Pierrette, Blackman is a 55 year old Canadian police officer serving with the UN Police (UNPol) at the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). She is in charge of gender issues at the office in Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, situated in the north. On her last evening at the mission, Pierrette recalled a year spent alongside her colleague Veronique Dorvil of the Haitian National Police (PHN) and her team - a year of strikes and challenges but also joy in helping victims of gender violence.

Pierette spent 32 years at the Headquarters of the Quebec Police, in the French speaking part of Canada. She considers her job in Haiti’s second largest city in as a "gift from Heaven". When she puts on her uniform she feels like a police officer but "first of all a woman" and close to the victims, says this mother of two girls. Whether with abandoned children, rape victims or victims of domestic violence, Pierrette works on the frontline with Veronique Dorvil, her Haitian counterpart.

"We take rape victims to hospital for tests for HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. There are days when we are faced with two, five or six rape cases," she confides after having taken a young rape victim to the Justinien Hospital in Cap Haitien. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she recalls walking many kilometers each week to bring help to victims in isolated villages, along with the UNPol-PNH team.

Impressed by the devotion of her Canadian colleague, Veronique Dorvil wonders if she is not part Hatian! "She is really dynamic, and no matter what I propose, she considers it and then we move on together," says the PNH gender specialist.

After her first peace mission in Haiti in 2007-2008, Pierette returned a year ago to start a team for gender issues composed of UNPol and PNH officers. Together, Pierrette and Veronique assembled a team of 157 Haitian police officers in charge of gender issues and sexual violence. UNPol Spokesperson Michel Martin said the team contributed greatly to the increase in the number of reported cased in the Grand Nord and the strengthening of the ability of PNH officers to handle the cases.

A project close to Pierrette's heart, but which she unfortunately will not see completed before she leaves Haiti, is the construction of a room for screening HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases at the Justinien Hospital and a special police office where victims of sexual and gender violence can receive first aid. The Project Justinien is due to be launched in 2013 and is funded by the section for the Reduction of Community Violence of MINUSTAH and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). After months of advocating, Pierrette is proud to see the beginnings of a “project that would make Cap Haitien a region that deals firmly with such crimes.” She is convinced that the project will help in making conditions for Haitian women better but still there remains a lot to do. “Rapes, child abandonment and violence against women and children remain real problems in Haiti,” she says.

Now that she is leaving Cap, Pierrette feels both satisfied and sad and says she is leaving a little of her heart behind. “I was never alone. I had a whole world around me and I had help. I think that I will come back at some point. I am sad at leaving but at the same time I know that a lot of work has been done and it will be carried on,” she says optimistically.