MADRE's Sister Organizations in Haiti

KOFAVIV

KOFAVIV (Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou Viktim; The Commission of Women Victims for Victims) is a Haitian women's group formed in late 2004 by a group of women from poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince who were raped during the 1991-94 military dictatorship. Social, economic, and political insecurity during the military dictatorship created a climate in which grave human rights violations (including gender-specific violations, most notably rape) were committed with impunity. The women of KOFAVIV organized to prepare a landmark legal case against the perpetrators, including the dictatorship's top military and paramilitary officials, for the systematic use of rape as a political weapon. The process was interrupted by the violence that began on February 29, 2004 with the forced removal of elected President Aristide.

The political and social instability that followed President Aristide's removal sparked a new wave of political violence, lawlessness, and related gender-based crimes. Few services exist for survivors of rape in Port-au-Prince, and organizations providing these services often lack relationships with or the confidence of women from poor neighborhoods. As an organization established by survivors, for survivors, KOFAVIV combines support for individual survivors of rape with grassroots women's organizing and advocacy, to transform the social and political conditions that allow sexual violence against poor women.

KOFAVIV offers free medical care and counseling, peer support groups, a micro-credit loan program, and other activities and services. KOFAVIV documents cases of human rights violations, and brings national and international attention to the problems of rape and violence against women and to the urgent needs of survivors through interviews, radio declarations, and meetings with international human rights groups. KOFAVIV combines support for individual survivors of rape with grassroots women's organizing and advocacy to transform the social and political conditions that allow sexual violence against poor women.

Zanmi Lasante

Zanmi Lasante was founded in 1983 by a group of doctors and community organizers who believe that the poor deserve no less than the best medical treatment and medications available. Understanding that the root causes of poor health lie in the structural violence of poverty, Zanmi Lasante offers comprehensive social and medical support to its patients, providing them not only with health care, but also with access to potable water, adequate food and housing, schooling, and economic opportunities.

Health Care

Zanmi Lasante provides high-quality healthcare and medications to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. The Zanmi Lasante Socialmedical Complex includes a 104-bed hospital, a 30-bed infectious disease center, a women's health clinic, an outpatient clinic, an ophthalmology clinic, a laboratory, a pharmaceutical warehouse and radiographic services. In addition to providing health care to patients at the clinic itself, Zanmi Lasante also trains community health care workers who travel to the countryside to provide daily DOT (Directly Observed Therapy) for HIV/AIDS and TB patients.

Social and Economic Rights

Through its Program on Social and Economic Rights, Zanmi Lasante addresses the social inequalities that put their patients at an increased risk of disease, including lack of access to potable water, education, nutrition and housing. In the past year alone, Zanmi Lasante has undertaken dozens of water projects in rural villages, trained and employed over 50 teachers for both child and adult literacy programs, built 52 houses for patients who were previously living in sub-standard conditions, and provided daily meals for over 2,000 malnourished children and infants.