Harriet Nakabaale has named her Kampala yard “Camp Green” for the abundant vegetables she is able to produce from it. Photo: Ami Vitale

It’s planting season where I live north of Boston. I’ve never been very good at getting a garden to grow, which is why I was blown away when I walked through the gate into Harriet Nakabaale’s small city yard in Kampala, Uganda, a few weeks ago. She had planted just about every inch of it—and all of it was green and edible. It was a true victory garden, especially in a place like Kampala where the hard-packed earth in crowded neighborhoods can appear so unforgiving. You just have to know how to work it, like Nakabaale does—patiently, with absolute devotion, and the knowledge that all your hard work will pay off in heaps of healthy vegetables.

For all you would-be gardeners out there, maybe this photo of Nakabaale—snapped in a rare moment of repose—will serve as a bit of inspiration to get you going.

And watch for others that we’ll be sharing. They are part of an ambitious effort to advise the Rockefeller Foundation in identifying promising innovations in African agriculture for small farmers. The idea was to do a scan of work being done across sub-Saharan Africa by our peers as well as local citizen groups, organizations,  governments, and corporations, and then to try to identify ideas and projects that might be both innovative and scalable. We are writing up our findings now for the foundation to present at its centennial celebration in Nigeria in July. In the meantime, we have a treasure trove of great ideas, stories, and pictures–including the one above taken by Ami Vitale—of incredible people and innovations to share with you.

This post was co-authored by Victoria Marzilli and Anna Kramer.

By now we’ve probably all heard 2012 being called a new “year of the woman.” From a record number of females elected into the US Congress, to the young Pakistani education activist who was TIME’s runner-up for Person of the Year (with Hillary Clinton and Marissa Mayer making the shortlist), the girls are seriously representing this year. But, even with all the focus on these extraordinary women, we feel like there’s still something missing.

You see, working at Oxfam, we have the incredible opportunity to hear stories of people who beat the odds every day. But what we’ve learned is that those odds are, more often than not, stacked against women. So in the spirit of reflection, we’ve chosen five more women–who you probably have never heard of–who are inspiring us to keep up the fight for social justice and keep changing the world for the better.

1. The spokeswoman

Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Oxfam America

Nigeria’s Susan Godwin is a farmer, public speaker, feminist, entrepreneur, and human rights activist all rolled into one. As a voice for greater investment in rural women farmers, she’s shared her story with audiences all over the world this year, whether at events organized by US volunteers, the World Food Prize Conference in Iowa, or Oxfam’s ongoing global discussion about the Future of Agriculture. To hear Susan tell her story in her own words, watch the video of Oxfam America’s recent “Talks at Google” event focused on ending hunger.

2. The first responder

Photo: Rene Figueroa/Oxfam America

In El Salvador, Doris Escobar coordinates a core group of dedicated volunteers–more than half of them women–who are experts at emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion. Thanks to training supported by Oxfam, Escobar’s volunteers made a difference when an extraordinary storm struck El Salvador late last year. More recently, the group has been training new members from 150 communities. “It has been a lot of work,” said Escobar, “but we are teaching that women are capable of doing everything that men can. I tell many women, ‘We don’t have to follow behind a man. We can walk in front of one.’” Read the full story here.

3. The smart gardener

Photo: Percy Ramirez/Oxfam America

Luz Sinarahua, 26, leads a group of women and mothers in rural Chirikyacu, Peru, who work together to maintain a community garden that’s far from ordinary. Sinarahua and her fellow women are participants in an Oxfam pilot project that helps indigenous women reclaim their ancestors’ traditional crops while increasing their incomes and combating the effects of climate change. “We are 18 really active women,” saind Sinarahua of her fellow growers. “We are unified, and we coordinate our work.” Read the full story here.

 4. The rural innovator

Photo: Sokunthea Chor/Oxfam America

Chheng Cheeung, a rice farmer from Cambodia’s Pursat province, was one of the first farmers in her village to try the System of Rice Intensification, an innovative method that can grow more rice using less water and fewer resources. Though her neighbors laughed at her at first, Chheng proved them wrong when her stronger crops not only survived a flood: they flourished. She was able to double her income from her rice crop–money that she invested in her daughter’s education–and now serves as a model for innovation throughout her community. Read the rest of her story here.

5. The female food hero

Photo: Oxfam

Oxfam’s Female Food Hero contest is raising the profile of women in places like Tanzania and Ethiopia—where women grow, cook, and produce most of their countries’ food, but are rarely publicly recognized for their accomplishments. Sister Martha Waziri, this year’s winner of the contest in Tanzania, reclaimed a barren, unwanted patch of land and turned it into a source of food and income, and then motivated others in her community to do the same. “Sister Martha is not an agro-science expert,” wrote Oxfam’s Mwanahamisi Salimu earlier this year. “But this extraordinary woman from an ordinary rural community has made a substantial contribution to conserve her environment and made a remarkable difference in the lives of her fellow villagers.” Read the rest of her story here.

 We want to hear from you: What other unsung women heroes changed the world in 2012? Tell us by leaving a comment below.

Photo by Eva-Lotta Jansson

As the mother of soccer players (both of whom are now too old for schoolboy sports, but never too old for pickup matches wherever they can find them), I read a story in the New York Times today that made me smile. “Joy that lasts, on the poorest playgrounds,” said the headline. It was about soccer—the universal language for love of a ball—and a new kind of material to play it with: PopFoam.

It was a story about an entrepreneur driven to develop PopFoam soccer balls for kids in some of the poorest parts of the world, where a ball is often just something that can be made to roll, even if it’s more oblong than round.

How many times have I witnessed that joy the headline heralds? It’s one of the thrills of any visit to the field I have ever taken  for Oxfam—to catch sight of a game on a patch of rough earth, on the foundation of a ruined house, beyond the mud walls of a compound. Plumes of dust billow at each bounce of the ball, feet flying after it. No shoes? No one seems to mind. The ball is all that matters.

 A whoop. A score.

And the game goes on. Read the rest of this entry »

In August, Oxfam America’s Scott Paul traveled to Somaliland to research a money transfer system that helps support countless families in the region. A senior humanitarian policy advisor, Paul discusses how remittances provide a lifeline to Somalilanders and people all across the Somali region. This is the third in a series of three blogs on the topic.

A remittance clerk examines Scott Paul's passport.

During Ramadan, the month of fasting and reflection in Islam, Muslims are expected to send gifts to their loved ones and increase their charitable giving. That was the month I was in Hargeisa, Somaliland, trying to understand how the money transfer system so many people depend on works—and how to make sure it keeps working.

Knowing that a $60 transfer had arrived for me I took my place behind a long procession of Somalilanders eager to collect funds that their relatives, friends and broader kin had sent from other countries. I’m certain it was the same all over Somalia – people were waiting on line to collect money they desperately need to get by.

Earlier in the day, staffers at the Dahabshiil branch had kindly given me a tour of the company’s compliance practices. Dahabshiil puts every US-Somalia money transfer through two rounds of vetting– one automatically when their agents collect the money and one by the compliance department before payment is issued –  to make sure it doesn’t violate US counterterror laws. The branch office’s anti-money laundering officer usually only does a third check on what the US calls “suspicious transactions,” transfers of more than $10,000. But to help me understand the system better, the branch officer ran my $60 through that anti-money laundering check, too.

After the remittance clerk made a copy of my passport and took down my information, I was finally ready . . . to sign the paperwork, collect a voucher and wait in another long line of restless Somalilanders. But it didn’t take long for me to present my voucher and collect my money.

Oxfam is committed to helping Somalis find a way out of the current humanitarian emergency and build a secure and prosperous  future. So we’re studying the US laws on money laundering and trying to figure out whether Dahabshiil or the other dozen or so other Somali money transfer companies can do anything to put themselves on stronger footing to ensure they can continue the service. Abdirashid Duale, the Dahabshiil CEO, is convinced they’ve done everything that’s required of them and more. And we’re looking at what banks and the government can do to better facilitate the Somali remittance system without compromising their efforts to weed out money laundering.

No matter what conclusions we reach, from my experience in August, two things are clear. First, the perception of all Islamic money service businesses in Somalia as insecure, informal, and uncommitted to compliance with US law needs to be thoroughly re-examined. Second, any interruption in the flow of remittances to Somalia would abruptly sever a critical lifeline to the Somali people, who have suffered through a humanitarian crisis for 20 years and counting. Such a cruel turn of fate would be unfair for any country, let alone one that has weathered so much hardship for so long.

In August, Oxfam America’s Scott Paul traveled to Somaliland to research a money transfer system that helps support countless families in the region. A senior humanitarian policy advisor, Paul discusses how remittances provide a lifeline to Somalilanders and people all across the Somali region. This is the second in a series of three blogs on the topic.

People wait in crowded lines to receive money transfers in Somaliland. Photo by Scott Paul

On my first day in Somaliland, I traveled to the operations center of Dahabshiil. In case I didn’t drive the point home strongly enough yesterday, Dahabshiil is a significant presence in Somaliland. The operations center now occupies two older buildings, but it’s scheduled to relocate to a new building, which, when completed, will be the biggest in all of Somaliland.

I asked Abdirashid Duale, Dahabshiil’s chief executive officer, what most threatened the free flow of remittances from the US to Somalia. Without hesitation, he replied, “Banks, banks, banks.”

Traditional Islamic money service businesses like Dahabshiil have agents to collect and distribute money transfers, but they can’t actually send money from the US to Somalia themselves – they need banks to do that. But US law requires banks to devote a ton of resources to monitoring the transactions and to subject themselves to additional government scrutiny.

As a result, only a few small banks still work with the Somali money transfer companies. And those banks could decide at any moment to discontinue service – even if the companies go above and beyond their legal obligations.

Many Somali-Americans are scared and frustrated, and I can understand why. Imagine tightening your belt so you can set aside a few extra dollars for your kin threatened by famine and conflict, while knowing in the back of your mind that a bank can shut down the transfer service at a moment’s notice.

It’s no wonder the Somali-American community in the Twin Cities in Minnesota has organized town hall meetings, protests, and boycotts this year in order to force banks and government officials to find a way to keep remittances flowing.

To millions of Somali families, messages from money transfer companies like this one means the support they need to survive has finally arrived. To me, it meant a window into a poorly understood facet of Somali life was beginning to open.

In August, Oxfam America’s Scott Paul traveled to Somaliland to research a money transfer system that helps support countless families in the region. A senior humanitarian policy advisor, Paul discusses how remittances provide a lifeline to Somalilanders and people all across the Somali region. This is the first in a series of three blogs on the topic.

A sign draws attention to one of Somaliland's money transfer companies. Photo by Scott Paul

Years ago, as a student working a summer job in Moscow, I came to the stark realization that I didn’t have enough money in my account to move into my summer digs. With no small amount of embarrassment, I called home to my parents and asked if they would send cash to help me cover my security deposit and initial rent payment until I received my first paycheck. Sure enough, the next day I found cash waiting for me in my bank account.

I forgot this entire experience until August when I traveled to Hargeisa, a city in Somaliland that might be appropriately called the remittance capital of the world. Of course, Somalilanders don’t receive money transfers just to cover a month’s rent until the next paycheck comes in. For many families, money transfers are the next paycheck.

A self-declared independent republic northeast of Ethiopia, Somaliland is viewed by many as an autonomous region of Somalia, not as an independent state. Somalis in Minneapolis, London, Nairobi, Dubai, and all over the world send money to their relatives, friends and their broader kin there, and in Somalia, to cover everything from basic needs like food and shelter to investments in small businesses.

The Somaliland Ministry of Planning and Development estimates that remittances reach more than 40 percent of Somaliland households and account for a staggering 25 percent of its gross domestic product. In South and Central Somalia, where drought, armed conflict and human rights abuses have created arguably the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the numbers may be even higher.

That’s why “Fast Money Transfer You Can Trust,” the slogan of the Hargeisa-based money transfer company Dahabshiil, is more common on billboards than “Just Do It” or even the classic “Always Coca-Cola.” And it’s why everyone I talked to in Hargeisa – women’s groups, government officials, youth leaders and others – made clear that remittances are nothing less than a lifeline to the Somali people.

In December, 2011 – in the midst of this century’s worst famine – that lifeline was nearly cut off when a key bank in the United States decided to stop doing business with the Somali money transfer companies. Oxfam’s partner organizations in Somalia sounded the alarm, urging us to help persuade banks and policymakers to find a way to keep the money flowing to Somalia.

But to do that properly, first we had to understand exactly how the Somali remittance system works. That’s how I found myself going through the time-honored tradition in Somalia of receiving a money transfer from America.

Oxfam’s Skye Wheeler returned recently from a trip to a camp in Jamam, South Sudan, where refugees from conflict in Sudan are living in harsh conditions.

Among many other challenges, the first year of independence has seen the influx of some 170,000 refugees into South Sudan.  Fleeing conflict in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan  and Blue Nile states, these refugees continue to face crisis upon arrival, including water and food shortages.

In the height of the dry season I visited Jamam camp in Upper Nile state (South Sudan), where Oxfam is struggling against a harsh and unyielding environment to provide water and sanitation for 32,000 of the refugees from Blue Nile.  There I found people living in extreme difficulty - hardship that has worsened since these pictures were taken, as the rains have arrived in this remote part of South Sudan. Few have the shelter they need to adequately cope with the rains that also turn the ground to thick mud and will likely flood part of the camp.

 As well as trucking water to tap stands in the camp, Oxfam is building latrines and is working with both the refugee and host population of about 3,000 people to spread vital hygiene messages and raise awareness on how to identify, treat, and prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.  Oxfam is also stockpiling emergency supplies of water purification equipment, rehydration salts, and soap to help contain the spread of cholera if an outbreak happens. These refugees are entirely dependent on aid agencies. Oxfam delivers water and sanitation all over the world and conditions here are about as difficult as they get. (Read more about the Jamam camps and about Oxfam’s work in this emergency.)

Women set out to collect water

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Here is Jamam camp in Melut county of Upper Nile, South Sudan, which hosts some 32,000 refugees from Blue Nile in Sudan. The refugees that live here escaped the conflict between the government and the SPLA-N rebels that broke out September 1, 2011. Women and children spend a lot of time collecting water. These women on their way to the tap stands were really friendly to me and were laughing about something. There’s a sense of waiting in the camp that’s typical of refugee camps. There is no sign yet of the peace Blue Nile will need for these refugees to return home. Photo by Skye Wheeler.

For South Sudanese moving back to what is now their new country, return and reintegration have been fraught with difficulty.

As I stood in front of the long, dusty, metallic brown train, amidst mountains of burlap sacks which South Sudanese had used to wrap their belongings for the long journey from Khartoum to the new Republic of South Sudan, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to see a face that was familiar if not immediately recognizable. I squinted in the sun for a moment and then it came to me. I took a step back in disbelief. He turned to my puzzled colleague and explained: “I was his teacher.”

The memories flooded back to me. A decade earlier, the man standing in front of me in Wau had been a refugee in Cairo who volunteered his time to interpret for fellow South Sudanese who had fled to Egypt to escape Africa’s longest-running civil war, which scattered millions across Sudan, Africa, and the World.  More than interpreters of language, people like N___ were interpreters of culture. By translating for people like me – mostly foreign volunteers who had come to Cairo to provide legal assistance to asylum-seekers – and teaching us about their countries, they bridged not just the language divide but also the cultural divide so that together we could help asylum-seekers navigate the often difficult path to refugee status.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kenny Rae traveled to Ethiopia in March to support relief efforts for communities in the Bale zone who are struggling to overcome the East Africa drought and food crisis.

Every morning Yenee leaves her two children in the care of her sister and ventures off to collect water for her family. After walking for two hours she arrives at the spring–the only source of water for miles around.

She is not alone. In Laga Hidha, a remote district in southeast Ethiopia which hasn’t seen rain for over a year, collecting water for drinking, cooking and bathing can be an all day affair–every day. At mid-morning at the spring there can sometimes be more than 100 women, some of whom have walked for more than seven miles. She will wait patiently in line for another two hours to fill her  jerrycans. She then returns home, carrying 30 liters (66 pounds weight) of water on her back.

In some parts of Ethiopia, women like Yenee walk several miles to collect water for their families and livestock. Photo by Kenny Rae / Oxfam America.

It wasn’t always like this. Nine years ago a well equipped with a hand pump  was installed in her village which provided water for all. Twice yearly rains would replenish the open wells and ponds that provided water for livestock, for bathing and  for laundering clothes.

The hand pump has been broken for over a year, and a promise to replace it by an aid agency has yet to be fulfilled. The prolonged drought has caused the open wells and ponds to dry up, and the cattle and goats that benefited from them have been sold off or have perished. Where there was once pasture, there in now only dust. Those determined to hold on to a couple of animals for milk must venture further and further from home to find food for their animals.

In Hidha Hunda village, an elder told us that one of the few remaining cows had, the day before been taken in search of food  and water and, miles away, had collapsed from hunger. Its owner left it where it lay and returned home. In every village we visited here, and in the neighboring district of Sawena we learned of the hardships that people are dealing with.

In  Gale  village all the  livestock has been sold. Families were unable to  keep one or two animals for milk as the surrounding pasture is long depleted. No crops have been cultivated for over a year. Collecting honey used to provide additional income for the villagers but, without water and flowers, the bees are gone. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin getting a taste of the local food and drink in Ethiopia. Photo credit: Audra Melton / Oxfam.

NFL wide receivers Anquan Boldin of the Baltimore Ravens and Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals are currently in Ethiopia with Oxfam staff to raise awareness about the food crisis in East Africa and see first-hand the effects of the drought. During the trip the players are meeting with local people, Oxfam partner organizations, and Ethiopian athletes. They are also visiting Oxfam development projects.

The players participated in a live call with fans and Oxfam supporters and from the field today. Fitzgerald said on the call: “I’m blessed to be able to come over here. And I feel like the work that we’re trying to do, the attention that we’re trying to raise, and the awareness is not going to fall on deaf ears.”

Listen to a full recording of their conversation.

Watch a Public Service Announcement from the players. And donate now to help save lives in East Africa.