UPDATE: Disaster Aid in Haiti Focuses on Women

One of the hardest aspects of dealing with a disaster is always the dispersement of aid, especially trying to get it to those who need it most. To help faciliate this in post-earthquake Haiti, relief workers are beginning to hand out women-only aid coupons. Those providing aid see it as the easiest way to be certain food will make it to those who are the most vulnerable.
Relief workers began handing out women-only food coupons in Haiti on Sunday in an effort to ensure earthquake relief supplies reach the neediest families.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) implemented the new distribution plan at 16 sites in the capital, Port-au-Prince, after workers reported that young men were often swarming aid trucks and pushing ahead of women in lineups.

The WFP said the coupons will go to women because they tend to be responsible for the household food supply. The aim is to reach two million people over two weeks.

Each distribution centre will receive 42 tonnes of rice and each family will receive a 25-kilogram ration, with only women being allowed into distribution sites to collect their share.

The WFP and its partners are promising to work with local authorities to ensure that men in need of assistance are not excluded.

Over at Salon Broadsheet, Tracy Clark Flory points out that sending supplies through women during disasters has other added benefits.

It isn’t just that women often require special care and resources post-disaster; human rights organizations say that they could also play a critical role in distributing much-needed aid. Women “are central actors in family and community life,” says Enarson, and are more likely to know “who in the neighborhood most needs help — where the single mothers, women with disabilities, widows and the poorest of the poor live.” Diana Duarte, a spokesperson for MADRE, an international women’s rights organization that has joined the relief effort, put it this way: “Women are often more integrated and more aware of the vulnerabilities of their communities.”

When it comes to disaster relief, women aren’t just requiring food. Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check (note: I also am a writer for RH Reality Check) reports the need for emergency supplies like emergency contraception due to increases in sexual assault in the earthquake’s aftermath.

A list of other supplies women are in desperate need of include:

Feminine supplies.
Combs.
Feminine wipes.
Panties, bras and clothes and other support (especially for pregnant women and new mothers).
Personal/household supplies for birth delivery and after: (rubbing alcohol or disposable anti-germicidal substitutes; baby wipes, baby wraps, pampers, socks and caps and supplies for nursing. mothers/newborn; (It is cold at nights so there is need to cover the feet and heads of the newborns).
Clothing and under garments for women and young girls.
Bedding & blankets for babies and mothers.

To help support women in Haiti, please click here to generate donations from our sponsors. Also, consider visiting the following petitions:

Help Haiti and the survivors – The Petition Site

Help Haiti – Drop the Debt – The Petition Site

Have a heart help Haiti – The Petition Site

Medical relief, not military intervention in Haiti! –

Help Haiti’s Animals Recover From Earthquake –

February Toy Drive for Animals in Haiti – Care2 News Network

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Loesje v.

12:35AM PST on Feb 9, 2010

Robin thank you for your update from Haiti.
God bless you and Haitian.

send a green star

Donna P.

11:34AM PST on Feb 8, 2010

For the past member who said "birth control" remember that the Bush administration stopped funding for anything except 'abstinence' info. In countries where men dominate all social interaction, where right of refusal is non-existent, and rape common, and like in Haiti, where poverty is rampant, how on earth could women prevent pregnancy and STD's? Use your head.

Christine T.

4:56AM PST on Feb 8, 2010

Past member who asks "If these women are so responsible, why do they continue to breed?... needs a lesson in sociology, and also the natural procreation process for survival of a species. As in Africa some have no choice and women have no rights to refuse in a lot of societies. Also perhaps having sex and/or having a child is their only pleasure in life.

Alicia N.

11:35AM PST on Feb 7, 2010

It is true that Haitians need food, water etc. but I look around and in my town are a lot of homeless that need the same things... so it's hard to decide what to do... send items or money to Haiti or help the ones that I have close; I choose the ones close to me and for the Haitians.... thet are in my prayers. Thanks.

Lenee L.

7:29AM PST on Feb 7, 2010

It's a great thing they're doing. God Bless!

Rajee S.

2:27AM PST on Feb 6, 2010

Appreciate all that is being done to help the Haitians! Kudos to all of you involved in this work! Thanks.

greenplanet e.

12:19AM PST on Feb 6, 2010

Women need to be given food and water. Sometimes men fight for the food before it's even off the trucks.

gerlinde p.

11:53PM PST on Feb 5, 2010

good article, so glad the woman are getting help they need. found it disturbing to see mostly men surrounding any relief trucks.

Beverly C.

11:47PM PST on Feb 5, 2010

Thankfully, those distributing the food & other supplies are realizing that they must distribute "women-only coupons" so that an individual woman or family which doesn't have a male member to "fight" to get the food being handed out will still receive what they need. --And also, as the article pointed out, the women (for the most part) are concerned with the community as a whole & will see that those who are unable to "physically fight" for what they need are taken care of. I know that these are very desperate times in this crisis and there are many very hungry people, but there has to be a way that each person & family is able to receive his/her/their allotment without it being grabbed by a person who is just physically strong enough to push his way to the front of the line and fight to get hold of the food and supplies. We can not allow the situation in Haiti to become a "survival of the fittest" situation.

Past Member .

9:07PM PST on Feb 5, 2010

If these women are so responsible, why do they continue to breed? It seems to me they'd figure out what's causing their babies that they let come over here because all of a sudden they realize "hey; I can't care for this kid." Again I say, "birth control!"