Resilience to Insecurity, Crime, and Violence

Honduras remains one of the most violent countries in the world, with widespread gang activity ranging from armed robbery and extortion to homicide. With IAF support, IAF grantee Organismo Cristiano de Desarrollo Integral de Honduras (OCDIH) works with networks of organizations of women, youth, and Indigenous groups to build peace. OCDIH convenes citizen security roundtables in municipalities in western Honduras to address rising violence and spur economic investment. These roundtables incorporate municipal government officials and key community institutions including businesses, schools, police, and churches to address the economic and social conditions resulting in insecurity and out-migration in their communities. Through ongoing public workshops and awareness campaigns, it promotes human rights and violence prevention, raises awareness of the risks of migration, and trains local leaders, teachers, and radio and television broadcasters to amplify its approach. OCDIH is also promoting economic independence for at-risk community members as an alternative to crime or migration. Activities include microenterprise development training for women and youth, job readiness training, and engaging local businesses to help youth obtain formal employment. OCDIH’s roundtables likely contributed to the incidence of homicides falling dramatically in the municipality of Trinidad—by 75%—from 2019 to 2020. Women in Haiti’s rural Sud-Est department suffer from extensive gender-based violence (70% of Haitian adolescent girls and women have experienced some form of violence19), with little access to services given that women’s organizations are concentrated in the capital, Port-AuPrince. With 60% of the population living in extreme poverty,20 women can be mistreated for not contributing financially to households and face limited options for attaining economic independence. Working with very incipient groups in isolated communities, IAF grantee Fanm Deside connects women with economic resources that allow them to leave abusive relationships and secure shelter, food, and education for their children. Fanm Deside has given more than 235 women access to credit funds totaling $22,500 to invest in microenterprises to increase their economic independence. Fanm Deside also raises awareness about domestic violence through radio and print campaigns and community-based training, which has prompted more than 1,777 women and 154 men to seek Fanm Deside’s mediation services, and increased demand for its shelter for domestic violence survivors, the only such shelter in the department. Project participants’ reporting of physical, sexual, and other violence has increased by 90% three years into the grant, indicating that women are more aware of their rights. Fanm Deside has increased the support network for survivors of gender-based violence by strengthening or helping to form 30 women’s groups.

Fanm Deside, Haiti