Haiti: Marie Carmèle Rose-Anne Auguste

The overwhelming majority of women need to fight with determination against social inequalities.

— Marie Carmèle Rose-Anne Auguste

Marie Carmèle Rose-Anne Auguste is a nanny, social worker and activist for human rights from Haiti. In 1991, during the state military coup that attempted to re-establish Jean-Claude Duvalier as life president (a post inherited from his father), soldiers burst into the hospital where she worked, shooting. Rose-Anne risked her life saving the wounded.

“I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of women need to fight with determination against social inequalities,” states Marie Carmèle Rose-Anne Auguste in her autobiographical notes. During the state military coup of 1991, soldiers burst into the hospital where she worked. Rose-Anne risked her life saving the wounded. One year later, she founded the Clinic for Women of Kafou Fèy, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. She was able to count on the support of Partners in Health, an American association that is concerned with the access to health care of poor communities. Since then, the clinic receives around 200 visits from women every day. It looks after children and elderly people as well. That increases the total daily average to 1000 patients. Rose-Anne also offers professional help to women who have been raped and maltreated. In 1994, she received the Reebok Prize for Human Rights. Former American President, Jimmy Carter, called her work “inspired.” Rose-Anne is also known as a composer and singer. She often sings to the ill, as part of their therapy.

Clinic for Women of Kafou Fèy