30438: Regine Jean-Charles (Request) Sexual Violence Advocacy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Régine Michelle Jean-Charles reginemichelle@post.harvard.edu



Dear Corbett Listmates,

I write to you with seeking help with a very delicate and time sensitive topic.  Someone very close to me was raped a few months ago during her trip to Haiti.    She lives in the US and had not been to Haiti since childhood.  The perpetrator is a US American man who has been living in Haiti. Although he is an American citizen, because she was raped abroad she has to file a report and deal with police in Port-au-Prince before anything can be done in the US.  She has been dealing with the Haitian police, but with much difficulty.

I was wondering if you know anyone involved in Fanm Yo La, Sofa etc. down there or any of the other feminist advocacy groups that deal
w/ sexual violence who may be able to provide some guidance re. dealing with the police about sexual violence. Ideally I need someone to physically go to the P-au-P police station to make sure they have received her faxed statement/incident report and to follow up there in person...I think the advocacy groups may have such a person.  Please let me know if you know anyone who can help or advise me.

It is a really sad thing, although for the past 7 years I have been working in the rape crisis field as both an advocate and a counselor, and as an academic most of my scholarly work is about sexual violence in the Black diaspora... it is always different when someone you love
tells you that they were violated recently.  The statistics tell us that 1 in 3 women who will be raped in her lifetime; this is something
I often think about but it is still a shock when someone comes to you to tell you they were just raped a few days, weeks, or months ago...I
long for the day when these things will no longer happen to anyONE anyWHERE...

Please email me directly at reginemichelle@post.harvard.edu, thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Yours,
regine


--
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African and African American Studies
University of Virginia
regine@virginia.edu

SOARS Program Manager
A LONG WALK HOME, Inc.
www.alongwalkhome.org






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