29370: Arthur (news) Peasant women of Haiti stand up to make their voices heard. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Charles Arthur <charlesarthur@hotmail.com>

On the occasion of World Rural Women's Day, 15 October 2006, the peasant women 
of Haiti stand up to make their voices heard.

'Ideas and Action - Projecting the voices of Haiti's progressive civil society 
organisations', Volume 2, No. 1.

Press release, 13 October 2006

On the occasion of World Rural Women's Day, we, delegates of women's peasant 
organisations from six of the country's ten departments, are standing up to 
make our voices heard.

It is us, peasant women, who are the motor of the economy. In the agricultural 
sector, it is peasant women who do the weeding, who do the tidying up, who do 
the planting, who do the watering, who bring in the harvest, and who take the 
produce to sell at the market, even though we don't get a good price. At the 
market, we vendors have to put up with bad conditions.

When we look in our yards, peasant women are rearing all kinds of livestock - 
chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, cattle, etc. Despite this, peasant women are not 
valued in our society We don't benefit from any social services. We don't eat 
well. We don't have good housing. We don't have schools for our children. We 
don't have hospitals. We die during childbirth. We are living in such bad 
conditions, and today today one of the worst diseases that is killing us, our 
husbands, and our children, is Chik. (Chik fever is a disease caused by the 
Chikungunya virus that is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected 
mosquitoes.)

In the Chaine de Mateaux mountains, in the seventh section of Fond Batis, five 
people died from Chik fever between April and September 2006. In the fifth 
section of Verettes, one person has died. There have been outbreaks of Chik 
fever in the communes of Cornillon and Savenette too.

We call on the government to assume its responsibilities, for it to take 
measures to reduce the amount of foreign produce coming in to the country and 
making it difficult to sell peasants' produce in public markets;

At the same time, we are asking the government to take measures to increase 
national production, so that peasants and other people who live in this country 
don't have to consume foriegn products like turkey wings, chicken drumsticks, 
pigs' ears, etc.

When we see peasant women working on other peoples' land and having to give the 
landowner half of their harvest, while State-owned land is left idle, we call 
on the State to put land at the disposal of peasants, so that they can work in 
good conditions. And we call on the State to give them necessary back-up, so 
that the land can be productive.

When we see the ugly problem of Chik fever, we call on the Minister of Public 
Health to take the necessary measures to get rid of Chik fever and stop the 
disease from killing peasants.

It is us, women peasants, who are the very soul of the country's economy. But 
it is we, women peasants, who don't get any support from the State, and it is 
we, women peasants, who get no benefit from social services. In this context, 
we call on other women's peasant organisations to stand in solidarity with us 
in order to force the State to support us in every sense.

Our only strength is good organisation and well-coordinated action!

On 15 October there will be a demonstration in the commune of Gros Morne, and 
rallies in the communes of Cornillon, Jean Rabel, Bèdeyèn, Port-de-Paix and 
Jeremie.

The representatives of the four organisations signing this press release are:

FEPPAM (Federasyon Peyizan Patizan Makandal): Vernicia Joseph
Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen Gromòn: Simone Pierre,
Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen Nòdwès: Vernicia Joseph
MRPST (Mouvement Revandikasyon Peyizan San Tè): Louimène Cénoble
Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen Piyon: Marie Françoise
MOFOD (Mouvement Fanm Onzyèm ak Douzyèm seksyon Ti Gwàv)

(translated from Creole by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)
_________________________________________________________________________

'Ideas and Action - Projecting the voices of Haiti's progressive civil society 
organisations' is a Haiti Support Group project funded by the Scottish Catholic 
International Aid Fund (SCIAF).

Volume 1:
May Day statement by Batay Ouvriye - Winning our rights is possible! - No. 1, 
1st May 2006
Open letter to Préval from the Collective to Mobilise against the High Cost of 
Living - No. 2, 4th May, 2006
SOS Journalistes: New press freedom organisation in action - No. 3, 5th May 
2006
Launch of peasant organisation network: KONAREPA - No. 4, 9th May 2006
The Collective to Mobilise against the High Cost of Living: Press release on 
neo-liberal policies and the people's demands - No. 5, 15th May 2006
Profile of the Landless Peasant Protest Movement (Verettes, Artibonite) - No. 
6, 10th June 2006
Miragoâne citizens doing it for themselves! - No. 7, 19th June 2006
The PAPDA’s concerns following the 23 May donors’ meeting in Brasilia - No. 8, 
22nd June 2006
Sòyèt FM: A new popular community radio station for the South-East - No. 9, 30 
July 2006
KOFAVI women's group: "We are victims, although we are also survivors and 
activists" - No. 10, 14 August 2006

The Haiti Support Group is a British organisation working in solidarity with 
the Haitian people's struggle for human rights, participatory democracy and 
equitable development, since 1992.
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
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