14 June, 2011
ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti. – Funded by the Development Grants Program/United States Agency for International Development (DGP/USAID), the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) implements a three-year Women’s Empowerment project that identifies and organizes 30 local women organizations in training of 600 women around issues of gender inequity, health, food insecurity, domestic violence and extreme poverty. “The project aims to create an environment where Haitian women have the skills, assets and social capital to advance their own interests,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO.
The project is being implemented in Haiti’s Southeast Department border communes of Anse-a-Pitres, Thiotte and Grand Gosier, in collaboration with regional NGOs such as FONKOZE, Catholic Medical Mission Board and BRA Dominicana. Gaillard added that at the end of the project in 2012, 150 women who have demonstrated the skills for durable employment and/or asset formation will be awarded micro loans to start small or develop existing businesses.
The project expands on two other BRA programs in food security and health providing the women with further opportunities for independence and growth: access to critical health and laboratory services and free medicines and free food supplement to meet their temporary nutritional need while engaging in long-term cross-border agricultural production activities.
BRA, a new member of the Clinton Global Initiative, hopes to use that new international platform to identify new partners to help advance its work in Women’s Empowerment for the women of Haiti.
