Michael Roberts and Tracy Kuhns on the canal behind their house in Lafitte, LA. Photo: Ilene Perlman/Oxfam America

Last week I took a memorable ride in a very small boat. The flat-bottomed skiff belonged to Tracy Kuhns and Michael Roberts, leaders of Oxfam’s partner organization GO FISH, who keep it moored alongside their shrimping boat on the canal that borders their backyard.

In Lafitte, LA, where Kuhns and Roberts live, these canals are like streets, connecting families to one another and workers to their jobs. Neighbors waved to us as we cast off for a short trip from the nearby Mississippi River to the marsh-fringed Barataria Bay.

For generations, families in Lafitte and the surrounding communities have earned a living by harvesting fish, shrimp, and oysters from these waters. And until 2010—when the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill dumped millions of gallons into the Louisiana bayou—it seemed like the next generation would, too.

“My grandson has been going trawling since he was 18 months old. The boy can fish,” Kuhns told me proudly as Roberts steered the boat out under the wide, cloud-streaked sky. “Before the oil spill, he never even thought about doing anything else.”

Now, Kuhns and Roberts say, the spill has caused lasting, perhaps irreparable, damage to a resource already threatened by pollution and coastal erosion.

“Barataria Bay was ground zero for all of that oil,” said Kuhns, who witnessed layers of black sludge floating to the surface. Since then, she estimated, “our shrimp [harvest] is down by 60 to 70 percent. Fish and crabs, same thing.”

Last Thursday, BP pled guilty in a criminal case brought by the US Department of Justice. The company agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines for its conduct leading up to the oil spill, the largest environmental disaster in US history. The verdict marks a step forward, but there is still much more to be done, including resolution of up to tens of billions more in civil penalties and damages from BP and potentially its business partners for violations of the Oil Pollution Act and Clean Water Act.

“We still have to repair the damage done to vital and fragile ecosystems, and to the thousands of families who live and work along the coastline,” said Oxfam’s Jeffrey Buchanan. (Read his latest post on BP here.) “We need to ensure the fines from this tragedy can be invested in strengthening their future.”

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I had a moment of déjà vu this weekend when I saw the headline on CNN.com: “Vietnamese fishermen in Gulf fight to not get lost in translation.”  When I interviewed Biloxi, MS, community leader Sharon Hanshaw on May 18, she spoke about the exact same issue—the cultural and language barriers faced by Vietnamese fishermen in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Sharon Hanshaw, right, attends a meeting of grassroots groups, coordinated by Oxfam, at a church in Boothville, LA. Photo: Audra Melton/Oxfam America

“The Vietnamese-American community is the majority of fishermen here. It’s their livelihood,” Hanshaw told me. But, she added, many Vietnamese fishermen don’t have computers or internet access—and key resources, like the BP insurance claims phone line, don’t provide Vietnamese translators.

“In East Biloxi, the Vietnamese community was left out during the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina,” added Hanshaw.  “Many are afraid it will happen again.”

It’s an understandable fear, and it’s not limited to Biloxi. According to CNN’s Jessica Ravitz, “a third of all fishermen in the Gulf are Vietnamese, making them arguably the most affected minority out there.” New Orleans East has the highest concentration of Vietnamese people in the world outside of Vietnam. Many came to the area as refugees after the end of the Vietnam War, and were among those who faced heavy losses during Hurricane Katrina.

Now, the oil spill poses a new threat to Vietnamese-American fishermen, seafood industry workers, restaurateurs, and thousands of others who rely on the Gulf waters for their livelihoods.

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Oxfam's Rhonda Jackson confronts the oil spill on the coast of Louisiana, the state that has been her lifelong home. Photo by

Rhonda Jackson is an Oxfam America Gulf Coast program manager. Here is the second part of her account of what she saw on a recent field visit through Louisiana’s marshes.

Read part one

I returned to the marina saddened, angry, hurt—and confused. Then, I spoke with local residents. I talked to folks who had lived and worked here for generations. I talked to fishermen, oysterman, local sheriffs, and business owners. Our conversations gave me hope; I was reminded of the resiliency of my fellow Louisiana residents. I was reminded that even if there is only a glimmer of hope, we will find a reason to stay in the battle. I was reminded why I do this work—why Oxfam does this work—because in order to stay in the battle, these folks are going to need to be armed with a few things. Read the rest of this entry »

The oil-soaked marshes were silent when Rhonda Jackson toured them recently. Photo by Audra Melton/Oxfam America

Rhonda Jackson is an Oxfam America Gulf Coast program manager. Here is her account of what she saw on a recent field visit through Louisiana’s marshes.

I have often said that—unlike most folks in my line of work—I’m no tree-hugger. I love people. I do this work because I want people to have the best. Yet, on a recent tour of the oil-soaked coast of Louisiana, I couldn’t help but want to hug each and every blade of marsh grass, to apologize on behalf of all humankind for this huge mess. I was saddened, angry, and hurt. I knew that what I was seeing was the end of something.

As a life-long resident of New Orleans and having survived Katrina, I know what the end of something beautiful and wonderful looks and feels like. I know that while things can and will eventually get better, they will never quite be the same and that those with the least will suffer and struggle the most. I know this because up until this oil spill, I had personally survived what had been called the worst disaster in America. I know this because while many of my own friends and family members survived, we are all different. I know this because while it is five years since Katrina, I am still in my own private battle with the state of Louisiana over its recovery and homeowner assistance program known as the Road Home. I know this because my grandmother, like many other elders in the area, died heartbroken soon after the storm. Read the rest of this entry »

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:

Natalie Bergeron, a lifelong bayou resident, has been delivering mail down in Cocodrie, Louisiana, for 30 years. She knows just about everybody in the water-logged town, which was battered by wind from Hurricane Gustav and then swamped by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike. And what she knows about them—and plenty of others along the road from Bourg through Chauvin and into Cocodrie—is worrying her.

“Not only do we have poor people trying to live, we’ve lost four factories in Chauvin. One was a huge shrimp processing factory. Gustav tore it apart,” she said over the phone as she ate her lunch. It was 2 p.m., and the first occasion she’d found that day for a meal break. Things have been busy at Bayou Grace, the community services organization in Chauvin where Bergeron works, since the storms swept through, knocking out water and power supplies. Bayou Grace is one of the local organizations Oxfam America partners with.

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Three years ago in Biloxi, Miississippi, Oxfam America made an unusual grant following Hurricane Katrina. We gave Hands On, a group that mobilizes volunteers to undertake cleanup and rebuilding, money to purchase a mini excavator.

FEMA had claimed that it could not deliver desperately needed trailers to those who’d lost their houses until their yards were cleared of debris. Fifty Hands On volunteers were working from dawn until dusk cutting trees and moving rubble to facilitate this.  The addition of the excavator eased their work considerably, speeding the cleanup and denying FEMA an excuse for delays in delivery of the trailers.
In the days following Katrina, Oxfam America worked with Bill Stallworth, the city councilor for East Biloxi, to set up a coordination center that would serve as the focal point of those arriving to help with relief and reconstruction.

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As the storm-wracked coast of Louisiana faces the fallout from another hurricane–with potentially more on the way–Oxfam is supporting our local partner organizations to provide emergency supplies and assistance in rebuilding to those in need. Read the rest of this entry »