First Person: Voices, video, and photos from Oxfam's fight against poverty

John Ekono Ekiman is a herder who lost most of his animals to drought. He received four camels and 20 goats as part of Oxfam's restocking program. "I feel really proud of having them," he said of his animals. "In the future I want to expand and grow my camels and goats." Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg

Judging from the comments on our Facebook wall, many of you liked the stunning new photos taken in Turkana, Kenya, by Alejandro Chaskielberg. The acclaimed Argentinian art photographer traveled to the region with Oxfam to take portraits of people affected by the recent East Africa drought and food crisis. Last week the photos were featured in a slideshow on BBC News, raising awareness of both the crisis and Oxfam’s ongoing response.

In most of the photos, Chaskielberg used his trademark technique of shooting by moonlight, illuminating these scenes of herders and their families with a dramatic, unearthly glow. The results are memorable (and newsworthy) because they’re so distinctive.

However, when we saw how the photos came out, some of my Oxfam colleagues loved them, but others gave them mixed reviews.

Women tend gardens they built with support from an Oxfam project, which aims to help mothers improve nutrition for their children while also earning an income by selling extra vegetables. Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg

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Along with millions of other Americans, I’ll be watching Anquan Boldin and the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL playoffs this weekend—but my mind will be in Ethiopia.

I traveled to southern Ethiopia not long ago to visit Oxfam America’s programs in the area. As we drove, my colleague Tewodros Negash explained why Oxfam uses its cash-for-work program to pay communities to clear brush from the fields by hand, something they’ve done for generations by setting controlled fires. As it turns out, the winds, which for as long as anyone can remember have been predictable, are now wholly unreliable. It used to be that people could set fire to the brush, rely on the wind to control the flames, and have a field that was clear in time for the rains. The grass would grow and their animals would have a place to graze. But with wind that’s unpredictable, and rain that’s even more so, communities must now take steps to survive the effects of climate change.

Just weeks later I told that story to Boldin and his friend and former teammate Larry Fitzgerald, NFL wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, during a meeting to discuss Oxfam America’s work. Boldin and Fitzgerald learned this summer of the devastating drought in East Africa and were looking for ways to help, which is why they reached out to Oxfam.

“I’ve been to the Horn of Africa before,” Fitzgerald, who will be appearing in the Pro Bowl for the seventh time later this month, told Yahoo! Sports Radio in a recent interview. “And I’ve seen some of the effects of the drought myself. … When you see [people affected by drought] you definitely want to do something because they are in dire need.”

Since then, in between catching footballs and evading linebackers and safeties, Boldin and Fitzgerald have raised money for Oxfam America on Twitter and Facebook, filmed a public service announcement (below) and used their high profiles to bring attention to the crisis.

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A young herder tends to his cows in southern Ethiopia. Photo by Eva-Lotta Jansson

He had the skinniest legs I think I’ve ever seen on a 15-year-old boy and one of the most disarming smiles, though it took a few minutes for that to appear. Being the mother of two boys and now, too soon, an empty-nester, I can’t help but notice these things.

He was standing next to a stretch of rough dirt road in front of a herd of cows so thin their ribs cast shadows on their hides. They were moving slowly in the heat of the morning, almost as if they were sleep walking. We were on our way to the village of Melka Guba in southern Ethiopia where drought has killed countless cattle and plunged millions of people into crisis. We had pulled over to wait for our colleagues who had stopped some miles back to repair a flat tire. When we finally turned our attention to our surroundings, there he was with his cows, studying our dust-coated truck. We were as curious to him as he was to us. We started to talk. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America

Coco McCabe filed this report from Ethiopia, where she is reporting on the severe drought in East Africa. In August, she visited an area in northern Ethiopia – which has thus far escaped this year’s drought but has been devastated in the past – to report on initiatives to fight recurrent drought. Her reporting is featured in a World Food Day half-hour documentary special report from ViewChange and Oxfam: “ViewChange:  Africa’s Last Famine,” which is available online at www.oxfamamerica.org and www.viewchange.org and broadcasts on Link TV on Friday, October 14, and Tuesday, October 18.

When we left Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa for the long drive south to Yabello, the air that was cool at dawn turned dry as the sun inched higher—pucker dry, the kind that makes you lick your lips until they sting and leaves your fingertips feeling chalky. Maybe some of it was due to the dust in the air, a veil of topsoil whipped aloft by the wind and mixed with plumes of black smoke swelling from the tailpipes of trucks.

We were on our way to a triangle of drought that has plunged more than 13 million people in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia into crisis. Some places are the driest they have been in 60 years and famine has struck Somalia.

We stopped to stock up on water—plastic bottles of it covered with the brand name “YES” and a tagline that declared “for a better life.” As we pulled back onto the road all I could think about were the words of our driver: “On a long journey, water is better than food.” I reached for one of the bottles and settled it in my lap, taking long swigs as the sun grew hotter.

Climbing through coffee country around Yirgacheffee, we entered a stretch of respite from the sun. Clouds had massed over the hills and rain drops began to pelt the windshield. The wipers whisked them away, turning a morning’s worth of dust into a film of grime. We had caught the tail end of a downpour and through the side window of our car, I watched people watch the rain, standing alone in their doorways, peering out their windows, their faces solemn. I wondered how much they knew about the drought in the south.

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Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou has supported Oxfam’s work for more than five years.

In the last few years I‘ve had the privilege of taking part in many incredible campaigns led by some of the most inspiring people and organizations. Their fight continues, and the cause is still in need of your help. I’ve spoken about this before, urging you to assist in various crises taking place around the world. Today is no different. Those living in hunger are still living in desperation and their numbers are growing every day.

Oxfam Ambassador Djimon Hounsou and Kenyan Ambassador Elkanah Odembo spoke at the launch of Oxfam America's GROW campaign in June. GROW is a campaign focused on fixing the broken food system. Photo by Leigh Vogel for Getty Images.

Sadly there are still those that are not aware of the dire need that East Africa is in right now. In an area of the world already ravaged by civil war, the innocent people there are now displaced by one of the worst droughts the region has ever experienced. To some this problem is a world away and is easy to ignore, but I implore you to pay attention. Help us spread the message and raise aid for those that need it the most. Read the rest of this entry »

Oxfam Ambassador Scarlett Johansson talks to Paulina Natir, Turkana, Northern Kenya. Photo: Andy Hall/Oxfam

Right now, Oxfam is providing water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities to more than 45,000 people in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp—the largest in the world, and home to tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing famine in their home country. More people stream in to the camp each week, seeking refuge from other overcrowded camps and the unsafe areas on the camp’s outskirts.

“The scale of poverty in Dadaab is overwhelming,” said Oxfam Ambassador Scarlett Johansson, who visited the camp with Oxfam and is documenting her experiences for CNN and the Huffington Post. “I met countless women like Hawa, a local community leader, who lamented the seemingly endless struggle of the Somali people, as refugees of war and starvation and now left to suffer everyday life with the very barest of essentials.”

Johansson also visited the Turkana region of northern Kenya, where herding communities suffer from chronic droughts that have destroyed their lives and livelihoods. One herder, Sabina Loliyak, told an Oxfam staffer: “If there is no water, then there is no life.” A mother of young children, Loliyak lost half of her animals to the current drought and struggled to feed her kids. “We used to get nutritious food drinking milk and eating meat from [our] livestock, but right now there is nothing. Even the trees have dried up.” 

Sabina Loliyak, left, with her daughter. Photo: Caroline Gluck/Oxfam

In Turkana, Oxfam is scaling up our cash and food-transfer programs to support more than 250,000 people. For Loliyak, participation in an emergency cash transfer program means she can purchase more nutritious food for her children, as well as possibly make the transition from herder to small business owner. “If we can start a business, then our life will change automatically,” she said. “Cash will help us to start a new life.”

Maybe it’s that kind of determination to create a better future—even in a time of crisis—that motivates Johansson, Halima Hussein, and countless others to do their part.

 Oxfam aims to reach more than 3 million people  throughout East Africa with a variety of support, including food aid, clean water, and veterinary care for animals. We are drilling and repairing wells and distributing fuel vouchers to ensure that pumps on the wells can keep operating—even if people have no money. We are also campaigning to change the root causes of this crisis. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Halima Hussein is a nurse in a therapeutic feeding center in Mogadishu. Photo by Caroline Gluck

Oxfam’s Caroline Gluck spoke recently with Halima Hussein, a 42-year-old nurse working for SAACID, one of Oxfam’s local partners in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. She’s based at the emergency therapeutic center in Badbaado, the city’s largest camp for people displaced by the conflict and drought ravaging the country. Here, in an interview recorded by Gluck, Hussein talks about the challenges of the job and what keeps her going.

“I work with mothers and with children. Every day we see on average 200 to 250 people.   They are in different situations. Some are severely malnourished, some are moderately malnourished; others have complications.

 “People come to us initially for an assessment, and if we can treat them we do this in the center. If there are complications, we might have to refer them to a hospital.

“I’m a mother myself. I have five children. The oldest is 21. The others are 18, 14, 5, and 4.  I think about my family a lot in terms of this work.  I always think if this is my child, if they are like this, what could I do for them?  Sometimes I cry when I see the mothers like me suffering and others less fortunate than me…

“We face many problems.  The biggest one I have is how to convince a mother that it’s best to refer her child to the hospital when the child is suffering so much.  They often tell us:  ‘I have four to five other children at home.  Who’ll take care of them?’  Instead of spending four to five days with one child, they think of the other children…

“Three or four children are dying every week in Badbaado. These are children that I see or know about but I think the actual cases are far higher.  Read the rest of this entry »