Round Two

Today was my second week of my internship. I am so happy I chose to intern for TransAfrica Forum! I am enjoying the research I am doing and all that I am learning. For the spring semester I will be focusing on gender based violence in Haiti. There has been a definite increase in gender based violence since the earthquake with the inability to monitor displacement camps to a full extent. I did not even know that gender based violence was occurring to the extent that it is in Haiti following the earthquake. You hear about the displacement camps, sickness, homeless, lack of clean water, and the actually physical destructions ensued because of the earthquake but you don’t hear about how many women and girls were raped in displacement camps. It is really interesting to learn about something you had no idea about.

The other part of my day was spend conducting research on how Haiti has been since the earthquake since it is now a little over a year since the earthquake happened in Haiti. This research included what are the numbers of displaced persons, what are the stats for gender based violence, what are the stats for the cholera outbreak, what actions are being taken to address the cholera outbreak, what has been going on with the political campaign, as well as how much of the funds meant for Haiti actually went to Haiti. The website below gives great reports about areas after crisis.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm

Something else that I learned today at my internship is about the current politics in Uganda. David Kato, a gay Ugandan human rights defender, was brutal murder after his name and address was published in a magazine. There was consideration by the Uganda government to pass a bill which would allow imprisonment or execution of gay people. This is a very extreme law and quite appalling to me. I posted the link below from the New York Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/africa/28uganda.html