MADRE Speaks: Stories of our Sisters 2010

This month, MADRE published Stories of our Sisters 2010, our Spring/Summer Newsletter. Read the letter from Executive Director Vivian Stromberg below and check out the newsletter online. If you would like us to send you a print copy, please call us at 212-627-0444.

Read other recent MADRE Speaks newsletters here.

Dear Friends,

We launched the year with an urgent response to the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. We used your support to bring life-saving medicines and supplies to survivors and to raise a call for human rights to be the guiding principles of relief efforts.

As always, we made sure that your contributions not only provided humanitarian aid, but strengthened local women's organizations, leaving skills and resources in the hands of community members. We asked tough questions about how and why Haitians were made so vulnerable to this disaster, recognizing that Haiti was devastated long before the earthquake of January 12.

In fact, Haiti was devastated by some of the very policies that the US and other powerful actors now seek to accelerate in the name of reconstruction. These policies have prioritized foreign investment over Haitians' basic human rights. 

The women of our sister organizations don't just want to see Haiti rebuilt; they want to see it transformed. They have a vision of another country grounded in human rights and environmental sustainability. And they've got some concrete plans for realizing that vision. 

What they don't have is a voice in policymaking. That's why we helped launch an international initiative to ensure the effective participation and leadership of Haitian women in the reconstruction process. We campaigned at the UN Donors' Conference for Haiti for a process that is Haitian-led, locally determined and compliant with human rights.

I've promised our sisters in Haiti that we'll continue to work with them to meet urgent needs in their communities and ensure that their perspectives are heard by policymakers. I was only able to make this promise thanks to your commitment to MADRE. So I hope you feel proud reading this issue of MADRE Speaks. None of this work, whether in Haiti, Nicaragua, Afghanistan or any of the other places that we are making a difference, could happen without
your support.

With a big thank-you from me and our sisters in Haiti and around the world,

Vivian Stromberg
Executive Director