Prosperity Catalyst’s Siiri Morley recently had an opportunity to talk about her October trip to Haiti on ITVS’ Beyond the Box blog. Check out an excerpt below, and read the whole entry on the Beyond the Box blog!
When I was planning my most recent trip to Haiti, I couldn’t have foreseen that Hurricane Sandy would force my early departure. Just hours before my plane evacuated, I was knee deep in the launch of Prosperity Catalyst’s Haiti initiative. Prosperity Catalyst is the nonprofit sister organization to Prosperity Candle, the social enterprise that empowers women to rebuild their lives through business and entrepreneurship.
Elvire Eugene, the Founder and Executive Director of AFASDA, is a tenacious woman with an extraordinary amount of energy and heart. She is simultaneously strong and warm and when she enters a room, the women she works with light up and are automatically drawn to her. With fire in her eyes, she talks about the critical importance of rescuing women and girls from violence in their communities.
The Association Femmes Soleil d’ Haiti (AFASDA) is a nationwide women’s association in Haiti that helps women navigate and fight against the challenges of gender-based violence. In a country where it is estimated that 90 percent of women will experience some kind of violence in their lifetime, AFASDA’s work is substantially important. Elvire shared stories of young girls who were raped by neighbors and stories of women who were continuously abused — even mutilated — by their husbands. Yet these women decided to stay in the household in fear of what would happen to their children if they left.
These are the stories that make your blood run cold and are the stories that need to be told. Each one I hear renews my dedication to women’s empowerment, time and time again . . .
Read the rest of the entry on the ITVS Beyond the Box blog!
