1934-02: (The LFAS’s Rough Start — In February 1934 Sylvain Inviting a Select Group of Women to Discuss the Organization, After Several Meetings Developing a…

1934-02: (The LFAS’s Rough Start — In February 1934 Sylvain Inviting a Select Group of Women to Discuss the Organization, After Several Meetings Developing a Philosophy Structure and Platform — the Overarching Philosophy to Seek the “Improvement of Haitian Women’s Economic Intellectual Social and Political Conditions,” By March an Eight-Member Executive Committee Elected and Nearly One Hundred Members Divided into Six Subcommittees, the Platform Including Physical Intellectual and Moral Improvement of Women’s Condition and the Protection of Children Women and the Elderly): In the first months of 1934, Garoute and Sylvain formalized the plans for a new organization called La Ligue Féminine d’Action Sociale. The LFAS had a rough start. In February, Sylvain invited a select group of women to discuss the organization. After several meetings, she and the group developed an organizational philosophy, an operational structure, and a political platform. The overarching philosophy of the collective was to seek the improvement of Haitian women’s economic, intellectual, social, and political conditions. By March, the structure of the organization took shape with the election of an eight-member executive committee. The remaining membership, which was estimated at nearly one hundred within the first three weeks, was divided into six subcommittees. The executive committee and subcommittees then developed a platform that included the physical, intellectual, and moral improvement of Haitian women’s condition in order to improve their awareness of their social obligations, and the protection of children, women, and the elderly. The speed of the formation was itself a testament to how long the groundwork had been laid — the fundraising campaigns, the reading groups, the salon conversations, the ten thousand women who marched before the Forbes Commission had all been rehearsals for this moment.