If you thought things couldn’t get any worse in Haiti, think again.

Reports from police indicate that women and young girls are now being raped in makeshift camps set up in the capital after the disaster, camps that they now call home.

“With the blackout that’s befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents,” national police chief Mario Andresol said.

“We have more than 7,000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the National Penitentiary the evening of the earthquake…It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild.”

With more than a million left homeless after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, countless people are living in the capital’s makeshift camps and susceptible to violence, particularly women and girls.

What’s worse is that the quake has left the Haitian police depleted of its forces – 70 police officers are dead, nearly 500 are still missing, and another 400 are wounded – leaving fewer police officers to protect the most vulnerable survivors, women and girls.  

So fearful of being attacked, women in some camps have taken matters into their own hands.

According to ActionAid women in one of the camps have organized a system where volunteers stand guard over the women and girls at night as they sleep. Then in the afternoons, police officer visit the camp so residents can report rapes.

Myra De Bruijn of ActionAid in Haiti said: “Women are always in danger after natural disasters such as earthquakes and we are already hearing reports of rape. Currently these are isolated incidents but they highlight the fact that women are at risk and must be protected.”
 
“After the 2004 Asian tsunami we saw rape, sexual abuse, sexual discrimination and harassment, as well as domestic violence in camps and we have to make sure that does not happen in Haiti.”

With thousands of other women and girls who remain at risk in Haiti, ActionAid has said they will work with other camps to set up similar systems to offer them protection and reduce threats of violence.

In a country where rape was a problem before the quake – according to a 2006 study by the Inter-American Development Bank in Haiti one-third of women and girls reported suffering physical or sexual abuse, and more than 50% of those who had experienced violence were under the age of 18 – the potential for escalated violence against women in the aftermath of the quake is harrowing.

This is especially true and highly concerning for the future of Haitian women when you consider the fact that the earthquake claimed the lives of three active Haitian women’s rights champions – Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin, and Anne-Marie Coriolan – each who worked to end violence against women in Haiti.

Merlet, for example, was one of the first women to identify rape as a political weapon and document incidents of rape during Haiti’s 1991-1994 military regime; Marceline founded Kay Fanm, a shelter for battered women that for many years operated as the only shelter for women in the country; Coriolan founded Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen, one of the country’s largest advocacy groups.

“What the loss of these women for Haiti means is really the loss of half of the women’s movement which was a powerful movement but nevertheless very, very small in numbers, very limited in capacity and resources,” said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now, a U.S.-based rights group.

“Each of these women who died contributed enormously to the lives of women in terms of changing laws and seeking justice for women who have been violated in some way whether it’s domestic violence or rape. They were irreplaceable in the context of Haiti.”

In the wake of the earthquake disaster in Haiti it is crucial that relief efforts pay particular attention to the needs of vulnerable women and girls – now and in the months and years to follow.

For more information on how you can help Haiti click here. Also be sure to check out fellow Care2 blogger, Liz O’Donnell’s post on helping the woman of Haiti.