Fort-Liberté, Northeast, December 20, 2023 --- The Association Femmes Soleil d'Haïti (AFASDA) closed the activities of the 2020-2023 project “Mobilization of girls for the change of social norms, attitudes, and promotion of behaviors linked to gender equality”, on December 20, 2023, in Fort-Liberté, in the Nord-Est department.

This project is part of the Spotlight Initiative program which will end on December 31, 2023. AFASDA, sub-recipient of the Gender-URAMEL Consortium, is implementing this project, with the support of UNFPA. It is carried out in eight municipalities in the North-East, thanks to the support of the European Union through the Spotlight initiative in Haiti.

The ceremony took place in the presence of girls beneficiaries of the project, Mentors, leaders of women's organizations, and community leaders from the eight communes of the North-East department.

This was the opportunity to:

• ⁣⁣⁢⁢Celebrate the knowledge acquired by the 2,818 girls beneficiaries of the project as future activists for the rights of girls and women in the Northeast;
• ⁣⁣⁢⁢Honor the 40 young girl mentors who contributed to the achievement of these results, and the 42 community leaders and local authorities from the eight municipalities of the North-East who supported the implementation of the project.

AFASDA has in fact awarded certificates to 2,818 girls, including 903 aged 10 to 14 and 1,915 aged 15 to 19, to mentors and 8 parents.

One of the parents was pleased with the changes observed in their daughter's behavior. “His behavior is more responsible following this training,” explains Natachella.

The girl in question is an artist who brilliantly sang a song of an icon, Lumane Casimir, to the applause of the audience.

The project aims to help remove obstacles in terms of prevention and adequate response to the phenomenon of violence against women and girls. It seeks to:

• Strengthen the establishment of girls' spaces in communities in the North-East with the support of mentors in order to strengthen their leadership and guide them towards taking charge;
• ⁣⁣⁢Develop and implement safe spaces;
• ⁣⁣⁢⁢Ensure and maintain psychosocial care with inter-institutional interconnection in the North-East department;
• Experiment with support for survivors of violence.

Violence against women and girls constitutes a violation of human rights with serious consequences, both for the victims and for society as a whole, indicates the Gender and Human Rights Program Officer and Spotlight Technical Focal Point at UNFPA in Haiti, Marie Josée Salomon who spoke on behalf of the Representative, Philippe Serge Degernier. As in most societies, this phenomenon is significant in Haiti, she added.

Multiple actions are being undertaken in the country to counter violence against women and girls. Despite the efforts undertaken by different sectors (women's rights organizations, state institutions, international cooperation organizations), the situation remains worrying. Hence the need to strengthen the response.

The project that AFASDA closed is aligned with:

• Axis 4 of the 2017-2027 National Plan to combat violence against women;
• The guiding principle “leave no one behind” of the United Nations 2030 Agenda;
• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goal 5 relating to gender equality.
• One of UNFPA’s three (3) transformative goals “Zero Gender-Based Violence”.

AFASDA has set up, jointly with UNFPA, one of the projects linked to the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) as part of Spotlight. The audience was able to watch a video on the said project.