Saying Good-Bye from Port-au-Prince

As I prepare to leave Port-au-Prince, I wondered how to wrap up my blogging, and I was reminded of something that happened just a few days ago.

Earlier this week, I attended the inauguration ceremony of a new women’s center in Port-au-Prince with our partners from KOFAVIV. I was asked to say a few words, and in my comments to the gathering of grassroots Haitian women’s rights activists and their allies, I spoke about the links between them and the many women fighting for their rights around the world:

MADRE works by building networks of support and friendship between women all around the world, and by doing that we strengthen the fight for women’s human rights. 

And so, I come with a message of friendship from women in the US and from the countries where MADRE works – from Nicaragua and Guatemala, Kenya and Sudan, Iraq and Palestine.  Because when I tell women in these countries about your stories and when they see what the women of Haiti are able to do, they say, “If they can be strong, we can be strong.”

So thank you for inspiring so many women around the world and for all of your work to build the movement for women’s rights in Haiti.