January 12, 2012 will be the two-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated many of their lives and threw those of us invested in the country into triage mode. The network of women activists, business and political leaders that I had been working with in Haiti before the earthquake at Femmes en Democratie (FED), woke up one day to their children screaming, their grandmothers dying, their houses falling and their country destroyed. They had no time to grieve their losses because there was work to do.

Two weeks after the quake, Danielle, the founder of FED, made it onto a plane to D.C. in the only skirt she had left, a pair of flip-flops, and not even a dollar on her, to speak to members of Congress about the devastation. She was convinced that people had to know the extent of the loss and, in particular, what the women of Haiti needed. Over the last two years, she has become a voice for women throughout Haiti.

Each of the 23 women present on that balmy day in a garden restaurant in Port-au-Prince had a similar story. Lives were lost and businesses shattered. But there were neighborhoods to rebuild, people to help, and children to care for, so no one had time to stop and cry. As one guest sobbed: “We have never cried. We have been so strong. It is time to cry.” And we did. We mourned deeply.

Then we moved on.

So now on the two-year anniversary, my Haitian women colleagues want you to know, it is time to move on.

With only 6 women parliamentarians and 4 women appointed ministers, Haiti is in step with the rest of the globe, where women still hold only 15.6 percent of elected seats. How can we make sure the voice of half the population will be heard in decision and policy making processes affecting Haiti? We need to support female politicians through training and assistance and to increase women’s political participation at local, regional and national levels. And we need to push our government aid organizations like USAID who have money allocated for Haiti to spend more on women and make the funds accessible to smaller, micro-NGO’s in Haiti that work with women.

Haitian women also need money and jobs. Studies show that when women control finances, more is spent on health, education and well-being of their family and community. By investing in women, you are investing in the whole country.

Haiti is now “open for business.” It is ripe for investment opportunity under the visionary leadership of new President Michel Martelly. With its proximity, human capital and young, smart Haitian business people spearheading, Haiti is ready to become a name in manufacturing and agriculture. For companies who are investing in Haiti or are considering it, we ask that you look through the gender lens at each of your projects. Measure not only the impact it will have on women in the community, but how your business can be better served by hiring more women, putting them in managerial positions, and giving them technical training.

This is not about billion dollar investments; it is about small investments in existing or small businesses that want to expand, especially women run businesses destroyed in the earthquake. They need access to loans with better conditions, vocational training, business education and technology. At the women’s trade show in Port-au-Prince last month, I saw beautiful merchandise ready to export but they need partners.

Haiti is not just “rebuilding” with cement and muscle. Haiti is “reimagining” a nation, with a bold vision and collective dream. They have the opportunity to look towards the single vision of citizen participation in decision-making, where everyone’s rights are respected and women have an equal say in the process and equal opportunity for economic freedom. President Martelly, with his willpower, energy, intelligence and heart is a strong supporter of women. One constitutional amendment that he supports says that, if ratified, 30 percent of offices in national life must be occupied by women.

Pretty progressive. VERY smart business.

Actress Maria Bello is co-founder of the Haitian women’s organization, We Advance. (weadvance.org)

Who knew a woman who runs around on TV with a gun and another who runs around in heels would have so much in common? We were brought together through a bizzare turn of events, and we discovered our mutual goal of empowering women using our own unique voices. We decided to journey together with Kris, Farouk Shami, Patricia Arquette, Suzanne Lerner, and a few of their friends to experience the Haiti that Maria has come to know and love through her organization, We Advance.

We Advance was started after the earthquake in January 2010, as a direct response to the increase in gender-based violence and poor health care for women in the poorest areas of the country. We Advance works with and represents the voices of over 40 micro-organizations working in the most desperate situations and communities in Haiti.

Our itinerary was to visit some of the small, grassroots NGOs that We Advance works with, including Artists for Peace and Justice, Femmes en Democratie, and Give Love, and to join women at the trade fair and fashion show in celebrating their achievements.

This is who we celebrated:

Danielle St. Lot: Danielle has been a women’s rights activist in Haiti for 35 years. She galvanizes women to stand up for economic, political, and social justice and equality with her organization Femmes en Democratie. She launched the women’s trade fair in Haiti this past weekend with women artisans and designers from all over the country to promote their products and to show their beautiful fashions. As a former Minister of Commerce, Danielle knows that it is through not only charity but creating employment that Haiti will rise.

Claudia Apaid: Claudia is the daughter of a Haitian entrepreneur, who went to an orphanage to give toys to kids for Christmas, and, seeing the appalling conditions that the children lived in, founded Sow a Seed in 2004. Sow a Seed is an organization that collaborates with partners with orphanages all over the country to give better care to their children. She threw a Christmas party this weekend for 500 orphans, many of whom experienced their first Christmas ever.

Barbara Guillaume: Barbara is a women’s leader, poet, singer, and co-founder of We Advance. She is running for mayor of Cité Soleil, the poorest slum in the western hemisphere, because, as she says, “If we can change the worst of Haiti, we can change all of Haiti.”

Caroline Sada: Caroline is a beautiful, 37-year-old powerhouse who grew up in Haiti and was educated in the States. She worked as a high-level executive with an international makeup company and left it all after the earthquake to come back and rebuild her country.

Sophia Martelly: Before becoming the First Lady of Haiti, Sophia dedicated her life and energy to people in need in the slums of Haiti. Now she will launch her country’s “12 by 12″ initiative in January, which will enable thousands of households run by single mothers to buy food and send their children to school.

We came to celebrate the thousands of Haitian women who are working tirelessly every day to bring economic and social justice to all people in Haiti. So to them we say: we are humbled and moved to have been with you and to tell the world about your grace. We are proud to tell the world your stories.

The mission statement of We Advance is, “We are stronger together than we are alone.”

We are grateful to partner with such amazing women and to have been on this journey together.

Please join the journey: weadvance.org.

She will join Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Mohamed Yunus, President Bill Clinton, Denis O’Brien (owner and executive chairman of Digicel), and 30 other high-level international politicians and business leaders, who are committed to the reconstruction of Haiti. The Counsel will focus on economic growth and investment. Ms. Bello’s focus is investing in women and girls, supporting their full participation in the reconstruction efforts, both politically and economically, and making women’s healthcare a priority. She has worked in Haiti for the last 3 years with Artists for Peace & Justice, the Haitian women’s group Femmes en Democratie, and is the founder of the Haitian-NGO We Advance.

“I have never been so hopeful for Haiti, since the election of President Martelly,” says Ms. Bello. “His presidency signals the start of a new political era for Haiti, founded in transparency and self-determination. His governance, guidance, and collaboration with the international community will lead Haiti through a thriving reconstruction.”

This is a cross post of an article I wrote for the Huffington Post. You can find the original here.

Today I begin my fast for Darfur. The Fast for Darfur began with Mia Farrow’s 12 day hunger strike protesting the president of Sudan’s decision to throw out of his country the NGO’s who were the main suppliers of food to the Darfurian refugees. Mia ended her fast on doctor’s orders and Sir Richard Branson decided to take the baton and fast for three days. Since then, hundreds of people have joined the fast to stand in solidarity with the people of Darfur. My friend Blake Mycoskie passed the baton to me, so here I am. Fasting.

I have done fasts in the past — (mainly to shrink my ass or enlarge my spirit!) but have never done one in solidarity and protest. Never drank only water for three days without some kind of selfish motivation to see me through. Now, here I am outside of Boston, Mass. doing one of the funniest movies I have ever been in and I am choosing to start this fast today.

I have been so happy lately, which is somewhat rare for me. Laughs a minute with Adam Sandler and Kevin James and the crew. I live at the beach and have the day off today to just kick around. I should be eating lobster at Lobsta Land. But NOOOOO, instead I am trying to mix things up by drinking very hot, warm, lukewarm or cold water throughout the day, hoping that my body functions that are usually awakened with caffeine will be woken up. And why?

Because people are dying.

Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in Darfur have been systematically murdered in Omar al-Bashir’s campaign of genocide and millions have been left homeless. Now, after years of continuing suffering, these courageous people have to face starvation on top of murder, mutilation, displacement and rape.

So I am fasting in solidarity with my friend, Niemat Ahmadi whose family and friends are hungry and displaced in the camps in Darfur. I am fasting for the 40 young girls (as young as 4) who were brutally raped by the Janjaweed militia as reported in Halima Bashir’s incredible book, Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur. I am fasting because I am a mother and a human being, and because I know that if I am not apart of the solution I am apart of the problem.

After 18 hours of not eating, I am now staring at the bag of sourdough pretzels on my kitchen counter. I am salivating. I am “starving.” (Like I will ever really know what starving is really like.)

I don’t know how much this fast will accomplish. Maybe a person or two will feel moved to go to the website and find out what they can do to help to stop the genocide and with enough of our voices we can finally put an end to it. Or maybe it will simply wake me up out of the haze of being a working mother, who is constantly worried about being able to support her son in this economy and if the new lines on my lips mean my career is over.

Either way, today the people of Dafur stand clearly and strongly in my mind and I just want them to know they are not alone.

To learn more about the fast and what you can do for the people of Darfur, go to fastdarfur.org.

The Hamptons for Haiti event on July 17, 2011 was a huge success! 250 people came to support We Advance and Global Dirt. It was such an incredible feeling seeing my awesome partners, Barbara Guillaume, Aleda Frishman and Alison Thompson along with the beautiful Nicole Ross from Global Dirt, standing on stage and telling their stories.  As my friend Melky Jean said at the end – these women are “spiritual Gangsters.”  I agree. Not only these two groups but all of the NGO’s in Haiti, small and large that are getting stuff done on the ground and not getting bogged down in bureaucracy.  We were also incredibly moved that many of the volunteers we started with after the earthquake showed up to support us, though most of us are doing our own things.  We all raised a toast to our dear friend who brought us all together.  Thank you all of our old and new friends who showed up for us yesterday and are now supporting our efforts. Nap Vanse! Maria

To RSVP and buy tickets: The Hamptons for Haiti

The data garnered by this week’s long process of mapping and survey is still being sorted through. All known operations were visited, as well as those ones stumbled upon as we walked the streets documenting all services available in the area, their contact information, and hours of operation.

While walking the streets we decided to take the time to develop a survey we could conduct in a few minutes with various women of all ages doing different activities (bathing, selling, walking with children, etc.). We have gotten some great information and I will be sharing our findings as the data is translated.

We started with 20 volunteers who worked 8 hours a day for 6 days a week. We held trainings with the ladies before they went out. We went over the mapping and survey in detail and then did role-playing of the FAQ. These were women from Cité Soleil who are all able to read and write. They are excited about WE ADVANCE and many would like to continue to volunteer for our organization as needed. Olga and Barbara were responsible for pulling this team together.

FOCUS GROUPS:

We held a focus group of 40 women from Wharf Jeremy. Our goal was to get an accurate idea of what the living conditions are truly like and about their hygiene/birth control habits. This was a very informative discussion.  We asked a lot of questions ranging from sex and GBV to where they get their water. They were very interactive and asked a lot of questions from us and told us about services they would like to see WE ADVANCE put on for them.

HYGIENE:

Today we held about a 5 hour session at the clinic. First Maeve did the health, sex and hygiene classes. All was very well received. She did, however pick up on the areas where we will need to be very diligent in the clinic about teaching. The GREAT news is all the women would like the prodev shot for birth control so that is something we need to stock up heavily on. If all WE ADVANCE does is get the majority of the women covered with these shots in Wharf Jeremy, we have done an amazing job. Everyone asks for toothbrushes (we are out now) so we need to stock up on that too. We really need to push condom use and Maeve even discussed how hard it is to get a man to use one and she did role playing with the women on what to say, etc. Everyone got condoms

For more news on and ways to get involved with WE ADVANCE check out our website weadvance.org

First, let me tell you about some of the women working tirelessly, on the ground in Haiti, for We Advance. There is our ever-present Tina. What would we do without her? The work we are doing has no set hours, and at times Tina is putting in upwards of 16-hour days with no overtime pay. My hats are off to her. Furthermore (I’ll tell you more about details of the program in a moment), Tina stepped up to a leadership role in terms of our Cité Soliel mapping and survey. Not only did she participate in the development of the question and focus area, but she also created our forms, made FAQ, translated everything and printed all necessary documents. She helped train the women and took it upon herself to be present early in the morning to send the women off and here every afternoon as they arrived back. She counted clipboards, pens, and badges and answered any questions our ladies had. Tina has also enlisted the assistance of her sister, who is currently volunteering by translating all the data to English for our use. I could go on, but I will leave my gushing for another post.

And there is Maeve… WOW what a woman. We are BLESSED to have her make a commitment of 6 months to We Advance! Maeve is a soldier and nurse in the British Army. Her specialties included training medical staff and teaching. She is a firecracker and a force to be reckoned with. She held our first hygiene classes. The women were very receptive to her and interacted with her easily. She has done inventory, made lists of what we need. Treated several patients at the clinic already and conducted outreach programs in the community de-worming children and talking about the services at the clinic. She is currently living at the DIRT house and has been on a mission to get the accommodations up to par for our future volunteers. She has also already began training our Haitian medical staff… Oh and by the way did I tell you she has been here less than a week?!

And also, Bill Evans… well what can I say… Would WE ADVANCE even be in existence without this man? We are still so new, only a few months of operations. We still receive free boarding, internet services, and office space (saving us countless dollars). What a safe, great area for us to hold our meetings and brainstorming sessions. In addition, when the equipment has technical difficulties, he makes his personal printers, computer, etc available to WE ADVANCE. He is truly one of our saving graces and heroes.

SHAWN KU, the director of “Beautiful Boy,” recalls the moment he finally understood Maria Bello. It was the last day of shooting. Ms. Bello, playing a mother whose son goes on a killing spree at school, was supposed to walk into a bathroom, stand by the sink for about three seconds and reenter the bedroom.

Mr. Ku said he thought his instructions were simple enough, but Ms. Bello had questions. “She was all over me: ‘What am I doing at that sink? What am I thinking?’ ” Mr. Ku said. “And I answered things like: ‘You’re rudderless. You’re feeling the emotional weight.’ ” Ms. Bello stared at him (for about three seconds) and started to laugh. “You know what answer you should have given me?” she said. “Just shut up, Maria, and stand there.”

That’s Ms. Bello: aggressive one moment, easygoing the next — blunt, funny, curious, sharp. She’s also a little rowdy. At Christmas a few years ago she took her dad drinking; after downing shots of Jack Daniel’s they made an impromptu father-daughter trip to a tattoo parlor. “Maria seems like a broad, and she is, but there is a flip side that is generous and incredibly sweet,” Mr. Ku said.

Ms. Bello grew up in a blue-collar Philadelphia suburb, worked in a pizzeria called the Charcoal Pit as a teenager and said she dreamed of becoming a lawyer focusing on international women’s rights. Instead, at 44, she is one of Hollywood’s favorite raspy-voiced tough ladies, the kind of actress who has a knack for bringing damaged, world-weary women to life.

She has played a range of roles: a pediatrician on “ER,” a machine-gun-toting Egyptologist in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” a dog breeder in “The Jane Austen Book Club,” a rowdy bar owner in “Coyote Ugly.” But Ms. Bello shines in difficult dramas. Critics were impressed with her unraveling small-town wife in “A History of Violence,” David Cronenberg’s 2005 thriller about a mob assassin in hiding. Kenneth Turan, writing in The Los Angeles Times, described her performance as providing “a level of emotional belief that is the film’s secret weapon.” She received equally strong notices for her sexually confident casino waitress in “The Cooler” (2003), about a gambler (William H. Macy) who is paid to lose.

“She turns herself inside out but never to the point that it’s hard to watch,” Mr. Macy said in a telephone interview. “She retains some humanity, keeps a little sparkle in her eye. That’s incredibly compelling — and incredibly difficult.”

“Beautiful Boy,” made for about $1 million and set for release on June 3 in New York and Los Angeles, finds Ms. Bello in another well of despair. Bill and Kate Carroll, a middle-class couple with a strained relationship, sort through a jumble of emotions — grief, guilt, rage, blame — after their 18-year-old son’s shooting rampage and suicide. Along the way Kate (Ms. Bello) and Bill (Michael Sheen) confront the end — or is it a new beginning? — of their marriage.

“Happy is boring,” Ms. Bello said recently over breakfast at a cafe near her home in the arty Venice section of Los Angeles. She took a slow drag from a cigarette — yes, she’s been trying to quit, having most recently tried hypnosis — and flashed a mischievous smile.

She meant, of course, that complicated, broken characters intrigue her. In real life? She’ll take happy and, she says, has been getting it. Contentedly single, Ms. Bello lives a busy existence with her son, Jackson, who is finishing up the fourth grade. She also spends time pursuing philanthropic goals, working with a number of women’s charities in Haiti, where she helped found a clinic, and various parts of Africa, particularly Darfur.

And she has been experiencing a career surge. While most actresses complain that roles dry up as they age, Ms. Bello said her acting options “just keep getting better and better.” She has a supporting role in “Abduction,” a thriller starring Taylor Lautner scheduled for September release. Her coming indie films include “Jacked,” in which she stars as a single mom taken hostage by a bank robber, and “St. Vincent,” about a mob killer (Pierce Brosnan) who goes undercover as a priest to hunt a victim.

Ms. Bello is also returning to television, this time as the lead in one of the most high-profile pilots of the year: NBC’s remake of “Prime Suspect,” the esteemed British series about an ambitious, abrasive police detective. It’s a juicy role that helped make Helen Mirren a global star in the early 1990s. NBC will decide this month whether to move forward with a full-blown series.

“At first I didn’t know if I wanted to do TV again,” Ms. Bello said. “I can get bored quickly. But, come on, this is the role of a lifetime.”

As a child growing up in Norristown, Pa., the daughter of a nurse and a construction worker, Ms. Bello never saw acting as a potential career. But she was ambitious: “I remember listening to ‘Maniac’ and running around and thinking I’m going to be somebody someday,” she said. It wasn’t until her senior year at Villanova University, where she majored in peace and justice education, that Ms. Bello started performing. She took an acting class as an elective and realized she was pretty good at it.

“I was really conflicted,” she said. “I had always planned to help the world. Instead, I was going to become an actress? That seemed like such a selfish thing to do.” She said she sought advice from a priest. “He told me that you serve the world most by doing the thing you love most,” she said. (The advice meant so much to her that she named her son after the priest.)

Ms. Bello graduated and, with $300 in her pocket and two garbage bags filled with clothes, moved to Manhattan, where she had roles in a hodgepodge of Off Broadway plays. Amstel Light cast her as a beer babe in a national commercial. But it took her a decade of bartending and nonstop auditioning to get her real break: “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a 1996 television crime drama about two secret agents forced to work as a team while posing as a married couple. CBS canceled the show after a few weeks, but casting agents noticed her and came calling. Her next stop was “ER.”

Mr. Macy, whose own stint on “ER” briefly overlapped with Ms. Bello’s, said he didn’t get to know her until a week before filming began on “The Cooler” and they met in a cafe to discuss several intense sex scenes they would have to perform together.

“The reason those scenes came out so well started with Maria,” Mr. Macy said. “I was freaked out about them, but she said: ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m an old hippie. I take my clothes off at the drop of a hat.’

“We brought our acting coaches. Mine was named Jim Beam, and she had a guy named Johnny Walker. Before long it was like, ‘Let’s do the whole movie naked!’ ”

It was Ms. Bello’s idea, according to Mr. Macy, to set up a Polaroid camera at a cast and crew party and ask everyone to take one picture of their naked behinds and another of their faces; the photos were then shuffled and everyone played a game of matching them back up. “She has a wicked sense of humor,” Mr. Macy said. “The crew had been watching us in the buff the whole time, so she decided turnaround was only fair.”

“Beautiful Boy” isn’t particularly steamy, but Ms. Bello does have a track record of picking films that involve sex. “A History of Violence” required her to film an animalistic love scene on a staircase with Viggo Mortensen, who played her husband. “I was black and blue and purple for weeks after that,” she said. “Viggo was a mess too. But it was worth it. That scene serves the story in a really important way. It exposes the power struggle in relationships.”

Ms. Bello then lit another cigarette and made an abrupt turn from confidently discussing her craft to displaying her vulnerability. “Am I talking too much?” she asked. “Because if I am, just tell me to shut up.”

This is a cross post of an article I wrote for the Huffington Post. You can find the original here.

Voters in Haiti go to the polls on Sunday, March 20, 2011 to elect a new president and a new Parliament. Those elected will face daunting challenges as Haiti rebuilds itself: quake-related devastation, systemic poverty, ongoing crises in the delivery of basic services such as health care and education, and violence. According to the International Organization for Migration, 3 million Haitians — nearly one third of the population — were affected by the quake; an estimated 1.3 million were displaced and 800,000 remain in camps. The UN estimates that 300,000 people lost their lives and that the majority of those were women. Before the quake, over 70 percent of Haitians lived on less than $2 per day. And then there is the cholera outbreak, which has affected thousands of Haitians.

Against that backdrop, Haiti must have an elected government that can help guide reconstruction efforts and priorities for all Haitians. Women’s views and voices must be heard in that process and must be part and parcel of those decisions. Women in Haiti have been greatly affected by the quake and must be able to effectively contribute their views, life experiences and perspectives to ongoing and critical debates about how to move forward.

Forty-two percent of households are now headed by women, and these women need access to jobs that can sustain them and their families, whether those jobs are in the public or private sectors, in traditional or non-traditional jobs, or in microenterprise. Women also face gender based violence and it is critical to change the attitudes and behaviors that cause that violence as well as treating the survivors.

There is a lot of attention being paid, and rightly so, to the fact that the next president of Haiti might be a woman, former First Lady and Senator Mirlande Manigat, who received over 31 percent of the vote in the first round. But this should not obscure the importance of women being involved at every level of decision making about the future, whether those decisions are being made through the political process or civil society. Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, Haitian women must be encouraged to step up for leadership in Parliament, national government, civil society, and local governments so they can be the pillars of the reconstruction process. There are still six women in the running for Parliament. This is a small number, but if elected, a number that can raise issues critical to women, their families and communities.

Perhaps even more important, however, is the involvement of women everywhere decisions are made, whether that is electing women to office at the local or national level or involving women in decision making about how camps are run or resources are distributed in communities. This is where the rubber hits the road for so many and where the reality of women’s lives and challenges becomes painfully important.

Haiti is a diverse society, with women and men at varying socioeconomic levels, speaking different languages and able to access decision making and resources in disparate ways. Everyone’s voice deserves to be heard and be part of Haiti’s future.