International Pro Bono Service in Times of Disaster: Perspectives on Service in Haiti

Begins: Jun 23, 2011 12:00 PM
Ends: Jun 23, 2011 01:30 PM
(All times are local per meeting location)

This brown bag telephonic program will feature Jayne Fleming, Pro Bono Counsel at Reed Smith. Ms. Fleming has handled more than 30 asylum matters, in addition to supervising dozens more at Reed Smith and in partnerships between the firm and asylum clinics at Penn Law School and Boalt Hall School of Law. Her work focuses in particular on gender-based violence and on the representation of torture survivors from Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Eritrea, Syria, Rwanda, Central America, and Haiti.

Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, Ms. Fleming has worked extensively to assist to victims of gender-based violence. She will share her perspectives about marshaling and engaging in international pro bono support for traumatized persons, including with respect to working in the midst of disaster conditions, marshaling information for evidentiary proffers when records have been destroyed, and sustaining interest and participation as critical need for legal services continue.

Blow the Whistle on Violence Against Women in Haiti

In the displacement camps of Haiti, women face life-threatening violence every day.

Camps are overcrowded, without secure shelter, lighting or police patrolling. Sexual violence is rampant. Women and girls are attacked and raped in their tents, on the way to the latrine and while trying to bathe behind bits of plastic sheeting.

You can take a stand. Blow the whistle on violence against women.
A woman with a whistle in her hand has a simple but powerful tool to call for the help of her community when she faces an attacker.

MADRE works with KOFAVIV, a grassroots Haitian organization created by and for rape survivors to distribute whistles in the camps, to offer urgent care to rape survivors and to demand an end to sexual violence in the camps.

Your contribution of...

$100 purchases 50 whistles

$500 purchases 250 whistles

$1000 purchases 500 whistles

Donations should be annotated to say, "ABA-Blow the Whistle Campaign" in the memo line of a check or "in honor of box" for online donations.

Even one whistle can save a woman's life. Watch this video to hear one woman's story and to learn more about this campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taEZsv99gFc.

For more information about MADRE's work to end sexual violence in Haiti, visit http://www.madre.org/.