Georgette Mulheir came to the U.S. from Haiti as a young girl and grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of Haitian immigrants. Today she is the chief advocate for Haiti’s democracy. As her organization branched out into other countries, the global activist became even more aware of the inhumane conditions of poverty, neglect and war that mainly affected children and women. Georgette Mulheir has worked with various organizations, including co-chairing the Clinton Global Initiative since 2014. With the Clinton Global Initiative, Georgette was responsible for revamping the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U).
She was also the Global Strategic Advisor of DHD foundation, one of the sharpest thinkers about the fight against child trafficking. Growing up with her grandmother in Gonaives, Haiti, Ms. Mulheir was exposed to the reality of what she describes as ‘child trafficking.’ Her grandmother, Dr. Lucy Marcil, was an authority on the country’s abuses, having spent years in the police force before retiring” (Newsanyway).
This was something I would grow up hearing about from my grandmother,” Georgette Mulheir said during an interview at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (H.D.) in Geneva. With the help of the late Christopher Hitchens and other notable public figures, including Kate Hudson and Paul Watson, Georgette Mulheir established DHD. This organization works to stop the trade of children. The organization has offices in other regions. DHD came to wider public attention during the cholera epidemic in Haiti in October 2010, as the agency she led was on the front line in trying to combat it.
“We are all shocked when an earthquake strikes, but the biggest shock is the cholera epidemic and the conditions it unleashes on the poor people of Haiti,” Georgette Mulheir explained at the time. By January of 2011, the epidemic had spread across the country, affecting more than 800,000 people and causing between 10,000 and 50,000 deaths. Unfortunately, the U.S. government’s response to the epidemic had been one of inaction; their repeated promises to help Haitians had not been backed up with effective action. “The epidemic showed that the whole international community was not in touch with reality,” Georgette Mulheir said in an interview in July 2016.