Haiti
Aside from the fact that our founder and CEO, Dieula, was born and raised in Haiti, focusing our trauma-healing work on Haiti is necessary for many reasons. The island of Haiti has a history of trauma stemming from before the enslaved people from the West Coast of Africa (Benin, Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, etc) were brought to cultivate the land. The Haitian Revolution can be named as the climactic point of its trauma.
The enslaved revolted against the heinous and evil acts they were suffering from rendering them the First Free all-Black republic. Sounds like good news, however, the trauma persisted. The newly freed citizens of Haiti were punished by the international community and were disregarded, rejected, and ignored. From the work we’ve done in trauma, these were the perfect conditions for a nation to develop PTSD. These were also the perfect condition for generational trauma to persist.
The System
In addition to the trauma of the brutality of slavery and fighting for independence, there’s also a backdrop of patriarchy on the island of Haiti, the system where women are relegated to being lower in rank and less valuable than their male counterparts. This system is often at play without accountability and is often said to be ordained by God which creates the atmosphere for abuse against women and girls. Throughout Haiti’s history, it’s easy to blame the current generation for its demise but we cannot do impactful trauma work without going back and understanding the beginning of the traumatic events.
This is why ElevateHer is focused on making a difference in the lives of the women of Haiti. We believe if change is going to take place in Haiti, Women must be a large part of the solution and we must begin by focusing on the trauma women experience in Haiti. We believe when women are impacted by the pain of trauma, it has the capacity to destabilize them and prevent them from flourishing, and all will be impacted. We also believe when women are on the healing journey, all will also be affected.