Today, we, Haitian women, are not just demanding sterile representation, but we take over “the right to lead”. The right to real power, the right to influence, to occupy space, to impose and to lead. As a political woman myself, a former candidate in my country, a feminist political activist, I know better than anyone all the barriers that can exist in the path of young women reclaiming their places, but we’re not backing down. We create spaces like this one to show solidarity, share experiences and organize ourselves.
It is essential to build bridges between our movements and our countries, to create new ecosystems that centralize our priorities, to value and shed light on our different types of leaderships, our victories and our impacts. Thank you to NALAFEM for creating this intersection between women activists and women political leaders from all these countries. And for welcoming my country, Haiti. For inviting Haiti to home, Africa.