Photo: Percy Ramirez/Oxfam America; click to enlarge

Above, Marlith Amasifuen Ishuiza and her son Bryan Sangama at a community water tap in Aviación, a rural town of about 300 people in Peru’s northern Amazon region. With support from Oxfam, women in Aviación worked together to cultivate a traditional garden, which protects their indigenous Kichwa culture while providing an additional source of food and income for their families.

I thought of my 2012 visit to Avación when I read “The Kids Left Behind by the Boom,” a moving op-ed by journalist Marie Arana that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times. With the story of 12-year-old Henrry Ochochoque, Arana touches on many of the same issues that Oxfam’s programs in Peru seek to address: the stark inequalities between the flourishing capital city and the struggling rural villages; the environmental and human costs of out-of-control natural resource extraction; and the still-persistent discrimination that leaves many indigenous people shut out of the country’s recent economic boom.

As Arana points out, these problems affect kids first and foremost. Henrry, and many others like him, are getting “an education that will leave [them] drastically unprepared for the 21st century. … 78 percent of Peru’s indigenous children live in poverty. A third of all rural children suffer chronic malnutrition. … For Henrry, despite his A’s and sunny optimism, the Peruvian boom may as well be on the moon.”

In the face of challenges like this, it’s hard to be optimistic about the future. But for Henrry’s sake, and Bryan’s too, I hope we’ll see some changes before they grow up.

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.

Lissette Miller is a former Oxfam Action Corps organizer and student volunteer. She lives in Washington, DC.

I’m quite picky when it comes to films (I’m that guy), but even the rain couldn’t stop me from enjoying the film También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), which I first saw last year at the Coral Gables Arts Cinema in Miami.

For one, the story touches upon issues that will make you want to join a picket line. It takes place in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where a movie is being filmed about the Columbian voyage to the “New World” and their unexpected encounters with its inhabitants. Gael García Bernal plays the director, who hires the local townspeople to portray “Native” people like Hatuey, a 16th century Taíno chief known for leading uprisings against the colonizers. Things get cray when the filmmakers discover the actor playing Hatuey is, in his own life, an active protestor against the privatization of his city’s water plant (a direct allusion to the Cochabamba Water Wars).

Also, Gael García Bernal. I mean, c’mon, the man’s face looks like it was carved by angels. More importantly, he’s a social justice activist at heart who’s been working with Oxfam since 2005. He’s visited Chiapas, Mexico, to meet farmers directly affected by unfair global trade practices. He’s had a hand in urging world leaders to address climate change, and is a supporter of Oxfam’s GROW campaign, or CRECE en Español. Gael, along with friend and fellow actor Diego Luna, founded the non-profit Ambulante, which screens documentary films and hosts training programs in places where they are rarely available.

In También la Lluvia, however, Gael plays a far from compassionate character, who knowingly makes a profit off his low-paid Bolivian crew and continues shooting his movie even as the water protests turn violent.

Stimulating story, aside, I also appreciated that this was a subtitled movie, with the actors speaking Spanish. Seriously, what’s with the movies set outside the US with non-English speaking characters, yet with all-English dialogue? As if everyone in the world is speaking English to one another in weird, obscure accents, maintaining every other aspect of their culture save for their language. Oh, Hollywood, you sly devil, you.

Bottom line: If you’re an Ox-friend, you’ll dig this this movie. También la Lluvia highlights certain injustices done to poor, often-silent populations, and the power they wield when they stand together in opposition, while somehow never straying into preachy-land.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, blogs, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. If you’d like to contribute a guest post or suggest a topic, please leave 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 »

It’s not surprising that Mistura—Latin America’s most famous food festival, and one of the largest in the entire world—takes place in Peru. If you’ve ever been there, or even eaten at a Peruvian restaurant elsewhere, you know that the country’s cuisine is varied and unique (I’ve never tried chicha morada, or purple corn juice, anywhere else), and makes delicious use of fresh, seasonal ingredients.

But even though most of Peru’s food is produced within its borders, a lack of investment in rural areas–combined with other factors, like climate change—has left many Peruvian farmers facing poverty. In rural San Martin, for example, the Kichwa women I met earlier this year grew an amazing array of crops in their communal gardens, yet they said they had few opportunities to sell their produce and earn much-needed income for their families.

Oxfam’s GROW campaign (CRECE in Spanish) is working to increase the opportunities for small-scale farmers, especially women, in Peru and beyond. Here’s what Giovanna Vásquez, campaign coordinator in Perú, said about this short video, below, filmed by CRECE at Mistura last month:

“Close to half a million people attended the fifth edition of the Mistura food festival this September in Lima, Peru. For 10 days, Mistura featured the best dishes from renowned Peruvian cuisine, as well as thousands of products offered directly to consumers from more than 300 Peruvian producers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, we’re joining our partners at Blog Action Day and thousands of others worldwide to pay tribute to the power of community. The 2012 Blog Action Day theme, “the power of we,” is “a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet.”

At Oxfam America, we know just how much those collaborative efforts matter. Around the world, our programs to solve poverty and hunger are often led by local men and women who are working together to improve their own lives. Here in the US, our supporters also help raise awareness about these efforts and inspire others to take action. Sometimes those two groups even come together, as you’ll see in some of the photos below—and when they do, the results can be astonishing.

So in honor of “the power of we,” here are five Oxfam photos that we think best capture the spirit of community:

1.   Sharing solutions to hunger

Selas Samson Biru, center, a farmer from Tigray, Ethiopia, compares crops with Sonia Kendrick, left, and Linda Barnes, right, both Iowa farmers and Oxfam Sisters on the Planet ambassadors. In honor of World Food Day last year, Oxfam brought women farmers like Biru to the US to meet their American counterparts and talk about shared solutions to global hunger. Photo: Ilene Perlman/Oxfam America

2.   Pooling resources

Local women in Banakoro, Mali, during a weekly meeting of their community savings and lending group, which they call Sabougnuma, or “good deed.” Oxfam’s Saving for Change program helps poor people in five countries start and run their own village savings groups, which act as community banks and can make loans to members in need. Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/Oxfam America

3.   Lending a hand

NFL superstar wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin (facing away from camera) help with community rebuilding efforts during a visit to Tigray, Ethiopia, with Oxfam earlier this year. Inspired by their travels, Boldin and Fitzgerald recently launched a fundraising campaign to help Ethiopian communities recover from last year’s drought and food crisis. Photo: Audra Melton/Oxfam America

4.   Providing for the next generation

Marlith Amasifuen, shown here with her son Bryan, is one of 30 indigenous women from Aviación, Peru, who work together to maintain a shared garden deep in the Amazon forest. With Oxfam’s support, the women cultivate the same traditional crops that their Kichwa ancestors once grew, protecting their families from crop loss caused by climate change and providing a steady food source for their children.  Photo: Percy Ramírez/Oxfam America

5.  Educating friends and neighbors

More than 200 people participated in an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® event in New York City in 2011. Nearly 40 years after the first Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, this memorable, interactive event continues to educate Americans about the causes of hunger and poverty; thousands of people around the country host or attend local Hunger Banquets each year. Photo: Nicole Kindred/Oxfam America

Kichwa women in Chirikyacu, Peru, work together to cultivate traditional crops. Photo: Percy Ramirez/Oxfam America

The more I learn about Oxfam’s work in South America—and I’ve learned a lot in recent months—the more impressed I am by the power of women.

Indigenous people in countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador have experienced centuries of discrimination and exclusion. Even today, many remain trapped in poverty. That’s why Oxfam works with indigenous groups to protect their fundamental rights and increase their political and decision-making power.

While many groups face ethnic discrimination, indigenous women have to overcome gender bias, too. A recent Oxfam report found that although women in Peru made significant contributions to the indigenous peoples’ movement, they are still less likely to hold elected office, get an education, or earn a living wage. They also face new challenges in their traditional roles as food producers. “Women are feeling the effects [of climate change] more, because they are more tied to the earth,” said Nancy Iza Moreno of Oxfam partner group the Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas (CAOI). “They are the ones who work in the gardens and in the fields.”

Read the rest of this entry »

La Oroya, Peru, in 2006, when the Doe Run Peru lead smelter was operating in the center of town. Photo: Flor Ruiz / Oxfam America

“Communication is power,” said Rosa Amaro. “I would like people around the world to know what’s going on in my town, La Oroya … and then our authorities here in Peru can respond to the problems.”

Amaro told me this when I spoke with her in Boston last fall. But I didn’t really understand what the Oxfam partner and community leader meant until I visited Peru last week, during a crucial moment in her and other residents’ effort to protect their community. For ten years, they’ve been calling on the Doe Run Peru Corporation (part of the American-owned Renco Group) to clean up operations at its giant lead smelter in the heart of their town. Toxic chemicals from the smelter have affected La Oroya’s air, water, and soil, and contributed to health problems like elevated blood lead levels in local children.

Now, Peruvian authorities are debating whether or not to extend the deadline for Doe Run Peru to improve its environmental standards in La Oroya. If they do, the smelter—which has been closed for the last two years—could reopen as early as May, with no guarantees of a cleaner operation.

Many of the activists from La Oroya have a child or other family member whose health has been affected by lead poisoning. Most are women. Organized into grassroots networks, they help one another. And while they don’t have the money or influence of a major corporation, they do have the ability to reach others and mobilize them to join the cause.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gas flare at an oil rig in north east Ecuador. Photo by Coco Laso/Oxfam America

The case of Aguinda vs. Texaco in Ecuador is back in the news:  The plaintiffs won an appeal and now have the right to seize the assets of Chevron-Texaco anywhere in the world. It’s another stunning legal victory for the farmers and indigenous people of Ecuador’s Oriente who have been fighting this case in the courts in the US and Ecuador since 1993. However the defendant, the second-largest US oil company, is expected to appeal to a higher court in Ecuador.

Oxfam has been supporting the efforts of the plaintiffs in Ecuador off and on since 1991.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Amazon Defense Front's Attorney Pablo Fajardo says the case against Chevron is about the basic human right to live in a healthy environment. Photo by Coco Laso/Oxfam America.

Some big news out of Ecuador this week: A judge in Nueva Loja (also known as Lago Agrio, or “bitter lake”) issued a guilty verdict against Chevron and is fining the company $8.6 billion for polluting this fragile northeastern region of the country for more than 20 years. Media reports say this is the biggest judgment ever against any company for an environmental case.
Those of us following the case are glad to see that justice can be achieved by the people of the Amazon against one of the most powerful companies in the world – but it’s also clear from the history of this case that Chevron will do whatever it takes to avoid paying a single penny to the people who have suffered for decades. The struggle is not over. Read the rest of this entry »