Off The Grid Missions, WFD demand action for deaf people in Haiti
A shocking and graphic video about deaf women being murdered in Haiti was posted this week by Off-The-Grid Missions, an U.S. based organization founded by Angela Maria Nardolillo.
The video showed a blurred image of what Nardolillo said is three deaf Haitian women who were deceased and lying in a ditch. Their bodies show obvious signs of abuse. Two of the women were mothers and one was pregnant when they died. This incident was in 2016.
In the video, Nardolillo showed another blurred image of what she said is a deceased deaf Haitian woman who was raped and then brutally murdered and mutilated in May of this year. Nardolillo said she was a mother to five children.
Nardolillo said in the video that the Haitian Deaf community has lost four women so far, and she is frustrated at how it’s not getting attention on the island or elsewhere. She said deaf people in Haiti have zero human rights, are looked down with stigma, and that the murders are not being investigated by law enforcement — that there is no action. So she started a petition, working in partnership with the World Federation of the Deaf, to gather support and to use it to demand action from leaders in Haiti and around the world.
I reached out to Nardolillo and asked why she was raising the issue and the petition now. She explained that the recent murder of the fourth woman made it feel like it was a repeat of the three women who were killed in 2016. She said the big picture is disability stigma in the country.
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Nardolillo said her organization worked with the World Federation of the Deaf to develop the petition and hopes to press decision makers such as the United Nations, UNICEF, the Haitian government, and other organizations to take action.
The WFD president Dr. Joseph Murray posted a vlog today confirming that they have received reports of human rights violations in Haiti, are working in partnership with OTG Missions, and that they would work with the United Nations human rights investigators to push for immediate action.
Nardolillo said it is important to remember that the women who died were “beautiful hard-working women, mothers, they had families, and that they were their friends.” She is asking for more people to sign the petition so they have more backing when they meet with world leaders to demand action. There are about 10,000 signatures right now. The link to the petition is in the transcript.