Girls United Bring Hope and Healing to Haiti using Arts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, California, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) July 11, 2011 --

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Deanne LaRue
415-816-9244
Girls United Bring Hope and Healing to Haiti

July 12, 2011 - San Rafael, CA - A visit to Haiti can work miracles - expressed a team of specialists who are just returning from some of the Girls United: Haiti Though Our Eyes project sites. Girls United is a program conceived by San Rafael’s Meridian Health Foundation, and partnered by the United Nations and Full Circle Learning. The project helps girls recover and unite through the art of personal story telling. Together they express themselves via the arts; photography, writing, drama and crafts.

Teenage girls in Haiti have few options. Girls United helps them turn trauma into transcendence by sharing their experiences of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, changing the lives of many of Haiti’s women and girls, in an instant. Hospitals, schools, and other public buildings were leveled, and social services were immediately disrupted. According to the United Nations, our project partner, nearly half of the Haitian population present signs of post-traumatic stress or acute stress disorder.

Girls United: Haiti Through Our Eyes encourages Haiti’s girls to use writing, photography and art as a tool for healing. Some of our team of artists and specialists are still in Haiti where they continue helping girls living in Sean Penn’s J/P HRO camp and the YWCA Haiti. Through written and spoken narratives we can help girls confront difficult issues by using their stories to release pain, empathize, companion each other and restore connection to their communities. In the next phase of Girls United we are creating an Anthology of their art and story-work that will be distributed to many schools in Haiti, as well as sites in the US and internationally through Full Circle Learning. The Anthology includes instructions on how to replicate this work, adding sustainability to Girls United.

“Our hosts were so impressed with the healing through the arts work that they are continuing the program. Our team will carry on conducting peer-counseling trainings this summer and return in the fall with completed Anthologies for schools in Haiti,” describes Deanne LaRue, executive Director of Meridian Health Foundation, who began Girls United.

How Girls United Works

Experienced girls become peer counselors to other girls by using their listening and guidance skills. They write narratives and poetry to help one another confront issues and see their individual stories as valuable experiences when shared. In addition to spoken and written works, the adolescent girls use several forms of visual media, such as found art objects and photography, to explore the daily themes.

TV and film celebrity, Rainn Wilson of The Office, was on team Girls United, and used drama to help the girls share; “I gathered the girls around in a circle as best we could and we began by clapping around the circle. Pass the Clap the game is called. Everyone, me especially, was a bit self-conscious. My goal was simply to get them playing together. When you start to play together, you start to trust each other and then the participants can really open up.”

The final product of Phase One, the group anthology, will be returned to the sites with a facilitator in the fall of 2011. The anthology will also be shared by girls from various schools and camps in the region, and will be used to strengthen the will to heal in others. In addition, the book will assist other disadvantaged youth who contributed exchanges to the project, including migrant communities and urban gang areas. At least 60 – 80 girls are currently being served in Haiti.

Photos attached and below.
The UN is blogging Girls United at: http://www.girlup.org/blog/haiti-through-our-eyes.html
Short 2-minute Girls United Haiti film: HYPERLINK "http://www.meridianfoundation.org" www.meridianfoundation.org on the home page

Girls learn to tell their stories and hopes for the future with photography and drama.

Copyright J/P HRO, Photos by Nadia Todres, Girls United

Meridian sent 10 portable hospitals –geodesic domes- to Haiti
This is a Cholera Ward and has saved 2,000 lives so far…

Photo by Deanne LaRue, Girls United

Rainn Wilson and Deanne LaRue

Photo by Nadia Todres, Girls United

Meridian Health Foundation 1001 4th Street, San Rafael, CA 94901
HYPERLINK "mailto:info@meridianfoundation.org" info@meridianfoundation.org 415-454-8909

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