The Leadership Academy: a vision of change towards gender equity

“Education is the most powerful weapon capable of transforming hearts and building a nation where men and women do not clash but complement each other for change…”

The Leadership Academy is a section of the YWCA-Haiti spearheading different programs whose primary goal is to promote the leadership of women so that they have the power to bring about significant changes in their personal lives, and in those around them. For a long time, this goal as it is defined and all the activities resulting from it were mainly oriented towards women. Which is a normal fact, because we are the YH.

While our participants in the “Feminine Leadership” program happily expressed their gratitude to us for the change they saw coming in their lives, and for everything they were able to benefit from- life skills training, capacity building, and psychosocial support- the reality that hits them in the face and all the forms of stereotypes they experience in their environment constitute a real mountain to climb in order to reach the change they want to bring about in their surroundings. This situation held our attention for quite a long time until we understood that the best thing to do is to involve also men in this dynamic of change and in this struggle aimed at building a fair society where access to rights and opportunity is not affected by gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation. And as a result, this vision that we had nurtured for a long time saw the light of day in 2021 when we opened our doors to welcome for the first time a cohort of men as part of our program entitled “Training of Men” where the latter retained the same training curriculum as women on the themes: Self-esteem, Human Rights, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Eco-Citizenship, Leadership & Entrepreneurship. This experience taught us a lot and even led us to conclude that men must be trained to participate positively in the construction of solid standards in favor of gender equity.

This year, amid the insecurity that has affected the entire Haitian population at different levels, instead of giving up, we held our fists raised by developing new strategies in order to continue serving Haitian youth and remain faithful to our mission. This resilient behavior led us to an unexpected result during our recruitment and allowed us to reach 74 women during the period from April to June 2024 as part of our “Women's Leadership” Program, 67 of whom obtained a certificate of accomplishment, and 42 men through the “Men’s Training” Program, 40 of whom left with their certificate for having completed the training course. The thirst for education that these men and women have shown us gives us the strength to continue to believe that education is the most powerful weapon capable of transforming hearts and building a nation where men and women do not confront each other but complement each other for the change that they hope to see in their lives, in their communities and their country moreover, because whether we accept it or not “Se avè m, se avè w, se avè k nou chanjman un dwe komanse”.

Godson Sylné

 Leadership Academy Coordinator