One Caribbean Radio: Haitians living in fear 'under the tent'

The U.N. Refugee Agency has provided safe houses and counseling for hundreds of sexual assault victims in Haiti.

(CNN) — Haiti’s terror didn’t end when the ground stopped shaking.

Reports of rape and sexual violence have been all too common after the January 2010 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced almost 25% of the entire population.

“On the evening of January 20, several young men were firing gunshots in the air. They came into our shelter and grabbed my 19-year-old niece,” one woman, Dina, told Amnesty International. “They just came in, grabbed her and dragged her away. … She was raped by several men. They took her at around 9 p.m. and let her go at around 2 a.m.”

Another woman, Guerline, told the rights group that she and her 13-year-old daughter were attacked on the same night in March 2010. The men wore hoods and told Guerline that if she went to the police, she would be shot dead.

“There is nowhere safe where I can live, so I had to keep quiet,” she said. “I didn’t take my daughter to the hospital. She was too scared. I sent her to another town where some relatives live.”

In the days following the disaster, camps were set up to provide shelter for more than a million displaced Haitians. But these “tent cities” have been far from ideal, according to Malya Villard-Appolon, one of this year’s top 10 CNN Heroes.

Top 10 CNN Hero: Malya Villard-Appolon

Pushpa Basnet was shocked to learn that children in Nepal were living in prisons with their parents. In 2005, she started a children’s center that has provided housing, education and medical care to more than 140 children of incarcerated parents. “I always had a dream to build our own home for these children, and I want to rescue more children who are still in prisons,” Basnet said.

Wanda Butts lost her son in a drowning accident six years ago. In his memory, she started the Josh Project, a nonprofit that taught nearly 1,200 children — most of them minorities — how to swim. “I started the Josh Project to keep other mothers from having to suffer such unforgettable loss,” she said.

Mary Cortani is a former Army dog trainer who started Operation Freedoms Paws, a nonprofit that helps war veterans train their own service dogs. Since 2010, she has worked with more than 80 veterans who have invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’m hoping this brings awareness to the world that PTSD is real and that we will be able to reach more veterans who so desperately need help,” Cortani said.

Catalina Escobar is helping young moms in Colombia, where one in five girls age 15-19 is or has been pregnant. Since 2002, her foundation has provided counseling, education and job training to more than 2,000 teenage mothers. “Teenage pregnancy is a world poverty problem, and we have developed models of intervention that break the cycle,” Escobar said. “I want to share it with people around the world.”

Razia Jan is fighting to educate girls in rural Afghanistan, where terrorists will stop at nothing to keep them from learning. She and her team at the Zabuli Education Center are providing a free education to about 350 girls, many of whom wouldn’t normally have access to school. “This honor is a God-given gift that will make it possible for me to continue to give a ray of hope to these girls,” Jan said. “My goal is to break the cycle of violence.”

Thulani Madondo struggled as a child growing up in the slums of Kliptown, South Africa. Today, his Kliptown Youth Program provides school uniforms, tutoring, meals and activities to 400 children in the community. “We’re trying to give them the sense that everything is possible,” he said.

In memory of his daughter, who was killed by a drunken driver in 2007, Leo McCarthy started Mariah’s Challenge. The nonprofit gives college scholarships to teenagers who pledge not to drink while they’re underage. Nearly $150,000 in scholarship money has been awarded. “We can change an apathetic culture of teenage drinking and driving,” McCarthy said. “Hopefully one day soon we will not need Mariah’s Challenge.”

Connie Siskowski is helping young people who have to take care of an ill, disabled or aging family member. Since 2006, her nonprofit has provided assistance to more than 550 young caregivers in Palm Beach County, Florida. “I can only believe that when more people understand about this precious population, they, too, will want to recognize and support them,” Siskowski said. “These children suffer silently behind closed doors.”

After beating his addiction to drugs and alcohol, Scott Strode found support through sports. Since 2007, his nonprofit, Phoenix Multisport, has provided free athletic activities and a sober support community to more than 6,000 participants in Colorado. “This is an opportunity to shine a light on individual stories of recovery and sobriety in a way that will help remove the shame and stigma that surrounds dependency and addiction,” he said.

Malya Villard-Appolon is a rape survivor dedicated to supporting victims of sexual violence in Haiti. In 2004, she co-founded KOFAVIV, an organization that has helped more than 4,000 rape survivors find safety, psychological support and/or legal aid. “This encourages me to continue to fight on behalf of women and girls who are victims,” she said. “I hope it brings about a change for my country.”

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“After the earthquake, the situation was inhumane and degrading. There was no security. There was no food; there was no work,” said Villard-Appolon, a rape survivor who co-founded an organization, KOFAVIV, that helps other victims find safety, medical aid and legal support.

“Two years after the earthquake, it is still the same,” she said. “The people are still under the tent, they don’t have electricity, they are getting raped.”

Nearly 370,000 people remain in displacement camps, according to the U.N. And gruesome reports of violence, inadequate health care and substandard living conditions have painted a picture of horror and hopelessness.

In one study, published in January by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (PDF), 14% of households reported that at least one member of the household had been a victim of sexual violence since the earthquake. And 70% of households surveyed said they were now more worried about sexual violence.

Residents have cited lack of lighting, long walks to the bathroom, and flimsy tents as some of the issues putting females at risk of attack. Many females also are on their own for the first time.

“Women and girls were left to fend for themselves in camps,” said Anne-christine d’Adesky, project coordinator for PotoFanm+Fi, a nonprofit that has been working with more than 70 Haitian support groups to track post-earthquake violence. “Because of the great displacement, people lost that sense of community protection.”

Accurate numbers of gender-based violence are difficult to find in the aftermath of such devastation, especially when many victims fear retaliation. But d’Adesky said her group has seen a steady rise in reports, which she attributes to increased outreach.

One young woman, Marie, was raped in the Champ de Mars camp and had her jaw broken. She said she was also forced into prostitution so she could eat and survive.

High numbers of adolescent girls are engaging in what they call “transactional sex” for shelter and food, d’Adesky said. Many of those interviewed claimed they had never sold sex before, but the earthquake had left them no option.

“I call this gender aftershocks,” said d’Adesky, whose group is publishing their report on Haiti next month. “These women and girls have no means of survival and are engaging in transactional sex work — or survival sex — sometimes just for shelter.”

And many of those women — as well as those who have been raped — are becoming pregnant, raising fears about rising maternal health issues.

Even before the quake, Haiti was the most dangerous place to be pregnant in the Western Hemisphere: the lifetime risk of dying during childbirth there is 1 in 47.

“We followed up with a number of pregnant girls who were no longer pregnant,” d’Adesky said. According to her sources, there has been a high rate of illegal street abortions and child abandonment.

But amid the depressing and dire reports comes a glimmer of hope.

Nearly 370,000 people remain in Haiti displacement camps, according to the U.N.

KOFAVIV and other groups are working to help young girls and women, giving them safety, support and training so they can make money and not have to sell themselves.

Better lighting has been installed in some displacement camps. More than 10,000 military and police personnel are now helping to provide security throughout the country, and hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers have been assigned to specifically work with the Haitian National Police.

And in the last two years, there has been a big change in the way rape is prosecuted, according to legal experts. More women are reporting the crimes, and more rapists are being prosecuted.

“There has been a higher percentage of complaints that are turning into pre-trial investigations and are leading to formal charges,” said Brian Concannon Jr., director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.

In the first two years after the quake, sources in Haiti had estimated there were few, if any, rape convictions. But this year there have already been more than 60 convictions for sex crimes in Haiti, according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.

This summer, 22 rape cases were prosecuted and there were 13 convictions, said Meena Jagannath, a lawyer who has worked with Haitian rape victims. There was one acquittal, and eight of the trials were “left blank” for a number of reasons, including lack of representation for the victim who may not have even known she was to appear in court.

“It sounds like it’s a small number, it sounds like more should have been filed since 2010,” Jagannath said. “But we should take into consideration the biases of the system and level of disorganization and corruption. It really is an accomplishment. I’ve heard those numbers are much higher now than even before the earthquake.”

CNN Photos: Rape adds to Haitian camp woes

Concannon said Haiti’s justice system has a history “of not taking rape that seriously.” It wasn’t until 2005 that rape was classified as a crime on par with an assault. Before that, rape was a “crime against public morals,” which Concannon says is something like a misdemeanor compared with a felony.

Now the challenge is changing attitudes and empowering women to speak up. While it still can be difficult for many victims to file a police report and obtain the necessary medical documents needed to pursue justice, there are more resources for women who want to speak out.

“All this progress is the result of advocacy by KOFAVIV and other grassroots women’s groups and their allies,” Concannon said. “I believe that the progress has the potential to play a key role in transforming attitudes about violence against women — not just in the justice system, but in Haitian society as a whole.”

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