Yasmin washes dishes in the derelict restaurant room in which she and her extended family now live in Lebanon. Photo by Sam Tarling/Oxfam

In honor of World Refugee Day on June 20, this week we will be sharing a series of blog posts highlighting the stories of refugees from Syria, where an escalating crisis has forced millions to flee their homes.

“Have you been to Syria?” asks a woman who gives her name only as Yasmin. It’s not her real name. She is too afraid to share that one—afraid of what will happen when she and her family return from their exile in Lebanon to Syria, a Syria she may no longer recognize.

Yasmin’s longing for that place—and all that’s been lost—makes me catch my breath as I read her words.

“We lived in a lovely old town,” she continues. “It had a big vegetable market where you could always get lots of fresh vegetables. It had many historical buildings. They were so beautiful. Now they have all gone and you won’t have a chance to see them. It was bombed one year and two months ago.”

I picture the terrible waste, the history that’s now a heap of rubble. I imagine being the mother of young children—as Yasmin is—and the terror they lived with as the bombs fell. When their house was hit, they fled to Damascus. When the bombing started there, too, they left for Lebanon and the dark, damp room that now houses eight of them. There is no running water. Their room serves as kitchen, bedroom, living room, toilet. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry Fitzgerald (white shirt) and Anquan Boldin (right) help women artisanal miners pound rock and sand. Photo by Audra Melton/Oxfam America

The village of Sabodala in eastern Senegal is going through an amazingly difficult transition.  Until several years ago the community had access to land on which they farmed for generations. They had clean water whenever needed.  The land provided a means of livelihood for the community while villagers turned to artisanal mining for gold in the dry season to earn extra money.

Then a mining company came in and seized their land—and everything changed. People could no longer farm in the same places. They still had access to water through a pump the mining company was generous enough to build in the village – but not generous enough to let the community use for free.  Villagers say that sometimes the pump was shut off for days at a time.  Farmers in Sabodala  were forced to depend on artisanal mining for basic necessities in a way they never had to before.  Seemingly overnight, mining changed from a way to generate supplemental income to the only way to earn a living year-round.

I stepped into this situation with NFL wide receivers Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald, and Roddy White on a visit with Oxfam to learn about our programs in the region and what they, their fans, and you can do to support our friends and partners on the ground.

The players saw one of the ways the community of Sabodala has responded to their newly created situation: the creation of a women’s Saving for Change group by a local association that was also working with Oxfam to help farmers get compensation for their lost land and improve access to water. Each individual member of the group saves and deposits about 25 cents a week (roughly $12 each year) to the group fund. That seemed like a small amount to the players and myself, but when combined with the entire group savings, is actually a good sum of money to save in eastern Senegal.  The members can then borrow small loans to meet emergency needs or fund a small business venture.  The group has given the women access to resources they desperately need.

Changing for the better

We spoke with women who say their lives have been changed for the better through creating and accessing the savings group.  It is helping them open up new businesses, money for health care for children in the community, and getting new clothes. Although a savings group won’t solve all the problems in Sabodala, it will help people survive some difficult changes.

Read the rest of this entry »

In early March, Oxfam ambassador Djimon Hounsou visited a cattle camp in South Sudan, where many communities are suffering from the consequences of the unregulated flow of arms and ammunition. Photo by Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin

Earlier this month, actor Djimon Hounsou traveled with Oxfam America to South Sudan to bring attention to the need our world has for an international Arms Trade Treaty. This is his blog.

I just came back from an emotional trip through South Sudan, a country that’s still struggling to find peace after more than 50 years of war. I visited herding communities, like the one above, where the number of cattle owned by a family defines its social status and wealth. While cattle-raiding has been going on for generations, spears have been replaced with guns, and the violence increases season after season. I was shocked to see young boys carrying AK-47s.

Today, in New York, the UN starts to discuss the international Arms Trade Treaty. I’ve seen firsthand the horrifying results of unregulated weapons. It’s time for us to take a firm stance against this, to begin to put an end to the violence. A strong treaty is the foundation we need to make sure weapons and ammunition are not transferred to places where the weapons will be used to stall development or violate human rights.

James Bogoloh (right), an elected member of the District Assembly in Jomoro in western Ghana, talking with Solomon Kusi Ampofo, who works with Oxfam's partner organization Friends of the Nation. Photo by Anna Fawcus/Oxfam America.

Out in Jomoro district in western Ghana, James Bogoloh is looking at what passes for a road through dense forest between two villages near his home in Takinta. He pronounces it “deplorable.” “If it rains it is just not passable,” he says, as a motorcycle carrying two men, one holding a machete carefully off to the side, bounces and sputters past. Bogoloh shows us a concrete structure meant to bridge a low, wet area, and says that the contractor is about to start grading the road surface.

Bogoloh is an elected representative and a volunteer community monitor who is working with Oxfam’s partner Friends of the Nation to teach local people how to ensure that government money from oil and mining revenues is used to improve their lives. His efforts in Jomoro are complemented by a national coalition advocating for better laws to promote transparency of resource revenues, so citizens can see where their national wealth goes.

They are making significant progress, but the track to transparency has its ups and downs: Read the rest of this entry »

Jane F. Huber is Oxfam America’s Creative Director.

This weekend my sister sent me a link. A female student and Sikh at Ohio State—Balpreet Kaur—was photographed without her knowledge. The picture was posted online to Reddit by “european_douchebag.” It seemed to be a pretty classic case of cyberbullying. Apparently the poster was confused/outraged because Kaur’s facial hair (untrimmed because of her religious beliefs) did not square with her breasts. She was also wearing a dastar, or turban, and that may have triggered some other assumptions.

This photo of Balpreet Kaur was originally posted on Reddit where it inspired ridicule, then admiration...and eventually, an apology.

Except that’s where the similarities to most bullying stopped. The woman’s friend told her about the post.  The “victim” went online and addressed the poster—with grace, composure, and compassion. And damned if the bully didn’t step up and apologize. Courageously.

“Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am / Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life. Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.”

And that’s how it’s done.

When I meet people and tell them that I work in the communications department at Oxfam America, I can tell they are struggling to connect the dots. What does communications have to do with ending poverty? From now on, I am going to direct folks to Kaur’s story. My work at Oxfam is to consider how the stories and images of people who live in poverty can change the way individuals think about poverty and poor people. Once you recognize that this condition stems from injustice, you realize it is not inevitable. That’s the “Through the Looking Glass” moment. This is the public education part of Oxfam’s work. As anyone who’s grown a vegetable garden knows, if you want your plants to flourish, it’s not enough to sow a seed, you have to enrich the soil. It works the same way with ideas. To overcome poverty, we need to teach people to think differently about its causes. I know first-hand that once you see and hear people whose experiences differ from your own, it changes how you think—and, if you’re fortunate, changes how you live.

Read the rest of this entry »

On OxfamBuzzList we mostly review books, blogs, and movies that we want to recommend to our supporters. But every once in a while, we’ll sound the alarm when we think someone’s got it wrong.

A good example: The trailer for “The Impossible,” starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, sure looks like it may have missed the point of one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history.

The clip shows the fear and chaos that come when a family of white tourists in Thailand are split up by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The special effects look amazing and terrifying; the movie captures visually what photos from those days attempted to convey. As a mom, my stomach turns when I watch McGregor and Watts’ try to locate their lost children in the chaos, in the midst of their own pain and suffering.

Read the rest of this entry »

People are trapped in this trailer park unless they want to walk in high water or have a canoe. They wait on a canoe to come by so that they can go to the store. Photo: Telley Madina / Oxfam America.

Telley Madina is a Coastal Communities Program Officer as part of Oxfam America’s US program. This is the second of two blogs.

Previously, I wrote about how Hurricane Isaac brought new levels of flooding to my state and my city, and how the loss of wetlands has exposed us to risk in new ways.

Bad news, for sure; but even worse is who’s getting hurt the most when extreme weather hits. Turns out it’s the most vulnerable – people who may be poor, elderly, disabled, unemployed. While I traveled through Louisiana in the wake of Isaac, I saw how people were able to cope with the impact of even a mild hurricane, which knocked out power for days.

The day after Isaac, not much was open around New Orleans. I stopped at the Burger King in Gretna, one of the few places open that was selling hot food and jam-packed with people. One guy, aware he would soon lose power, had pulled all the steak and shrimp out of his freezer the night before and hosted  a barbecue. The guy next to him barely had enough money for a sandwich. I had no worries about the guy who might have lost some frozen supplies — but I wondered what would happen to the guy who was likely to head home to a place that may have been under water, but certainly would be hotter than heck.

Oxfam and our partners work in the Gulf Coast

to defend the rights of the most vulnerable, and to help them build resilience. I’m lucky enough to have the resources to prepare for this type of event, and to cope with the aftermath. All around me, though, I see what it means not to have the money to invest in simple tools. Read the rest of this entry »

Telley Madina is a Coastal Communities Officer as part of Oxfam America’s US program. This is the first of two blogs.

Before Isaac hit shore and lumbered through Louisiana and Mississippi,  I relocated my family from New Orleans to the Baton Rouge area. As I struggled to make my way back to New Orleans, searching for roads that weren’t blocked by downed trees or water, I was stunned to see the extent of flooding—in  areas that had never seen it before.

While Isaac clocked in as a relatively mild Category 1 storm, with nowhere near the destructive power of Katrina, the swelling water sent shock waves through our communities. As all of us are scrambling to restore order, we’re also reaching out to our friends and family who are vulnerable and hurting; and wondering what we need to do to prevent the next big storm from washing away more of our homes, businesses, and the culture we love.

Men getting around in water right next to the road in St. John Parish, which has never seen flooding before. Photo by: Telley Madina / Oxfam America.

Isaac hit especially hard in poorer coastal parishes, where the federal government had not invested in flood protection the way it had in New Orleans. Our partners are still reaching out to their communities, with direct aid and with plans for a long road to recovery. Plaquemines Parish, where our good friend Rev. Edwards runs the Zion Travelers Cooperative Center, was deluged after the water topped the levees. Many of the roads are still closed, and the power is still out in many spots; we’ve managed to contact some folks who report the damage is so extensive, and so close on the heels of Katrina’s devastation, that they may not struggle to rebuild again. Read the rest of this entry »

Megan Weintraub is Oxfam America’s New Media manager.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a truly unique film directed by Benh Zeitlin, is part magical tale and part heroine’s quest. It tells the story of Hushpuppy, a stubborn six-year-old resident of a region along the US Gulf coast called the Bathtub.

Early in the movie, we learn that the area is aptly named as drenching rain falls fast and dislodges its community members from their homes. The hurricane leaves Hushpuppy and her father, Wink, floating in a boat along the flood waters in search of their friends, a cast of characters as charmingly quirky and upbeat as they are dignified and resilient. In the wake of the storm, the band of friends shares meals and pools its resources while plotting how to stay in the Bathtub despite local government pressure to move to nearby disaster housing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Skye Wheeler is a Humanitarian Press Officer for Oxfam America.

A best friend is getting married 24 hours after I get back from here. “Here” is the beautiful, troubled eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where a recent surge of violence has caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

Marceline Habyarimana sews a dress in Kibati IDP camp on the outskirts of Goma, eastern DRC. Photo: Skye Wheeler / Oxfam America

The fact I have nothing to wear for a wedding is not at the front of my mind as I walk around Kibati camp on the outskirts of Goma town where Oxfam is trucking water and building latrines. The camp houses some 60,000 people and more are arriving every day having fled yet more conflict. In every direction are shelters of branches covered in tarpaulin. Inside are beds of leaves. Some families are sleeping out in the open and it seems everyone struggles to find enough food to eat.

But among the hundreds of white tarp-covered shelters is a splash of color. Marceline has set up shop. She cuts a long rectangle out of a piece of eye-wateringly bright material patterned with flowers and then, her foot paddling her sewing machine into action, she calmly turns it into a sleeve. The Congolese have a great passion for intensely colored material, boldly depicting drums or favorite beers, presidents, leopards etc. cut into dramatic dresses.

“(As we ran) I carried the sewing machine on my head and my husband carried the table,” Marceline said. She charges about 1,500 Congolese Francs to make a dress (less than $2). Her clients are from Goma town. “These people don’t have any money,” she says, indicating the sea of shelters around her with her large tailor’s scissors.

I wonder if I could pull off one of her gorgeous dresses. But it’s not for sale; it’s been ordered. Neither are fellow tailor Gaspard’s dresses and shirts. “I don’t have money to buy material,” he said “I have to wait for clients to bring cloth.”

I am not the only one looking for clothes. I meet a young man who was recruited by an armed group. He spent a month and a half carrying a bag of mobile telephones for a commander who frequently threatened to kill him. He escaped shedding the uniform he had been given as he ran, arriving in the camp in underwear. The blue jeans and shirt he now wears were loaned. “But he wants them back now,” he said.