[3 February 2010 by Marguerite A. Suozzi, IPS] Women's rights and development activists working in Haiti say that greater attention must be paid to the immediate needs of women and girls, as well as their role in the long-term reconstruction of the devastated country. Ninaj Raul, director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (HWHR), an NGO based in Brooklyn, New York, is currently in Leogane, Haiti providing medical and nutritional aid for victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake at a grassroots level and trying to fill in the gaps larger organisations have failed to reach.

"It's one of those situations no one could have been ready for," Raul told IPS in a telephone interview. "Right now I'm at this orphanage, and it's completely destroyed." "I have this girl sitting on my lap that had both of her legs amputated, and it's people like her that really give you strength," Raul told IPS.

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