January, 12th, 2011

I spent the first anniversary of the earthquake on the steps of the destroyed cathedral, in downtown Port-au-Prince. In the middle of a political crisis, Haitians had stopped burning tyres to ask for their vote to be accounted for. Everyone gathered in front of this symbol of despair, dressed in white, screaming his or her pain. I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t prepare for the questions. As a foreigner, many people came to me to ask why the international community was not rebuilding homes for the victims and stopping the cholera outbreak. I did my best to explain that the scale of the disaster took everyone aback, and setting up temporary settlements, camps in other words, was a complicated and tedious task. “There are less cholera victims in camps than anywhere else thanks to NGO efforts”, I said, but my voice got lost in the fervent religious clamour. What could I say, how could I justify the stalemate Haiti experienced? No available land, no government... I didn’t have words of comfort for the people suffering around me.

January 12th, 2012

January 12th, 2013

What value can you put on a human life: A million? A billion? Perhaps priceless?

How about €0.28/£0.23? That’s what it costs to provide a Malawian living with HIV with life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

But for two-thirds of Malawians with HIV that price is too high.

This is a country poor even by African standards, and one which is ravaged by HIV. One million people – 1 in 12 – of the population are living with the virus.

On a recent visit to Malawi, Oxfam ambassador and actor Bill Nighy met with some of the people who have had their lives transformed by ARVs.

CAPTIONS: TOP-LEFT: Enoch, a Malawian farmer in his 60s, says anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs have kept him alive. Gus Gregory/Oxfam.  RIGHT: AIDS orphan Fanny Jeofry (16) in the Kayera District, Malawi. Your donations are helping to provide holistic care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS. Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam. BOTTOM-LEFT: Actor and Oxfam ambassador Bill Nighy meets Mara Banda and some of her helpers. Mara runs a support programme for people with HIV near Malawi's capital Lilongwe. Gus Gregory/Oxfam.

Take Enoch, a farmer in his 60s, who has been living with HIV for 10 years: “If you’d seen me three years ago you wouldn’t think I was the same person. “I was very, sick, I couldn’t stand up. I’m alive today because of the medication I receive.”

Donations from our amazing supporters across the island of Ireland are enabling people living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi to know their rights to access HIV prevention, treatment and care services, and advocate for these rights locally and nationally.

We believe that the best people to assert these rights are community members themselves. That’s why we help local organisations get the resources and develop the skills needed to ensure the voices of those living with HIV and AIDS are heard. This means they’re helping to influence health policy and calling for increase in the allocation for people living with HIV and AIDS in national health budgets.

Your support is also helping to tackle the stigma that can surround people living with HIV and AIDS in their own communities, along with addressing harmful social practices that put women at risk of infection.

It’s also helping to provide a holistic package of care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS, including psycho-social support and ensuring access to education. 

More sweet news today for chocolate lovers: the biggest chocolate maker in the world, Mondelez International, has agreed to take steps to address inequality facing women in their cocoa supply chains — thanks to pressure from consumers like you.

More than 100,000 people around the world joined our Behind the Brands campaign, signing petitions and taking action to urge Mondelez (which owns Cadbury’s) and its competitors to tackle the hunger, poverty and unequal pay facing many women cocoa farmers and workers. You also made your voices heard by sending messages to the companies on Facebook and Twitter.

Today’s announcement by Mondelez follows commitments last month by Mars and Nestlé to address these issues. Together, Mars, Mondelez and Nestlé buy more than 30 per cent of the world’s cocoa — so changes in their policies could have huge effects for cocoa farmers and their families. 

Although they don’t employ or control them directly, they rely on farmers like Etchi Avla (43) in the Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer. She wants to be paid a fair price. “We do our best to do it well, but the price of cocoa is really low. And that makes it hard for us to take good care of our children and it is tiring.” 

Reema (12) lives on the first floor of a house still under construction in Lebanon. There are piles of rubble and concrete all around. There are no windows, no comfort. She sleeps in a small ‘room’ with her parents and four siblings. Rats are frequent visitors.

A year ago her home in Syria was destroyed by the bombings. In the time that followed she moved with her family from place to place, one of the 1.6 million Syrians who have no fled their war torn country in search of refuge in Lebanon, Jordan and further afield.

By the end of the year, close to 3.5 million Syrians are expected to have fled.

“I used to enjoy writing before but since coming here, after this tragedy” says Reema. “I wake up in the morning and I see children going to school and I cry why don’t I have the right to go to school and I sit here and I remember our home back in Syria before the fighting.”

A year ago it was destroyed by the bombings. Now she is one of 750,000 young Syrian refugees.

“I miss my friends,” she says, “I miss my teachers. I miss my classes, my English classes, my Arabic classes, my music classes. Now I’m just sitting here every day.”

She spends her spare time writing poetry, remembering her home and longing to go back to it. 

This is part of one of them:

When I take my pencil and notebook,
What shall I write about?

Shall I write about my school,
my house or my land of which I was deprived?

My school, when will I visit you again
take my bag and run to you?

My school is no longer there
Now, destruction is everywhere
No more students
No more ringing bells
My school has turned into stones scattered here and there

Shall I write about my house that I no longer see
where I can no longer be,
Shall I write about flowers which now smell destruction?
Syria, my beloved country
Will I ever return back to you?
I had so many dreams
None of them will come true
 

Clockwise from top: Reema's shoes, the only items other than her clothes she took with her from Syria. Reema's sketchbook. Reema's notebook. Photos: Sam Tarling / Oxfam.

Reema’s family will receive two payments of $150 dollars as part of Oxfam’s cash transfer programme. This money is intended to help families like Reema’s pay their rent over the next two months.

Families like hers are in desperate need of shelter, food, water and medical care. We're scaling up our response to help families through the coming months.

Please give what you can today.

The ancient Romans believed mushrooms provided their warriors with extra strength and today in Rwanda they are helping modern superwomen like Mediatrice Mukantwari to thrive.

She has learned new farming skills thanks to Oxfam’s partner G7 Enterprises in Kirehe, Rwanda.

The company makes mushroom tubes which are then bought by local women who grow them close to their homes.

As a result of growing, harvesting and selling their mushrooms, women producers like Mediatrice have dramatically increased their income.

They either sell the mushrooms to neighbours or sell them back to G7 Enterprises, who can sell in bulk to restaurants and hotels or further afield.

Mediatrice says: “It’s really important for us as women to be independent in life… I know if I need something for myself I can just sell mushrooms and be independent".

In 2012, 1,513 small-holder women farmers in Rwanda were supported to make a sustainable way of living through greater access to credit, training on new agricultural techniques and new business partnerships between the women and medium–sized enterprises engaged in horticulture.

This project is one of many changing lives for the better around the world.

The Romans believed mushrooms made them strong. At Oxfam, we know what our real strength is – supporters like you who are making amazing things happen every single day.

Thank you.

“There is no way we can thank you other than through song and dance,” says Victorine, a representative of the local water committee as we are welcomed in the remote village of Mambingi in the north eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Up until June of this year, the community could only get water, the most basic of all human rights, from an unprotected local spring. They had to pass through thick forest vegetation where women felt vulnerable to get there and were often bitten by snakes attracted to the surrounding palm oil trees.

Today, thanks to our supporters at home and our local partners Hyfro, Mambingi has some 16 water points spread throughout the village managed proudly by local committees.

Importantly, the water is clean and safe. This reduces the risk of spread of preventable diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which regularly plague communities forced to drink whatever water may flow nearby.

Clockwise from top: Oxfam Humanitarian Coordinator Michael O’Riordan measures the flow rate from a new water point constructed in DRC with the support of Irish Aid. Women in DRC often have to travel huge distances to collect water for drinking, cooking and washing. A young girl collects clean filtered water from the newly constructed water points in the village of Kahamba in DRC. A young boy demonstrates the use of simple innovative hand washing facilities made from locally available materials and a simple plastic container located next to a latrine. By pressing on the stick with his foot, the boy tilts the plastic container which causes water to flow shower like from holes made in the side. Good hygiene practice such as this greatly reduces the risk of spread of preventable communicable disease.  Photos: Colm Byrne / Oxfam.

Victorine laughs at me when we ask how long she now has to travel to get to water. Leaning across and stretching out her hand, she says: “No time at all. It is right beside us.”

Mambingi is just one of 12 villages in the region which have benefitted this year from new water distribution systems with the support of Oxfam.

In the process, community members have learned the skills needed to build and care for not only these new facilities but also 577 newly constructed latrines which ensure the safe disposal of human waste without infection of local water sources. Critically, such new skills ensure community well-being not only now but their capacity and independence in doing so well into the future.

Unfortunately, not all communities in DRC are so fortunate. Twenty years of conflict in the country have claimed the lives of millions and resulted in repeated mass movements of people within the country and across its borders.

The conflict, a product of complex international, national, local, ethnic and tribal interests frequently related to competition for the country’s particular mineral wealth, has undermined growth and development. In turn, this has created a fragile political, social and economic context where most people fail to benefit from the country’s rich natural resources and where the reach of state services such as water, health and agriculture is limited if present at all.

Not long after meeting Victorine, as we prepare to leave the region, word reaches us that still more fighting has broken out and that tens of thousands of people only a few hours’ drive away have been forced to flee across the border to Uganda. Yet another tragic event in the history of DRC where life, like the water that sustains it, remains as precious as ever.

Colm Byrne is Oxfam Ireland’s Humanitarian Manager.

Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid today, a two-day festival of feasting and celebration to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. 

But as they reflect on a month of abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset, we should think of the millions of Muslims in troubled countries who will not be able to celebrate. 

In Syria, where 4.25 million people have been displaced by war, the Dabbour family from Damascus have been living in a camp in neighbouring Lebanon for the past year. They were forced out of their home after their neighbourhood was surrounded by snipers from all sides, and eventually bombed.

“We haven’t eaten meat in a year. After the market closes down, I go to look for the rotting fruits and vegetables left in the street” says the father Seif, 50. “I hate living here, I keep thinking of going back,” says the former petrol company manager. 

His wife, Raja, has just rice and potatoes cooked in flour, and some stale bread to cook in the evening time. 

“For all the talk about Ramadan being the month of charity and thinking of the poor, we are getting no help, and all we see in Syria is Shi’a killing Sunnis, Sunnis killing Shi’a. If this is Islam, I want nothing to do with it. A Muslim shouldn’t even chop off a tree, let alone kill a fellow human being. We used to live peacefully with Christians, Jews, Druze, Shia’s and Sunnis. Now look at what’s happening there. What kind of Ramadan is this?”

He says he is hoping for a promised peace conference in Geneva so that he can live in peace again. 

More than 1.7 million refugees have fled into neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, with an estimated 8,000 people leaving Syria every day. None of them knowing if or when they will be able to return home. 

Oxfam’s response to the crisis in Syria:

Oxfam has provided humanitarian assistance to more than 135,000 refugees who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan since the start of the year. We're providing water and sanitation facilities in Zaatari refugee camp, in Jordan, and to families living in temporary settlements in both Lebanon and Jordan; as well as providing cash support to families living in rented accommodation and settlements in both countries.

Funds are short but with more money Oxfam would be able to scale up its response to the Syria crisis and reach more people.

‘Where do you do your shopping? How much are you paying for groceries? Do you shop around?’

As the recession continues to bite, the food we eat, where we buy it and how much for seem to be fast replacing the weather as the most popular topic of conversation.

Shiny supermarkets leaflets showcasing ‘2 for 1’ deals falling out of every newspaper, the rise in the number of people splitting their weekly shop in multiple supermarkets to maximise these special offers, the growth in growing vegetables at home  and the popularity of blogs such as CheapEats.ie (tagline: ‘tough times, great food’) and activist Jack Monroe’s A Girl Called Jack (documenting the challenges of feeding herself and her three-year-old son on a weekly budget of just £10/€11.70) prove as much.

In a world where there is enough for everyone to eat, 870 million of us go to bed hungry every night. It’s a place where food banks are springing up at home but where food waste is still startlingly high (a third of food bought in Ireland ends up the bin, costing the average household up to €1,000/£850 a year).

Here we visit families from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe to see what they will eat in one week:

AZERBAIJAN

Mirza (47) and Zarkhara (37) Bakhishov and sons Khasay (18) and Elchin (15) with a week's worth of food outside their home in Shahveller village. Mirza says: “Our small cattle and poultry is everything for us. All our income and livelihood is dependent on them. The main problems for us are related to agricultural water and irrigation of our crops. We used to have problems obtaining animal feed, but now thanks to Oxfam and [partner organisation] Aktivta, our problem is solved.” David Levene/Oxfam

ETHIOPIA

Bayush photographed with her daughter Genet (14) and son Destaw (11) and week's supply of food outside their home in the village of Amba Sebat. The food includes vegetable oil, maize, sugar and shiro (chickpea flour). They live in a small thatched hut without running water or electricity. Bayush is part of a cooperative of 31 women who collectively own land on which they farm vegetables. Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

LIBERIA

Blagnon Gnepa Herve (43) and Elise Gnamlin Boe (41) and children – (left to right) Ezechiel (21), Ange (18), Isaac (13), Jonathan (15), Moise (6) and Paul (3) – with their food rations. They’re standing outside their tent in a temporary refugee camp for people fleeing violence across the border in the Ivory Coast.

PAKISTAN

Husna La Shari, her husband and seven children live in the village of Khawand Bax La Shari. Husna is responsible for providing for her entire family as her husband is too old to work. Floods destroyed the fields she relied on for farming and harvesting. “It was difficult for me before the flood and now it is more difficult for me as there is no farming or harvesting… I am scared for how I will feed my children," she says. Timothy Allen/Oxfam

SRI LANKA

The Kumarapar family – (left to right) Thangalatchmy (44). Saratha (34), Surkitha (30) and Selvern (70) – outside their house in the village of Muruganwr with a week’s supply of food. They have thampala (a green leafy vegetable), tomatoes, potatoes, onion, chilli, spinach, leeks, cabbage, pumpkin, rice, flour and chicken. Their village is located on the border of what used to be a conflict zone. They have seen their neighbours’ homes set alight and at one point the conflict became so bad they were forced to leave and live in a refugee camp. In 2009 the conflict ended and now the family are rebuilding their lives. Abir Abdullah/Oxfam

TAJIKISTAN

BiBi-Faiz Miralieba (centre) and her family – (left to right) Siyoushi (11), niece Gulnoya Shdova (14), Jomakhon (6), Shodmon (9) and Jamila (13) – with a week’s total food supply in Kaftakharna village. Like many women in rural areas, her husband has migrated to Russia to find work, as there is not enough work for them in Tajikistan to feed their families. Andy Hall/Oxfam

ZIMBABWE

Three generations of the extended Mudzingwa family outside their home in Gutu District with their typical supply of food for a week – a bucket of ground nuts waiting to be shelled by hand and a bucket of maize flour that's turned into a porridge-style paste for every meal. They have been given a plot of land in an Oxfam-supported project and had just planted their first crop when this photograph was taken. Annie Bungeroth/Oxfam

We are helping to ensure people have enough to eat in three ways: by providing emergency food supplies in humanitarian disasters, through long-term development projects that develop sustainable farming methods and with our campaigning that gives a voice to the vulnerable, such as the women farmers who feed their communities and those who provide the raw ingredients for some of the world’s biggest brands.

But we couldn’t do this without your support. Thank you.

Oxfam Campaigner Rachel Edwards meets Liqaa', a 23 year old refugee from Syria, who now lives in Za'atari refugee camp, in Jordan.

Following news from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees that the number of registered refugees fleeing Syria has reached 2 million, it would be easy to lose sight of how everyday miracles are still possible amid a crisis of such staggering proportions. 

Liqaa’, 23 year old refugee from Syria, moved to Za’atari refugee camp, heavily pregnant, earlier this year. Last month, she gave birth to a healthy little girl named Limar. 

Above: Limar was born on 3 August the first child of Liqaa’ and Bassel who currently live in Zaatari camp in Jordan. Photos: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

When we went to see her, Liqaa’ told us about Limar’s arrival:

"It was such a beautiful day for me and for my husband [Basel] to see this sweet baby. I was so happy. After giving birth I was tired but after seeing her I forgot about my tiredness. 

But on what was one of the happiest days of her life, she was overcome with the sadness of being unable to share this magical day with the rest of her family back in Syria. 

"I missed my family so much on that day. I was crying, and until now I miss them... and think of going back but it's not safe. I wanted to go to give birth in Syria and be next to my family but it was too dangerous”.

Although Liqaa’ had become accustomed to the way of life in Za’atari refugee camp, after birth she realised how much she had under-estimated the hardship of raising a child in a refugee camp.

"It's so difficult to raise a baby here. The climate is too hot for her during the day, and in the night it's so cold. Hospitals here are not that good to get medicines and medical services. Adults can get by with the services we have here but for children it's much harder."

Liqaa’ and Basel’s story is not unique. With the snail’s pace of progress towards finding a political solution to the conflict, they won’t be the last to become new parents in such circumstances 

Liqaa’ also told us what becoming a new mum meant for her thoughts about the best way forward for Syria now: 

"We need peace in Syria for our children. Now that I've given birth to Limar it's even more important for me and for her to have our country back, for her to grow up there with our family. What I wish from the international community is to help the Syrian people to find a political solution, to help us to go back to our country, to our life, to our future”. 

More than 100,000 lives have been lost in the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in a generation. We must now support and give hope back to LIqaa’ and her family, and the millions of Syrians like them, as soon as possible. "I look forward to going back to Syria as soon as possible."

Above: With more than 100,000 people already killed in Syria, and two million people having fled to neighbouring countries, Oxfam Ireland staged media stunts in Dublin and Belfast calling on world leaders at this week’s G20 in St. Petersburg to intensify their efforts for a peaceful, political solution to end the bloodshed and the suffering of the Syrian people. Photos top and lower-right: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland Photo lower-left: Matt Mackey/ Press Eye

A generation of Syrians is paying too high a price in this conflict. Limar is just one of the 2 million refugees who have been seriously let down by the international community, which has failed to prioritise a political solution to the conflict. That must change. World leaders - especially President Obama and President Putin - must ensure the long-promised peace talks take place as soon as possible.

The announcement of the two millionth refugee, and this week’s G20 meeting in St. Petersburg in Russia, prompted Oxfam Ireland to repeat the call for the international community to find an urgently-needed political solution to the crisis. 

Oxfam staged campaign stunts in Dublin and Belfast city centres, with volunteers laying white flowers among rows of white gravestones to mark how more than 100,000 lives have been lost in Syria.  

It is the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in a generation, and Oxfam Ireland is warning that the scale of the Syria crisis is rapidly deepening. Every day more refugees cross the borders into neighbouring countries – often traumatised and in need of the basics: food, water and shelter. But the humanitarian response to the crisis is stretched to the limit.

OXFAM’S RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS IN SYRIA

Oxfam has provided humanitarian assistance to more than 200,000 refugees who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan since the start of the year. We're providing water and sanitation facilities in Zaatari refugee camp, in Jordan, and to families living in temporary settlements in both Lebanon and Jordan; as well as providing cash support to families living in rented accommodation and settlements in both countries. 

Funds are short but with more money Oxfam would be able to scale up its response to the crisis. Oxfam hopes to have reached 650,000 people by the end of the year, in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.