News and Blog

Madan Sara Film Screening

Write to Be is excited to introduce our virtual event series, "Pearl of the Caribbean: How Beauty Blossoms Under Great Pressure." 🌺We welcome you to join us each month to learn more about the beauty of Haiti and Haitian culture, especially through the lens of women and girlhood. Through this series, we will work to contextualize why Haiti faces many of the struggles that are often discussed in the media and highlight how Haitians continuously demonstrate strength and resilience in the face of these challenges.

Our first event took place on Saturday, October 9th from 4 to 6 pm via ZOOM. We screened the powerful documentary, "Madan Sara", followed by a Q&A with the film's creator, Etant Dupain! "The women known as Madan Sara in Haiti work tirelessly to buy, distribute, and sell food and other essentials in markets through the country. The Madan Sara documentary tells the stories of these indefatigable women who work at the margins to make Haiti’s economy run. Despite facing intense hardship and social stigma, the hard work of the Madan Sara puts their children through school, houses their families, and helps to ensure a better life for generations to come. This film amplifies the calls of the Madan Sara as they speak directly to society to share their dreams for a more just Haiti."

Haiti Earthquake relief

Thanks to our supporters we are SO CLOSE to hitting our $10,000 fundraising goal for earthquake relief! From $5 to $1,000, we are so deeply thankful. Since we have begun our campaign, we have already dispersed emergency cash grants through our Famn Ki Fò program. We have included a few stories and pictures from our grateful grant recipients.

We distributed 25 grants totally $2,500 through our Famn Ki Fò grants program. Our staff have been working hard to distribute these grants to the women and girls most impact by this disaster. Many families live in rural communities that have not seen much aid, if any at all. Write to Be are making these difficult trips over rivers and up mountains to reach those in need in those areas. It is certainly challenging, but in the words of our Program Director, Madam Fara, "these are special meetings, filled with emotion and gratitude."

Earthquake in haiti

As you know, on August 14, 2021 a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Les Cayes and the southern region of Haiti. Homes and buildings collapsed, leaving over 2,000 dead and many people injured, without basic essentials, and heavy with grief. The earthquake struck amid a time of deep political and civil unrest in the country and hurricane season in the Caribbean, bringing tropical storms and flooding to the already weakened infrastructure. Additionally, COVID-19 continues to spread among communities.

For the past six years, Write to Be has been working in southern Haiti to support women and girls in developing independence and agency so they can be fearless authors of their own lives.

We currently have two Haitian team members, Fara Jean-Baptiste and Sagine Francois, bringing extensive experience in education and community development. Madams Fara and Sagine are Les Cayes residents who lead our two programs: the Fi Ki Fò (Strong Girl) after-school empowerment program for girls and the Fanm Ki Fò (Strong Woman) grant program to support emergency needs and personal development for women. Fara, Sagine, and the governing board in the United States have worked together to develop a strategy for Write to Be to support earthquake relief. Write to Be is committed to transparency and accountability as we listen to needs expressed by Haitian people and invest in partnerships with vetted local organizations.