10 January, 2012
ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti. – Since the tragic earthquake of January 2010 that killed more than 300,000 people and left 1.2 million homeless, sick and hungry, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) concentrated its efforts in Haiti’s most geographically and economically isolated rural areas in Southeastern border communes of Anse-a-Pitres, Thiotte and Grand Gosier.
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in partnership with Haiti-based microfinance non-governmental organization FONKOZE, BRA launched a Women Empowerment project designed to organize and train 800 Haitian women and give them the tools they need to advance their own interests around issues of health, food insecurity and financial/microcredit management. “The most effective way for us to respond to this tragedy was to rapidly find a way to create an economic base for the women,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO. Added to this, gender-based violence and inequality often leaves the women helpless, without tools to break the cycle of poverty. In consequence, Gaillard added, “We provided microloans to the women to start new businesses and rebuild their economically-shattered communities.”
Since the earthquake, BRA also addressed emergency food needs for the women and their families by distributing, under a USAID Food for Peace program, 187.6 metric tons of food products to 26,600 people who are vulnerable and at high risk of malnutrition, including quake-affected internally-displaced people, pregnant women, people living with HIV/AIDS, cholera patients, orphaned/vulnerable children and the elderly. The food aid is part of BRA’s long-term food security initiative involving cross-border crop and animal production between Dominican and Haitian farmers. Through a collaborative agreement signed between BRA and Haiti’s Ministry of Health on January 11, 2010, BRA also helped deliver critical health services and free medicines to the populations.
For more information about the Batey Relief Alliance or how to support one of its many life-saving projects in Haiti, visit our website and donate online at www.bateyrelief.org. For regular updates on BRA’s work, follow/like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Batey.Relief.Alliance) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/bateyrelief).
