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.

Melvin Elias Fuentes, a community leader trained to help provide clean water during emergencies in El Salvador. Photo by Rene Figueroa/Oxfam America

This blog was written by Tjarda Muller, Oxfam America’s communications officer in San Salvador.

I’m thinking back six months ago—to February—when I was in the field with Elizabeth Stevens, Oxfam America’s humanitarian communications officer. Together with technicians from our partner organizations, we were visiting rural communities across El Salvador. The weather was hot and a big bottle of water was my constant companion. Water: a commodity so ordinary for many of us. But there in remote areas, water doesn’t flow fresh and clear out of a tap. It comes from hand-dug wells and is often highly contaminated. If Elizabeth or I were to drink it, we’d definitely get sick. But so do the people who have no choice but to drink it. Contaminated water isn’t something one’s body easily adapts to and gastrointestinal diseases are common in these villages. During flooding, which happen on a yearly basis, contamination gets even worse. And so do the diseases.

That’s why Oxfam America started training a team of 17 technicians from partner organizations to become specialists in WASH, or water, sanitation and hygiene promotion in emergencies.

Now, during this month of August, the WASH team is celebrating its fifth anniversary. The team has been trained in installing water tanks after emergencies, monitoring water quality, cleaning contaminated latrines and hand-dug wells, fumigation, garbage management and pest control. The reach of the team is national and each member can be deployed instantly to where disaster strikes. Read the rest of this entry »

Residents of San Isidro (in Cabañas, El Salvador) look out over a valley where the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim proposed to mine gold and silver. Photo by Jeff Deutsch/Oxfam America.

There’s a legal battle underway in Washington right now, between the government of El Salvador and a Canadian mining company called Pacific Rim. Citing the threat of environmental damage, in 2009 the government of El Salvador denied a mining permit to Pacific Rim, which was planning to mine for gold and silver. So the company set up an office in the United States and is suing the government of El Salvador under the rules of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).  This has led to two years of hearings at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, DC.

There’s a lot riding on this case for the government of El Salvador, beyond the $77 million Pacific Rim is demanding in the suit, which is about one percent of the country’s GDP. El Salvador is a small, densely populated country where there is already a lot of stress on the surface waters on which the citizens depend for drinking and for agriculture. Large-scale industrial mining could have irreversible effects on the country’s fragile and diminishing resources, and a number of courageous people who have dared to organize resistance to mining have been killed.

However when El Salvador signed CAFTA, it became subject to rules that might prevent it from denying mining companies the opportunity to operate on the basis of public safety or environmental protection. Companies can claim this is like having their businesses expropriated. Read the rest of this entry »

By participating in emergency preparedness and response, says Doris Escobar (left), “women have put themselves in the service of their communities and have been recognized for that.” Photo by René Figueroa/Oxfam America

“Many women have become more respected leaders as a result of their work on disasters,” said Doris Escobar, my guide on a recent trip to El Salvador.

As we made our way from a flood-affected village in the western department of Ahuachapán to another across the country in San Miguel, Doris told me the story of how a team of first responders made a difference when an extraordinary storm struck El Salvador in October 2011. (Read about the team’s response to the flood emergency.)

The team was founded four years ago by Oxfam and our Salvadoran partners, and it is coordinated by Escobar herself. It began as a core group of dedicated volunteers—more than half of them women—interested in becoming experts in emergency WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion) and willing to be deployed anywhere in the country at a moment’s notice. More recently, the group has been training up new members from 150 communities around the country to ensure that the people who are living in vulnerable areas have the know-how to protect the health and safety of their neighbors.

 Helping women take leadership has been a priority from day one.

“Self-esteem is so low in women in the communities,” said Escobar. Many, she said, “feel they can’t do anything except work in the kitchen, prepare food, care for children, and clean.”

Read the rest of this entry »

What would I do for a cause I believed in? Wear a pin or a t-shirt? Sure, no problem. March in the streets or shiver in a tent, a la Occupy Wall Street? Maybe—if it was something really important.

But what if speaking up endangered my life? What if my fellow activists faced threats, or even actual violence, because of our actions? Would I keep going anyway, or be scared into silence?

Big questions, but those are the kind of things I’ve been asking myself since I met Francisco Pineda last week.

Pineda, an Oxfam America partner and recent winner of the prestigious Goldman Prize, led a citizens’ movement to protect El Salvador’s land and water from the harmful effects of a gold mine. He’s one of six Goldman Prize winners featured in a documentary called The New Environmentalists, narrated by Robert Redford and premiering starting Sunday on PBS stations around the country. “The new environmentalists are making personal sacrifices that most of us can’t even imagine,” says Redford in the trailer, below.

In Pineda’s case, that’s definitely true. Though he comes across in person as an unassuming guy, the story he told when I interviewed him was pretty shocking: A community’s only source of clean water being pumped away by a gold mine. A mining company scientist trying to convince people that cyanide isn’t poison. A leader living with 24-hour police protection because of repeated attempts on his life—and mourning his friends and fellow activists who’ve been killed for speaking out. Read the rest of this entry »

We caught colleagues Karina Copen and Enrique Garcia on the phone in El Salvador this morning before they headed out the door for a day in the field.

The flooding and landslides in Central America this past week have been disastrous – the result of rainfall so heavy that it’s outstripped even the catastrophic hurricane Mitch of 1998. In El Salvador, landslides are occurring by the hundreds, and nearly 50,000 people have taken refuge in shelters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the rains and flooding in Central America.

But thanks to a carefully positioned warehouse packed with supplies and a network of trained partners, Oxfam was able to reach thousands of people with aid by the time a national state of emergency was declared.  The warehouse is more or less empty now, but that’s a good thing, said Karina. “What people needed was what we had.”

After updating us on the latest events, Karina and Enrique talked about the past, present, and future. Years of work to help communities, partners, and the government prepare for emergencies are paying off in lives saved: the death toll from this massive storm doesn’t compare to Mitch. But the loss of homes and crops could be devastating for those who can least afford it.

“We need to keep addressing hazards,” said Enrique, “but also the issues that put poor people at such risk in emergencies.”

“The good news,” said Karina, as they signed off, “is that the sun’s out.”

In Fenadesal Sur, El Salvador, disaster preparedness is incorporated into a game of hopscotch. Photo by Claudia Barrientos

“Flooding…houses collapsed…community committee activated….evacuation…meeting point…shelter!”

On the hot pavement in the center of Fenadesal Sur, children lined up for a game of hopscotch, only this one had a twist: each time they paused to jump forward, they called out the next step in a journey from disaster to safety.

If their legs wobbled a little on the one-footed hops, their voices didn’t: the children knew the sequence by heart. In fact, some of them had lived it. When the rains of November 2009 swelled the river Acelhuate, more than 100 houses in this community were damaged, and 30 were destroyed. Many of these children lost their homes and are now living in a nearby shelter. Read the rest of this entry »

Paula Deperla (center) meets with emergency committee members about evacuation routes in Santa Eduviges, El Salvador. Credit: Claudia Barrientos

Elizabeth Stevens is just back from El Salvador, where she was visiting communities affected by severe flooding and landslides brought on by Hurricane Ida in November 2009.

“We didn’t expect this emergency, but we were prepared,” said Paula Deperla.

Deperla is a member of a disaster-response committee trained by Comandos de Salvamento, an Oxfam partner in El Salvador. When heavy rains pounded the region in November, her team swung into action, knocking on doors and calling in the local authorities to assist.

The losses were heavy:  eight houses in their community were buried or badly damaged by landslides around the ravine, or barranco, that borders the neighborhood. It was thanks to the quick action of the committee that no one died. Read the rest of this entry »

Oxfam partners have trained and equipped civil protection groups in nearly 200 Salvadoran communities that are vulnerable to natural hazards like floods and landslides. Photo by Claudia Barrientos

Elizabeth Stevens is in El Salvador, where she’s visiting communities affected by severe flooding and landslides brought on by Hurricane Ida in November. She’ll be blogging about the steps people have taken to prepare for storms.

I arrived in El Salvador last Thursday night, feeling as strange carrying a fleece jacket in the 80-degree heat as I did in Boston wearing flip-flops through the snow squall that ushered me to the airport earlier that day.

My job here is to meet with communities affected by a storm of incredible intensity that struck El Salvador’s central provinces last fall, where 14 inches of rain fell in just four hours. Trees and boulders went crashing down into mountain villages that day, and rivers suddenly grown deeper and wider and more powerful took out everything in their paths.

Back in November, we quickly learned the grim news of losses and death; not so well understood is what was saved.

For months—in some cases years—before the storm, Oxfam had been working with local partners and community leaders to prepare for emergencies like this one. But did the preparedness work? Did it reduce suffering and losses? Did it save lives? This week my Salvadoran colleagues and I are travelling around to some of the hardest-hit communities, listening to survivors tell their stories of what happened.

Read some of those stories here.

Loko Dadacha. Photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson / Oxfam America

After two weeks away from the office on a personal trip to Japan, I came back today to find hundreds of emails piled up in my inbox. But once I plowed my way through the spam and the endless Outlook meeting invitations, I discovered something really exciting: a link to Oxfam’s new short video about how climate change affects poor people in countries like El Salvador, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and the US.

 This video holds a special significance for me, since back in August I was lucky enough to tag along as a crew filmed some of this footage in southern Ethiopia. In many ways, that trip (my first visit to Africa) is still very much on my mind: I can’t read an article about climate change without thinking about the striking effects of drought in those rural communities—and the amazing strength of the local people who are fighting back against the crisis.

One of those people is Loko Dadacha, a widow and mother of six who’s taken on a leadership role in helping her community prepare for droughts. Having read my colleague Coco’s stories about her, I have to admit I was a little bit awed by meeting Loko in person, not to mention impressed by her patience as a film crew and a crowd of Oxfam staffers followed her every move for an entire day.

“If you ask me what I wish… I would say I wish to see pasture growing, to have enough water. I wish to do things for myself—to be self-reliant,” says Loko near the end of this two-minute video. Her words really capture the way these communities are facing the massive changes in the climate: with toughness, determination, and incredible resilience.

Check out the video here: