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.”

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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.”

Scuffing through the powdered-sugar dusting of snow on the streets the other day, zipping up my bulky down coat against the chill, I realized there’s no avoiding it: another New England winter is here. And with the Midwest reeling from a giant snowstorm last weekend, we Bostonians are not the only ones bundled up against the cold.

In northern Pakistan’s Swat Valley, winter is also settling in. December through February are the coldest months in this mountainous region, bringing heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures. This winter could be especially difficult for the thousands of people in who lost their homes, belongings, and livestock during Pakistan’s devastating floods earlier this year.

That’s why Oxfam is working to distribute thousands of winter survival kits in the Swat Valley before snowstorms cut off access to remote communities. According to Oxfam’s Jane Beesley and Caroline Gluck, who recently put together a photo slideshow about the kits (above), “Oxfam is distributing the survival kits—which consist of quilts, shawls, sweaters, and socks—with the help of its local partner, Lasoona. These warm items will go to the most vulnerable families who lost their homes and possessions, including female-headed households.” (Click on each photo in the slideshow to learn more.)

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Photo: Jane Beesley / Oxfam

Oxfam’s Jane Beesley is in Pakistan, where the devastating floods have now affected 21 million people. Here’s an excerpt from her latest report from the field.

We have heard from Islamabad that there are rumors the flood is receding in Shikarpur and other areas in Sindh Province. … [But] once in the rural areas we soon see that the water has only gone down by a few inches. There’s a very long way to go.

We stop and have a brief chat with some people, living under plastic sheeting, close to the roadside. A local man tells us it will be at least a month before the waters go down to normal levels.  We go as far as we can before the road disappears under water. 

The floodwater here doesn’t look dramatic; no gushing, roaring torrents, strong currents sweeping all before it. This is a plain area and the water lies flat and still. A row of telegraph poles stretch out into to the distance, strangely marooned, casting shadows in the still water surrounding them. There are remains of mud houses crumbling and dissolving in the water.

In places we can see small green shoots poking out of the water; these are the rice fields. The crop, just weeks from being harvested, has been totally lost. Rice is the main crop in this area, and with only one crop a year the flood is a devastating blow after months and months of hard work. There will not be another rice harvest until this time next year, and only then if people can return home, are able to clear the land, buy seed and plant in time. …

Right now, our team has two different jobs to do: To help people who are displaced and won’t be able to return home quickly; and to help those returning to destroyed homes and livelihoods, like these rice fields.

In the distance we see a few people living on a small patch of land.  They are probably staying there to protect what remains of their property, and livestock. Otherwise, what was once a thriving village has a slightly eerie air. Walking back up the road to the car, all we can hear are the birds.

Donate now to support Oxfam’s flood relief work in Pakistan.

"I want to rebuild our home... and restart our livelihood," says Raiza, pictured, whose farm was destroyed in Pakistan's recent floods. Photo: Jane Beesley / Oxfam

Oxfam’s Jane Beesley is in Pakistan, where the devastating floods have now affected 21 million people. Here’s an excerpt from her latest report from the field.

Today I met Raiza, a petite young woman of 22, who’s living in a camp for displaced people at Government High School in Shirkapur district in Sindh province. In conjunction with our local partner group Participatory Development Initiative, Oxfam is providing the 360 families living at the school with cash vouchers for 5,000 rupees (about $58). These vouchers help ensure that people can buy what they need to get by in the camps for at least the next two to three weeks.

“Before the flood I was farming and keeping livestock, and my husband cut people’s hair. Any money I made I gave to my husband and he decided what to spend it on. We didn’t own the land we were living on…we were tenant farmers,” Raiza told me.

“When the flood came we were just sitting in our home. We didn’t know the flood was coming…we just heard the water…we just had to leave our village. The water came very fast. We could only save our children, ourselves and some clothes…we didn’t even have time to save some crockery and other things. We lost everything … our home, livestock.

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I just wanted to share some of the recent photos I’ve seen coming in this week from Pakistan, where more than 21 million people have been affected by the recent flooding.

Above, a young girl carries a water bottle on her head while taking refuge in a graveyard with her family in Thatta, about 62 miles from Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh province. While international funding for the crisis has stalled in recent weeks, the number of people displaced by the floods continues to rise each day.

Photo: Jane Beesley / Oxfam

Oxfam and our partners have launched a rapid-relief effort to reach more than one million people with essential aid. Some of that aid takes the form of hygiene kits, like the one shown above. Each hygiene kit includes 15 bars of soap for personal use, soap for washing clothes, two towels, a cloth that can be cut into strips for sanitary protection, a plastic kettle for washing, and two buckets with lids.

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A person points towards their flooded home from a hilltop overlooking Nowshera, located in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.

In this excerpt, Rebecca Barber, Oxfam’s humanitarian policy and advocacy advisor in Pakistan, reflects on the human scope of this month’s catastrophic floods. Learn more about what Oxfam is doing in Pakistan, or go here to donate to Oxfam’s flood relief and recovery efforts.

First, we heard that the recent floods in Pakistan were the worst in a generation. Then it was the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. Then—the one we hear time and again–the number of people affected was more than the Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the Haiti earthquake put together. The Pakistani Prime Minister told us that the floods were “worse than partition.” The BBC told us that the floods would cover a third of England. … All with a view to getting people around the world somehow to picture the immensity of what’s happening to Pakistan.  

But while such comparisons can help to convey the scale of the crisis, what they don’t and can’t convey is the suffering that every one of the millions of people affected—or at least the eight million whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed–are going through.

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“The floods that have surged from the north to the south of Pakistan since late July have uprooted millions of people. Many have lost their houses, their loved ones, and everything they own,” says Oxfam America’s Mike Delaney in our new video (above). Oxfam and our partners are rushing to reach survivors with clean water and sanitation before deadly waterborne disease compounds the disaster.

Millions of people. When you’re talking about numbers this big, it’s easy to think in abstractions. But each person affected by the floods has his or her own story to tell. In the excerpt below, Oxfam’s Tariq Malik shares the words of some of the people he’s met in Kot Mithan, a district of southern Punjab province hit hard by flooding from the Indus River.

“I am fifty years old and I have never seen Kot Mithan flooded. I never even heard of it,” says Jam Bugho, a small-scale cotton grower. “Scrabbling knee-deep through the water carrying two of my nephews on my shoulders, I have made it out of the village, along with my wife. Before we [left] my son went to look for cows, just to see if he could manage to take a few with him, if not all, but he did not return. We decided not to wait for him and joined others.”

“Is there any way to know what might have happened with my son? My buffalos, cows and my goats?” asks Bugho.

“We have been here [in a camp for displaced people] for two days,” says Khuda Bakhash, whose village in Wasti Hayderabad had been flooded. “We had to pay 100 Rupees ($1.17) to a private boat owner for each person. Most of our relatives are still [in our village]. The day we moved we had nothing to eat and you know well that children can’t sleep if they do not eat well. For two days we’ve been provided with meals twice a day by Oxfam.”

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Photo: Rebecca Wynn / Oxfam

In this recent photo from Oxfam’s relief effort in Pakistan, families draw clean drinking water from blue Oxfam water tanks at a camp for people who lost their homes in the floods. The camp is actually set up at a technical college in Nowshera, Pakistan; with millions of people displaced, many public buildings such as colleges and schools have been transformed into housing for families in need.

According to the latest reports from our Oxfam colleagues on the ground, water is one of the biggest concerns in Pakistan right now. Though it might seem a little counter-intuitive to talk about water shortages during a flood, it’s clean water that is the issue: The floods have wiped out water and sanitation systems, and people who can’t access safe drinking water face a serious risk of deadly water-borne diseases like cholera. As a result, there’s an urgent need for clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene supplies like soap.

Oxfam is working with our local partner organizations to provide clean water, distribute hygiene kits, and build hygienic latrines to keep families’ water sources from becoming contaminated. But with an estimated 20 million people affected by the floods, the resources available only cover a fraction of the need. You can help make sure clean water gets through by making a donation to Oxfam’s Pakistan flood relief effort.

I’m not a big fan of “days.” Flag Day. National Boss Day. Grandparents Day. After a while, they are so many days, the individual sentiments behind them start to lose meaning. And, maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather we remembered our country, valued our administrative staff, and told our grandparents we loved them all year long.

So, when a co-worker mentioned that today was World Humanitarian Day, my first thought was, “Oh, God, not another one.” But then I watched this video from the UN. It explains what it means to be a humanitarian aid worker, from the points of view of the people who do the work as well as the communities they help.

I was struck by the simplicity of it. And the warmth. These are people, like those I know and like at Oxfam, who go to dangerous places to confront terrible conflicts, disasters, and diseases. And they carry out their work with energy, mercy, empathy, and incredible smarts.

Take a minute (or four) to watch the video. Be sure to hang on ’til 4:19 when a ridiculously cute Rwandan baby nearly steals the show.

If you’re moved by what you see, learn more about the humanitarian work Oxfam does. Right now, we’re ramping up our efforts in Pakistan, where we aim to reach 1 million flood survivors with clean water, sanitation facilities, and other essential aid.

Help provide our humanitarian workers with the support they need to help poor communities around the world. Donate now.