies in three communal sections in Haiti’s North Department. Altogether, 3,260 residents attended training sessions and community gatherings to build the movement to end child slavery in their region. Twenty adult survivors joined the local chapter of the network.

Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls - Thanks to you, seven communities on Lagonav Island continue to work through the four-phase SASA! program to prevent violence against women and girls and balance power between women and men and girls and boys.

The communities of Nan Kafe and Matènwa have completed the assessment of Phase 3 – Support, and the results are being analyzed. The results will indicate if the communities are ready to move into the 4th and final phase – Action Phase.  The communities of Masikren, Fonnèg, Chenkontan, Gransous and Bouziyèt have completed the assessment of Phase 2 – Awareness. Positive results will mean these communities move into the Support Phase (Phase 3).

Additional achievements that your support made possible this quarter include:

• Rapid assessments held to gauge community readiness to move to the next stage of SASA! (as described above);
• Field visits conducted to observe and support 114 community activists as they conducted SASA! activities with community members to advance the prevention of violence against women and girls;
• Quarterly meetings held with 114 community activists and 320 SASA! network leaders to monitor progress;
• Training workshop on media and advocacy delivered to 70 network leaders (35 women);
• Household visits conducted in Nan Kafe to promote concepts to prevent violence against women and girls among residents, engaging 216 people (119 women) in dialogue.

Completion of Joint Research Initiative – Beyond Borders completed a three-year collaborative research project with the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Center for Gender Equity and Health, and Raising Voices.  The project aimed to research various adaptations of the SASA! methodology (including BB’s adaptation for Haiti) as well as the effectiveness of BB’s Technical Support program as a hub for providing technical assistance to implementing organizations. The results of the research were publicly presented in Haiti in January 2019 with the aim to foster greater visibility of and support for the SASA! methodology to prevent violence against women and girls and balance power between women and men and girls and boys. BB also used the occasion to present the Power to Girls methodology to those in attendance. The published report in English will be made available after 19 February 2019.

Establishing a Relationship with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs at the National Level – BB continued to advance efforts to establish a working relationship with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. This is slow going, as repeated attempts to hold a follow-up meeting with the new Minister have failed. Some additional work behind the scenes with connections within the Ministry did allow for a phone call with the Deputy Executive Director and the Minister, who agreed to set up a meeting. Unfortunately, despite confirmation of date and time of meeting, the Minister did not show for the meeting. We have continued attempts to schedule, and have hope that this meeting will occur eventually. A working protocol for collaboration could lead to many positive outcomes!

Thank You

With your continued support, our team will continue these kinds of innovative initiatives in 2019, to reach more communities, more schools, and more grassroots leaders. Your support makes the work to free, educate, and empower girls in Haiti possible. 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.

Links:

• Inter-American Development Bank report on our anti-violence work
• We've earned a 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator
• Visit our Facebook page to see the latest photos from Haiti

Thank You for Your Generous Support!

Thank you so much for your kind, thoughtful, and generous gift to support Beyond Borders’ Free, Educate, & Empower Girls in Haiti project on GlobalGiving.

Your gift is expanding work with grassroots leaders, leveraging their power to:

• end child slavery, which disproportionately traps girls;
• improve girls' access to educational opportunities and make schools safer;
• expand efforts proven to prevent violence against girls and women and mobilize everyone in a community to balance power between women, men, and girls and boys.

534 Preventing Violence Against Women & Girls Activists Trained, 123 Child Rights Activists Trained, 16 Child Protection Brigades Trained

Your gift made it possible to train 534 women and men in the period from July-September 2018 to engage fellow community members where they live in conversations to promote balanced power and prevent violence against women and girls. Your support also helped to train 123 Child Rights Activists and 16 Child Protection Brigades (made up of 12-15 members each) to protect girls and boys from slavery, abuse, and neglect.

What Activists in Haiti are Saying About the Impact of Your Support

An activist from the community of Nan Kafe trained to prevent violence against women and girls told us: "It used to be that a man could hit his wife in my community and no one tried to stop it or even thought it was wrong. Not anymore. Today it's not acceptable and any man who tries will hear from others about it."

A fellow activist said: "Women and men are sharing in the decision-making in their households now and parents are listening to the voices of their girls equally with their boys. Men don't keep money from women like they did before. People are learning that balancing power in a family makes that family stronger and leads to better choices."

Another activist asked us to share this message with you: "We know we couldn't do this work without their support, and we hope that with more support we can reach more people in more communities with our message of equality. Thank you!"

Here’s What Your Support Made Possible This Quarter

From July through September 2018, here’s what your support made possible in Haiti:

End Child Slavery, Which Disproportionately Traps Girls

During the quarter, on Lagonav Island, your support made it possible for BB’s Child Rights team to continue mobilizing 16 communities to protect children, including working with Child Protection Brigades (CPB) and Survivors of Restavèk Network (SRN) groups. One of the strategic objectives of this effort is to grow the SRN, to further define the role of the Network and its members.

A development plan for the Network, based on collective action theory, includes three dimensions: awareness, organization, mobilization. The plan describes steps and activities over three years to get survivors organized and the network strengthened. The rural Network is currently composed of 698 members with groups in 16 BB partner communities on Lagonav Island, in 14 communities in and around Port-au-Prince, and in the North Department, where BB’s partner organization PDL is mobilizing new Survivors of Restavèk Network (SRN) groups in 44 intervention communities.

Thanks to the training that your support makes possible, Child Protection Brigades are demonstrating initiative to act on behalf of children’s rights in Lagonav communities. In Fonnèg and Tipalmis, CPBs intervened on behalf of three children who were victims of sexual assault by adult male perpetrators. CPBs supported parents as they helped their children access response services and navigated the judicial process.

In Chenkontan and Nan Kafe, CPBs paid school tuition for four children (two girls). Additionally, community members have begun to see the need to be more involved in community development and the movement to end child slavery. For example, Nan Kafe and Chenkontan have a lot of people that have shared their resources to support children to go to school. In Nan Kafe, there are ten people who have promised to contribute to send children to school. In fact, 9,000 Haitian Gourdes (HTG) was raised in Chenkontan, and 13,000 HTG in Nan Kafe. These funds are available to help pay school and purchase school supplies for more children. This is a direct result of engaging community members in their own community’s development.

Additional Outputs

• Five children at risk (four girls) were identified by CPBs with support from BB
• 16 CPBs were supported to identify children at risk (five children, four girls); to raise funds in their communities to help vulnerable children; and, to identify and encourage local residents who have the habit of helping children
• 18 SRN members in Nan Kafe (16 women) and 36 SRN members in Nan Mango (31 women) attended a day-long meeting to raise awareness
• 15 BB staff (four women) received a three-day training on foster care system to build BB staff capacity to begin identifying potential families to foster children coming out of slavery situations in Lagonav communities
• 90 child rights activists (59 women) participated in four meetings – one in each of four communal sections – to facilitate the creation of child rights advocacy units in each section

Improve Girls' Access to Educational Opportunities and Make Schools Safer

Your gift is supporting efforts to increase access to school for girls and achieve a measurable reduction in violence against girls through increased knowledge and skills and change in attitudes and behavior among teachers, school directors, and students themselves.

In Kay Jakmèl, local activists trained by BB’s Rethinking Power program to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) continued their advocacy campaign toward the mandatory integration of curriculum on preventing VAWG in local schools. They engaged the school leadership of several schools toward this end, arguing for the integration and the school leadership’s support of their advocacy with the local Ministry of Education. BB’s Rethinking Power Coordinator meet with that committee four times during the period to provide input into their advocacy strategy; she also offered advocacy training to the committee and several collaborating women’s organizations and schools in the Kay Jakmèl area who are joining the committee. The training included 13 people total (4 women, 9 men) and included leadership representatives from 10 schools in the area. The team continues to communicate with the committee and listen to its needs as it advances toward its goals.

In addition, the school in Kap Wouj that piloted Power to Girls, in a community that originally implemented SASA!*, continues to live its beliefs in several ways. It re-signed the code of conduct written by school focal points during the pilot of Power to Girls, which prohibits exploitation of girls in school and intends to sign again with personnel and publicize with parents and students this September. They are currently discussing with the team how to continue to integrate Power to Girls school curriculum and activities into their coursework as part of the normal functioning of the school.

Two sets of three-day training were held in each of two partner secondary schools implementing Power to Girls, for a total of six days training for all (124) school personnel. This includes everyone from the school custodians to teachers to school directors, as they all contribute to the environment and social norms of the school. The first set of three-day training included selection of School Focal Points, who then drafted codes of conduct and established referral systems in the school for adoption in the second set of trainings. It included Phase 2 (Awareness) topics and topics unique to schools and teachers’ roles as shapers of social norms.

During the quarter, BB’s primary partner organization on Lagonav Island, the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC), launched programming with five newly integrated network schools, introducing these schools for the first time to nonviolent classroom management, participative teaching methods, and Haitian Creole as a language of instruction. This approach also emphasizes equality between girls and boys in the classroom. MCLC also continued its work with 20 schools from the existing network, continuing to promote application of these nonviolent, inclusive practices rooted in equality.

Regular training and mentoring of the 16 Girls’ Group Mentors was a major focus throughout the reporting period. They learned about Power to Girls and practiced explaining it to parents and the community, as well as to girls themselves. Additional practice sessions were organized to further support skill building. More training opportunities on their group leadership skills and facilitation of materials and topics within Power to Girls were conducted. An additional 3-day training was offered covering topics like leadership, being a mentor, power, violence against women, and games to play to interest girls. Regular meetings with mentors and visits to groups also formed opportunities for additional skills practice and engagement with topics in Power to Girls.

16 girls’ groups (eight for girls 10-14 years old and eight for girls 15-19 years old) met regularly (weekly with a few exceptions due to rain, etc.). Mentors held community meetings to explain the girls’ groups to 162 women and 103 men in total; this included parents and caregivers, community leaders and youth. The idea of the groups was warmly received in general which significantly garnered much needed support for the groups. As girls’ groups began to meet regularly, ideas for learning and recreational materials were forwarded to staff, who purchased dominos, jump ropes, balloons and other games, as well as chalk, notebooks and other learning materials for the groups to use.

The team held the first girls’ group feedback meetings––one each in Mizak and Tenyè. The method is designed as an opportunity for girls’ groups to give feedback to the rest of the community Network on how they see Power to Girls, and the activism non-girls are doing toward promoting girls’ power. It is designed as a means to encourage accountability of non-girls to girls, as ultimately any perceived ‘progress’ toward Power to Girls indicators should be defined and validated by girls themselves.

*SASA! Is the four-phase methodology created by our friends at Raising Voices and adapted culturally and linguistically by Beyond Borders for use in Haiti.

Additional Outputs

• 31 teachers and principals from five new network schools received pedagogical training in nonviolent, participatory approaches that emphasize equality between girls and boys during a four-day workshop hosted by MCLC
• Continued work with 20 schools from the existing network, to promote application of nonviolent, inclusive practices rooted in equality.
• 8 communities are being evaluated on their progress in Phase 2 of Power to Girls - BB’s step-by-step guide to preventing violence against girls and balancing power between girls and boys in schools and communities - to determine if they can move on to Phase 3
• BB conducted internal capacity development training for staff on Phase 3 of Power to Girls, in advance of the move from Phase 2 to Phase 3 for the 8 above mentioned communities.

Expand Efforts Proven to Prevent Violence Against Girls and Women, and; Mobilize Everyone to Balance Power Between Women, Men, and Girls and Boys

Your gift is also supporting Beyond Borders’ work to expand the movement to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) and balance power between women and men in Haiti.

Lagonav communities are advancing through the four progressive phases of SASA!. Two communities continue in the Support Phase and five communities are preparing to move into the Support Phase.

During the quarter, a total of 534 activists received technical support from BB to use SASA! tools to engage community members in conversations to promote balanced power and to prevent VAWG.

Five communities – Bouziyèt, Masikren, Fonnèg, Chenkontan, and Gransous – continued in the Awareness Phase, engaging a total of 420 SASA! activists (215 women). BB is now preparing to conduct rapid assessments to gauge these five communities’ readiness to enter the Support phase. In two communities – Nan Kafe and Matènwa – BB continues to support 114 community activists and network members to conduct VAWG prevention activities. BB completed rapid assessments in these communities during the quarter and awaits results to ensure community readiness to enter into the Action Phase.

With funding from UN Trust Fund, BB is partnering with two partner Haitian organizations that are led by, and represent and serve people living with disabilities. The aim of the partnership is to implement a 3-year project that focuses on girls and women with disabilities of all ages. In addition to the two partner organizations, members of the SASA! community network founded by BB and the general public in Lavale, in Haiti’s Southeastern Department, which mostly comprises rural villages, will take part. The UN Trust Fund supported project includes carrying out research into the experiences of girls and women with disabilities; creating context-specific materials in Creole for use in interventions using SASA!/Power to Girls methodologies; carrying out community mobilization using SASA!/Power to Girls; advocating for the implementation of relevant laws and policies; providing capacity building and technical support to project partners and increasing their knowledge management capabilities.

Additional Outputs

• 318 community activists and network members/leaders (183 women) convened to facilitate exchange and learning, address challenges, and look at impact generated by activities
• Referral system lists were revised and distributed to ensure appropriate response services for domestic violence survivors
• 70 community activists gathered at three monthly workshops to strengthen capacity to facilitate community dialogue using SASA! materials, and to plan activities for the coming month
• 150 residents of 60 households in Nan Kafe were engaged in conversations about power imbalance and VAWG, facilitated by activists during door-to-door visits
• 44 community activists (22 women) in Nan Kafe and Matènwa attended three meetings for exchange and learning, to strengthen mobilization skills, to address challenges, and to plan the next period’s activities
• 114 community activists and network members combined (57 women) participated in a meeting to provide feedback on the SASA! methodology, to look at program impact, and to address challenges faced by activists.

Thank You Again

Your support makes the work to free, educate, and empower girls in Haiti possible. 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.

Links:

• See the latest on our work in Haiti on Facebook.
• See the 16 communities where we're working on Lagonav Island.
• We are committed to financial accountability and transparency.