We believe that poverty is wrong, and that it is not an inevitable fact of life. We work to end poverty-- to right this wrong-- by saving lives in emergencies, working on long-term solutions for the underlying causes of poverty, and campaigning for social change.

2: You can trust us.

We are highly rated by leading independent charity evaluators, including the American Institute of Philanthropy. In 2012 Oxfam was awarded four (out of four) stars from Charity Navigator, the nation's largest charity evaluator. Oxfam America is a member of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance and meets their high standards of operations, spending, truthfulness, and disclosure. We do not accept any funding from the US government; this helps us stay independent.

3: We work with local and national organizations: our partners.

We provide local partners grants for their anti-poverty programs and work with them to build alliances, networks, and effective organizations that will eventually be self-sufficient. Most important, we work with our partners to learn; what they teach us about the best solutions to poverty is just as valuable as the funding and collaboration we provide them.

4: We believe that fighting poverty is about fighting injustice.

Poverty often arises from the violation of people’s basic rights. When someone is denied the right to own land, the right to education, access to basic services like clean water, a fair price for the crops they grow, or a fair wage for the work they do, the result is poverty.

5: The projects we fund are community driven.

Our local partners do the work, so the results are theirs. Locally informed and locally driven solutions to poverty are the best solutions—the most sustainable and the most appropriate—because they come from the people who can keep the initiatives going after Oxfam and its funding goes away.

6: Poverty puts people in harm's way.

Poverty makes people vulnerable to calamities—from armed conflicts to earthquakes. It is poverty that forces people to live in violent areas or to build their houses with flimsy materials in locations vulnerable to floods and landslides. We help people in vulnerable communities to reduce their risks, and to advocate with their governments to support their efforts.

7: We help people learn about their basic rights and how to defend them.

By educating people about their rights, we help to build strong communities that compel governments and other institutions to deliver on their responsibilities. When citizens hold their governments accountable, they can change the systems that keep people trapped in poverty.

8: We are a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

We are an international confederation of 17 like-minded organizations that collaborate on global campaigns and major humanitarian interventions. We work with 3,000 local partners in more than 90 countries and devote more than $1.1 billion annually to fighting poverty.

9: Laws, policies, and institutions have an enormous impact on poverty.

Yet, poor people are not consulted about major issues like international trade law, climate change talks, or how wealthy countries administer foreign aid programs that are supposed to help them. We work to help people directly affected by laws and policies to have a voice in their formulation. And we wage campaigns to convince decision makers to respect the views of poor communities.

10: You can join the effort. Everyone—including you—has a part to play in the fight against poverty and injustice.

With the power of many voices speaking together, we can call on companies and legislators to change the laws and practices that keep people in poverty. We can also raise awareness and inspire action on some of the world's most urgent issues. We can't do this alone. Please join our eCommunity; we need your voice and your support. No matter who you are, or how busy you are, you can make a difference.

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Savings groups –15 to 25 people, usually women, who combine their own modest weekly savings into a group fund—are an essential means to bring financial services to the poorest communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, says Sophie Romana, Oxfam’s deputy director in the Community Finance department. “Savings groups promote financial inclusion; they help poor, remote communities with no access to banks to save, borrow, and invest.” Savings groups leverage their own funds, rather than relying on credit from banks and other microfinance institutions, which usually do not serve the poorest of the poor.

There are now more than six million members of saving groups in 60 countries. Oxfam America’s Saving for Change program, started in 2007, helped establish more than 27,000 groups now serving 576,000 members.

The conference will focus on promoting savings groups, and participants will discuss ways to integrate savings groups into more formal financial systems, to help small businesses access larger loans as they grow, and how mobile technology can play a role in this process.

Participants will also discuss another important aspect of savings groups: They are, as Romana puts it, “highly efficient platforms” for business training, public health promotion, and other activities designed to increase well-being and reduce poverty. “Savings group members retain what they learn and always demand more,” Romana says. “We want big organizations to ally with those working with savings groups, so they can train group members in things like family planning, and other subjects that will help women in particular, since most saving group members are women and we can see when countries invest in women, their economies do better.”

Research findings

Oxfam America, Freedom from Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, and the International Rescue Committee are sharing the results of their randomized controlled trials at the conference. Kathleen Odell, an assistant professor of economics at Dominican University will lead the session on research. “The results will show that savings groups are having a positive impact on members and their families,” Romana says.

Other notable speakers and conference advisory committee members include:

• Candace Nelson, editor of Savings Groups at the Frontier and an advisor to the SEEP Network
• Guy Vanmeenen, Catholic Relief Service’s Advisor for Microfinance in Africa
• Jason Wolfe, Senior Household Economic Strengthening Advisor, USAID
• Joanna Ledgerwood, Access to Finance program, Aga Khan Foundation
• Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Freedom from Hunger
• Jeff Ashe, Director of Community Finance, Oxfam America
• Maude Massu, Senior Microfinance Advisor, CARE International
• Michaela Kelly, Head of Program Delivery Unit, Plan International
• Prabhat Labh, Program Manager-Microfinance, MasterCard Foundation
• Salah Goss, Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Lauren Hendricks, Executive Director, CARE USA Access Africa initiative
• Nisha Singh, Director of the Financial Services Community of Practice

When the earthquake of 2010 struck Haiti, the disaster shone a spotlight on the vulnerability of a country that has traditionally focused its resources on the capital city and left the countryside to fend for itself. Haiti had long since become dependent on imported food, and when hundreds of thousands of people returned to their home villages after the quake, they faced a future of deep rural poverty.

So, Oxfam joined forces with farmers’ associations, women’s groups, and local government authorities to help revive the rice economy for 5,000 farmers in the lower Artibonite Valley—to make rice farming viable again by systematically addressing the points in production where Haitian rice has lost its ability to compete in the globalized marketplace.

With Oxfam’s support, many farmers are now practicing a method of growing rice that is more than doubling yields while reducing the use of seeds, water, and chemical inputs. Farmers have access to new processing equipment that is lowering costs while improving the quality of the final product, and to motorized cultivators to prepare their land for planting. And in a region where mechanics for farming equipment are in short supply, dozens of young men and women are training to become professional agricultural mechanics. Through cash-for-work programs, farming communities are clearing irrigation channels of debris, sediment, and weeds, and in the process have brought 4,700 acres of land back under cultivation. Those hit hard by recent hurricanes are getting relief. Women rice farmers in the valley are gaining access to low-interest loans so they can become more successful entrepreneurs. And Oxfam is advocating with the national government, US policy makers, and the international banking and development communities for policies that support rather than undermine Haitian rice farmers.

Together, Oxfam and our partners are beginning to weave together the tattered fabric of the rice economy into a coherent whole, and soon the effects may extend throughout Artibonite and beyond.

The relief in the communities is palpable. Farmer Augustin Miradieu lives in the village of Dubuisson, where irrigation has been restored to 370 acres of land. “We were hungry, but that is getting better all the time,” he says. “Now, we have the irrigation we need to farm, so we have food to eat.”

Read this story, and more like it, in our Winter 2013 edition of Closeup.

The shoppers are refugees—Syrians who have fled a brutal armed conflict in their country—and the setting is Lebanon in the dead of winter.

They are living a miserable life, says Fadia Dahshe of Oxfam partner PARD (Popular Aid for Relief and Development). Many arrived with no money and no spare clothes. They have constructed fragile shelters of sticks and plastic sheeting—no real protection from the bitter cold. “Sometimes they light fires in their tents,” she says, “but it’s dangerous for them.”

For those who are living through this disaster, there may be only one place they’d less rather be right now:  home. They tell stories of narrow escapes and of losing everything they had—houses, money, and sometimes loved ones—and of what it’s like to try and live and sleep and care for young children in freezing temperatures.

But as one mother said, “I can tell you that being cold is better than being in the middle of the war.”

On this day in January, 72 families are getting a respite—a trip to the supermarket, and a chance to buy food and blankets and hygiene supplies.

PARD has been providing supplies to 200 families. They used to distribute the goods, but by paying attention to the experience of the refugees, they realized  there was a better way to do the job.

“We made a focus group with the families, and they told us things like ‘Sometimes you gave us too many lentils; maybe you could give us more milk instead.’ And, ‘We don’t need a gallon of shampoo—we need more rice,’” says Dahshe. “So we listened to them and decided it is better for them to choose what they would like to buy.” She adds, “It is their right to choose.”

So, PARD is now providing families with vouchers, each worth $73.

"As you go around the shop, you will see that each family has different items in their basket," says Dahshe.  They simply take what they need."

“It’s important that we got this support. It will make a big difference,” says Fadia Asaf, a mother of two, who is now eight and a half months pregnant. “Hopefully, the conflict will be resolved soon and we can go back to our country.”

“I want to tell people not just in Syria but also in the whole world that they should stop fighting,” says Dahshe. “People must put an end to this misery.”

Find out how you can support Oxfam’s efforts to aid refugees from Syria.

As I walk to work every morning among the people dressed in what look like uniforms more than suits, I wonder if I'll ever be among the "insiders." Not because of how I'm dressed or where I'm from, but because so often I'm concerned that the interests and priorities of the general U.S. population are not fully represented by those "inside the beltway."

This happens in other countries as well.

I used to live in Malawi as an aid worker and the interests of those outside the perimeter of the capital city, Lilongwe, were also at risk of disregard and neglect by those on the "inside."

That's where people like Martha Kwataine come in.

In rural areas of Malawi, educated health care workers are not interested in serving in rural areas because of the harsh living conditions in these posts. Thus these areas go under-served and people are left without adequate health care. The government of Malawi has used scholarships as a tool to staff these posts.

However in 2010, the Malawian government "insiders" withdrew the scholarships it had been providing to the country's health care training institutions, saying that there was no arrangement with international donors on the best way of continuing the program.

This was unacceptable to Kwataine, who leads the Malawi Health Equity Network, a coalition of local nonprofits and citizens working on access to quality health services and a partner of USAID. Kwataine urged the government to find other means of financing these scholarships, which were so vital to ensuring rural Malawians had access to health care professionals.

"I lobbied hard for the reintroduction of these scholarships since rural Malawians should not be punished for living where they do," Kwataine says.

After the vocal advocacy of Kwataine and her colleagues, government officials responded. The 2011 Malawi national budget included 1,200 health scholarships to staff underserved areas.

When midwife scholarships were cut from the national budget, Kwataine and the Malawi Health Equity Network snapped into action once again and the government of Malawi returned the equivalent of US$13,000 back after their campaign. That may seem like a small amount to some, but a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world cannot afford to divest from midwife services.

"As a health access activist, my role has to be to link policymakers with the reality on the ground. I have to ensure that the national budget translates into improved health service delivery," says Kwataine.

For Kwataine and her colleagues, this also includes working with rural communities in Malawi to understand and demand their rights as health care consumers.

The health center in Mponela, a town in central Malawi, was not functioning because no health care workers were posted to the facility. People were traveling 30-40 kilometers to access health care services. Upon learning that the Malawi Health Equity Network was working with a committee of concerned local leaders in the area, the responsible government employee deployed a doctor and a nurse to staff the center. The center is now up and running.

When I knew that I would be writing about Martha Kwataine, I asked a Malawian friend and mentor who has been involved in the health sector for many years what he knew about her. His response says it all.

"She is a powerful lady."

He and I agreed that if we couldn't see a doctor, we would certainly want a fierce "outsider" like Martha Kwataine on our side.

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Martha Kwataine.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Martha Kwataine.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

But telling fishermen to change the ways they've been fishing for decades is no easy task. Kondua joined seminars on sustainable management of marine life offered by the Ghanaian non-profit organizations, Coastal Resources Center and Friends of the Nation, with support from USAID. Armed with new information and tactics, he is bringing people together to hold the fishing regulatory agencies accountable for enforcing compliance with fishing regulations.

"We have to re-educate our fishermen to the right type of fishing. [We] help the Ghana government to build up a very good capacity for fishermen in this country," Chief Kondua says.

In his role as chairman of the Western Regional branch of the National Canoe Fishermen's Council, Chief Kondua's is encouraging fishermen to follow current laws and adopt good fishing practices in order to protect their livelihoods. This also includes health education and family planning.

Chief Kondua explains how family size and fishing practices are linked, "Whatever we do in the sea depends upon the children that you see now. If you get plenty children, you have to do all you can to bring more fish [in], whether good practice or not."

Kondua is also working to develop new laws to stop erosion and create marine-protected areas for the future of Abuesi and western Ghana because, as Chief Kondua shares,

"Be you a driver, a shopkeeper, a carpenter or a mason, anything—if you live here, you depend on the fishing."

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Chief Kondua.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Chief Kondua.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

Merisson is the leader of a team of first responders in the Artibonite region of Haiti—a  team made up of nurses, technicians, journalists, farmers, and teachers who, when emergencies strike, get right to work in their communities. They know how to assess the needs, evacuate people to safety, disinfect drinking water—even, if need be, create the disinfectant. And in the space between emergencies, they are taking steps to reduce risks, like renovating wells to keep water safe from bacteria, and helping people understand how to avoid getting cholera.

If the idea of journalists renovating wells strikes you as odd, take it up with their trainers—an equally eclectic group of Salvadorans that, over the course of the last five years, has developed into a strong national emergency response squad, renowned for the speed and quality of its work.

Local people taking charge

All of this is part of Oxfam’s effort to help communities and organizations in at-risk areas take charge of their own health and safety.

“Local people and organizations are the first on the scene of an emergency,” says Oxfam humanitarian officer Wasley Demorne, “and they are the last to leave, by which I mean that they have a strong commitment to addressing the risk of future disasters. But they lack resources.”

So, Oxfam is supporting our expert Salvadoran partners to share their knowledge with teams in Haiti, Guatemala, and Honduras.

“We learned a lot from the team from El Salvador,” says Wislène Sylvestre, who has attended several week-long trainings in Artibonite. “We learned to detect bacteria in water. We can build emergency toilets and install pumps and pipes. We can respond in an emergency even if the government response is taking time.”

When people see women leading, it surprises them

Making sure women’s voices are heard loud and clear in our programs is a high priority. Nine out of the 21 members of the Haiti team are women, and their presence is helping ensure that our emergency responses reflect the needs of women and girls, as well as those of men and boys.

“Women ask questions like, ‘where will you put the latrines for women? Will there be any lighting? What is the placement of latrines to ensure that women have privacy?’” says Valeus Wislor, a public health engineer who works with Oxfam.

And because Haitian women face significant discrimination in their lives, it’s important that they have chances to demonstrate their leadership—which they do each time they carry out trainings in their own communities.

“Women are respected for doing this work,” says team member Marie Bettue Cadet, who makes her living as an agricultural technician. “When people see women leading, it surprises them. They used to think women couldn’t do anything. It makes people curious. Farmers—women and men—will stop their work to listen.”

We’ve made giant steps

Merisson and the team believe their work has already saved lives by reducing the spread of deadly waterborne disease.

“We’re hoping to get to zero cases of cholera,” says team member René Philistin. “But the change we want to see can’t happen in a day. It will take time.” Still, he says, “We’ve made giant steps.”

I didn't understand then what he meant. Now as an adult, I can appreciate what he was looking for. He was looking for stewardship and the relationship between the farmer and the land they tended. Any farmer worth his or her salt would have straight rows, showing their skills and the pride they had in their craft and their livelihoods.

Emiliana Aligaesha also feels that same pride. I knew it when she said,

"My mother told me, 'If one goes to the farm and finds weeds choking the banana trees, then harvests a banana and proceeds with cooking, one should consider herself a thief.' I have always remembered this principle."

Any farmer worth their salt in Tanzania would ensure that their banana trees were well-tended, free from weeds. This was the sign of a good farmer to Emiliana's mother, the same way straight rows were to my father in Nebraska. You do not take from the land, unless you have upheld your responsibility to it.

Emiliana Aligaesha and her fellow community members know this principle well. They are part of a local group of farmers that formed a successful private company selling coffee and beans in the northwest Karagwe district of Tanzania in 2007, known as Kaderes Peasant Development Ltd. The World Food Programme has been a customer and USAID has been helping them to guarantee better prices.

As well as growing coffee, bananas, beans and maize, Aligaesha owns six cows, operates her own irrigation systems, and also supplies quality seedlings to other villagers. But her efforts were recognized before she was named a Female Food Hero runner-up this year. Even though she has had little formal agricultural training, local leaders declare Aligaesha's farm to be an exemplary one – well-kept and with rich produce. In addition to her encouragement of women to be more involved in agriculture, Aligaesha has become a kind of researcher in the village, testing out new agricultural techniques for others to follow.

Aligaesha is a former teacher. Most important to her is that her eight children have all been put through college as a result of her hard work.

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Emiliana Aligaesha.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Emiliana Aligaesha.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

As mayor of San Martin Alao in northern Peru, Dominguez had been trying for years to access funds from the Peruvian government to deal with the increasing piles of trash. A mountain of waste was rising as his town grew, actually obstructing views of the forest.

While Dominguez was fully committed to using his limited city budget as best as he could to tackle the problem, it was not until USAID began providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Environment, that Dominguez succeeded getting significant funds from the national government, through the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

It had been difficult for the Ministry of Environment to ensure that municipalities had a comprehensive approach to waste management beyond garbage collection or that they had selected appropriate types of technology for population levels. The Ministry of Economy and Finance were reluctant to fund local projects that didn't meet their stiff financial and technical requirements, despite political pressure to place more public investments in provinces outside the capital city of Lima. Municipalities needed increased funding levels to make significant improvements in waste management, but required technical training on project development to access the funds.

With USAID support, the Ministry of Environment was able to address these core issues by delivering trainings for local officials. The Ministry of Economy and Finance was then comfortable releasing funds to San Martin Alao and other municipalities aimed at solving the problem of local waste management. Manuel and his staff at San Martin Alao were only a few of the 1,500 local officials across four of the poorest regions of the country who benefited from a multi-month training series, mentoring, and hands-on tools.

"We jumped off our seats when the proposal had been approved!" Mayor Dominguez says. "For the first time, we were able to make [a] quality public investment of this size in San Martin Alao." Dominguez is now able to lead his town to collect, treat and dispose of solid waste, according to sound environmental standards.

Despite being one the best performing economies in Latin America, Peru remains challenged by poverty and disparities. Provinces and localities, and particularly indigenous communities historically left behind, are increasingly asking for a fair share of the country's gains.

A decade ago, Peru's civil society pushed for a decentralization process to begin, in order to monitor public revenues generated by extractive industries and to transfer revenue collection and expenditure from the national government to regional and local government. Today, 350,000 ordinary Peruvians participate annually across the country in the participatory budget processes that allow citizens more opportunity to define government priorities according to their needs.

"What the USAID partnership allowed us to do was to bring together all these different needs, actors, and resources at national, regional and local levels, which already existed in Peru, to solve a shared problem," says Rosa Salas, director of the project at the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, who joined forces with Magda Ushiñahua, a counterpart at the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finance, to bring about these changes. Peruvian taxpayer money has now been allocated for 127 municipalities to participate, benefitting an expected 5.65 million people. These municipalities were neglected before the decentralization process began and deepened, giving Peruvian local civic leaders a greater opportunity to unlock domestic resources to protect the health and well-being of their citizens and the surrounding Amazon.

"My people and I can stop pollution in our district. We just needed a partner. We know how to get it done," Dominguez says.

"It's up to us now. This investment will help us get there."

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Manuel Dominguez.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Manuel Dominguez.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

Khuong farms on two small plots of rice paddies, a total of 10 sao (nearly an acre) in Dong Dat commune of Thai Nguyen’s Phu Luong district. She attributes the good harvest to the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a package of good agricultural practices for hand-planted rice that increase yields while using less seeds, water, and fertilizers.

Today more than 1.3 million farmers in Vietnam have embraced this innovative farming method, producing more rice and earning extra income for their families. Oxfam has been helping promote SRI in Vietnam for nearly six years, and has made possible the ongoing training of farmers in the methods.

“It’s a smart investment needed to lift people out of poverty and to boost the national economy,” says Ngo Tien Dung, Deputy Director General of the Plant Protection Department in Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture.

SRI practices involve five simple steps including soil preparation, plant and water management. Farmers who use SRI transplant seedlings earlier and space them individually and in square patterns farther apart to reduce competition for light, water, and nutrients.

“I save quite a lot on seeds and fertilizers,” Khuong says. “Before I used almost 50 kg (110 pounds) of seeds for the two paddy fields, but now I use only 4 or 5 kg because with SRI, I transplant only one and sometimes two seedlings per hill instead of bunches of them.”

Robust root systems, bigger and healthier plants grow more grains of rice. Khuong now produces 2.7 metric tons of rice from her two paddy fields, as compared to just 1.8 tons grown with conventional methods, a 50 percent increase.

“I’m very pleased with the results, and I’ve stop worrying now,” she says.

According to the Plant Protection Department, farmers who use SRI significantly reduce the use of chemicals, thus growing healthier food, improving soil quality, and protecting farm biodiversity. On average, SRI farmers increase their yield by 500 kilograms (1,110 pounds), and earn extra income of $130 per hectare in just one cropping season (a hectare is just under 2.5 acres). This is a significant sum in a country where average income is around $1,200.

SRI honored with national award

SRI was recently honored with the National Golden Rice Award for making positive changes in the life of over a million Vietnamese farmers.

The award is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to honor major contributions to sustainable agriculture and rural development. Fifty-six winners were selected from across Vietnam for the first biennial Golden Rice Awards, which took place in November.

SRI was the first recipient at the Golden Rice Awards ceremony, and was recognized as an innovation that helped to revitalize sustainable food production, improving food and income security for small-scale farmers in Vietnam.

“We need to build the momentum for SRI extension over the coming years,” says Ngo Tien Dung of the Plant Protection Department, who received the award for the Department’s outstanding work in promoting the farming method.

Beyond mere benefits

The benefits of SRI go beyond increasing yield and reducing input costs. According to a report by Africare, Oxfam, and World Wildlife Fund, SRI practices have contributed to the reduction of greenhouse gases released from agricultural activities.

By improving nutrient use efficiency, farmers reduce the use of water, fertilizers, herbicide and pesticide, resulting in reduced emissions of methane, one of the most prevalent and dangerous greenhouse gases.

Farmers also reported positive change in community relations as a result of using these techniques. SRI farmers—most of them are women—learn together and help each other in the fields. This practice has created a culture of mutual support in rural communities.

Oxfam has been supporting organizations promoting SRI in Vietnam since 2006, working closely with officials of the Plant Protection Department, and recruiting local farmers to train others. These local experts formed a core of SRI proponents and formed Farmer Field Schools that grew demonstration plots and promoted the techniques.

Because farmers who try SRI see results almost immediately, the number of SRI farmers increased five-fold from 2009 to 1.3 million in 2012.

This year, over 18 million people in the Sahel region of West Africa were affected by a severe food crisis caused by drought, a failure of several crops, and sharp rises in food prices. The lives of over 1 million children were at risk from severe malnutrition. Communities across the Sahel suffered (and malnutrition rates remain dangerously high) but a major humanitarian operation, acting earlier than ever before, managed to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.

Oxfam played a major part in this effort. We provided urgently needed assistance to over 1 million people throughout the year. Over 600,000 of our supporters worldwide joined us in campaigning to raise the alarm and to mobilize the international community into action.

At the end of 2012, good rainfall and better harvests have provided some relief. Cereal production is 13 percent higher than last year, but this does not mean the crisis is over. Food prices remain high and many farmers were unable to take advantage of the better rains to plant their crops. Malnutrition rates for children remain above emergency levels in many parts of the region. Millions of people still require sustained support to recover from the crisis, to rebuild their assets and livelihoods, and to be able to support their families.

As well as dealing with the immediate challenges of helping people recover, we need to work together to tackle the underlying causes of food crises in the Sahel. Even when the harvests are good, 230,000 children die of malnutrition-related causes each year. Oxfam is dedicated to supporting small-scale farmers so they can produce more food, supporting the incomes of the poorest people through cash-for-work programs, and building systems of food reserves. These are just some of ways we can help to build the resilience of communities to future shocks, and avoid crises in the future.

The fields will be wet with morning dew, and, for the next few hours, said Raúl Jiménez, an organizer for FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) and a former farm worker, “you’re soaking wet, drenched in all these chemicals.”

Not just the chemicals on “the most pesticide-treated plants in the nation,” as Jiménez put it in an interview last month, but also the nicotine in the plants themselves. “You’re always exposed to it, you breathe it in, you touch it,” he said. The odds are good that at some point you’ll come down with Green Tobacco Sickness, which is caused by a high level of nicotine absorption through the skin. (Short term effects include dizziness, nausea, and dehydration – “so bad you think you’re gonna die.”)

You could wear gloves, but that would impede your ability to pluck the leaves from the bottom of the plants. You’re out there nurturing the plants by hand, rather than machine, in order to produce the highest-quality harvest, which brings a higher price for the grower. You bend over all day long, breaking off the leaves on the bottom, stashing them under your arm, leaving the top leaves to flourish.

“Your hands get black from the tar,” says Jiménez. Although regulations require wash stations (and bathrooms and drinking water) they are rare. “You have to be real careful not to touch anything.”

Tobacco plants flourish in the heat and humidity in North Carolina, which means that you are out there, too, in temperatures often above 100 degrees. Over the years several workers have died of heat stroke.

At the end of this day, you’ll go back to the “labor camp,” where toilets are lined up without partitions next to each other in a big room with sinks on the other side; where windows are few and small and have no glass; where you may have a mattress in a room with several other men – or you may sleep on the floor.

But the worst thing in all this long day is that, much of the time, you’re afraid – of deportation, of unemployment, of the crew leader, of letting down your family back in Mexico, or Guatemala – and you have no idea of your rights or your recourses.

A step forward for workers in 2012

In 2011, Oxfam America partnered with FLOC to research and publish the State of Fear report on human rights abuses in the North Carolina tobacco industry. This report has played a crucial role in recent efforts to raise the voices of farmworkers, and to get Reynolds Tobacco to engage in conversation with FLOC.

Following Oxfam’s request to supporters—in which more than 14,000 people called on Reynolds to meet with farmworkers—the company held its first face-to-face meeting with FLOC in 2012.

This was a huge step, but it’s just the beginning of the march toward real change and real justice in the fields. FLOC and partners want to keep up the pressure on Reynolds, and on some of the major chains that carry their products.

To honor International Human Rights Day, December 10, hundreds joined actions at Kangaroo stores in various cities in North Carolina to urge them to reach out to Reynolds about conditions in the fields. Kangaroo, the largest convenience store chain in the Southeast, could make a difference in the lives of thousands of tobacco farm workers.

In April, former rebel fighters, who had been integrated into the Congolese army, mutinied. Dubbing themselves M23, or Mouvement 23, they took control of an area close to the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. When the Congolese army called up troops from across the region to quell the rebellion, that deployment left a security vacuum, prompting other rebel groups and militia to reassert their control.

Now, caught in the crossfire, civilians face appalling abuse at the hands of multiple armed groups. One town—Kashuga in northern Masisi—was attacked 12 times between April and July. In a new report, Commodities of War, Oxfam has documented how these waves of conflict have affected more than 760,000 people so far this year.

“Ruthless militias and government troops are both mercilessly exploiting local communities to help fund their war,” said Elodie Martel, Oxfam’s associate country director.  Forced labor and recruitment, illegal taxation, and pillaging are all tactics in this conflict, along with rape, kidnap, and murder.

“These armed men enter our homes and demand money. If you don’t give it, they will kill you,” said one man from Fizi in South Kivu.

“Men no longer walk around this village since they are the ones who are taken, mostly,” added a woman from Kalehe in South Kivu.

As insecurity and uncertainty mount, the pressure on people is growing.

“More than 50,000 people have fled camps and homes since yesterday and are in dire need of shelter, water, and food,” said Tariq Riebl on Monday. Riebl is Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator in Goma, the threatened capital of North Kivu and one of Congo’s larger cities around which cluster camps for displaced people. “Families have been split up overnight and people are desperately going between sites trying to find loved ones. If fighting intensifies further, there are very few places people can go for safety.”

Oxfam is aiming to reach about 230,000 people affected by this new crisis and since July has been responding to the needs of families in three camps near Goma. As of Tuesday the organization had helped 123,000 with clean water, sanitation services, and protection support. And public health teams have launched education campaigns to reduce the risk that waterborne diseases, such as cholera, could spread. But the largest of the camps, Kanyaruchina, where Oxfam has been building 700 latrines and 120 bathing stalls, is now deserted after people were forced to flee again.

For people of the eastern provinces, the violence is a grim reminder of how weak Congo’s national justice system is. Coupled with a lack of state authority and an ill-trained and poorly paid army, the consequence of that weakness has been decades of sporadic conflict triggered in part by ethnic tensions and disputes over land and resources. The danger and volatility make it very difficult for people to earn a living and have pulled many deeper into poverty.

“This war brings us extreme poverty and leave many killed,” a woman from Rutshuru in North Kivu told Oxfam. “Children no longer go to school and people flee to zones that are somehow safe. Those who return to their village to work their land to provide for their families are killed during clashes, or raped when a woman or girl is alone in the field.”

Oxfam is calling for an immediate halt to the fighting so that humanitarian aid can reach more civilians, especially those who have been displaced.

Organized by the Alliance for the Defense of Rural Women’s Rights and Oxfam’s GROW campaign, the San Salvador event was an opportunity for women like Henríquez, a mother and small farmer, to present their demands to members of the National Assembly and government officials.

What Henríquez is fighting for is good and healthy food for her and her family, and a sustainable way of producing it.

“If I have food security, I have it all: a variety of healthy food, land, physical health—my children and grandchildren won’t fall sick because they eat healthy— and education,” said Henríquez.  “To me, sovereignty is the guarantee we have to food security [and to] be the owners of our land, our lives.”

Thanks to the training she has received from different institutions, Henríquez now knows how to make organic fertilizer, conserve soil, and work with bees to make honey.

She also benefits from a government program that provides the poorest families with about 100 pounds of fertilizer and two pounds corn seeds. But from Henríquez’ point of view, that doesn’t add up to food security, because when the program ends, the situation will be the same as before. What rural women need, she said, are native seeds which will guarantee sustainability by not only producing crops, but a new round of seeds for planting the following season.

Seed variety isn’t her only worry. Small farmers like Henríquez also face severe challenges from increasingly unpredictable weather.

“This year we lost our crops because of the drought. Last year we lost the whole bean crop because of Tropical Depression 12E,” said Henríquez. That storm dumped five feet of rain in nine days. “I took a loan to invest again, and when this (the drought) happened, I was crying because I didn’t know how to pay back the loan. Thank God the bank came to study my case and canceled my loan.”

Despite the hurdles she and her fellow rural farmers are confronting, Henríquez is confident that all the work they do as part of Alliance for the Defense of Rural Women’s Rights will bear fruit.

“If we go back to using native seeds, we can produce more and more permanently,” she said.” If we have irrigation systems to store water for the dry season, if we have access to information to what is happening in our country—economy, education, health—access to knowledge about soil conservation and how to conserve the environment, than we will have everything we’re all longing for: a dignified live and health.”

Henríquez speaks with the authority of an empowered and independent woman. She is convinced that by speaking out and engaging in the fight for women’s rights, change will come.

“Even if I don’t get to see the changes I’m fighting for, others will, and that gives me great satisfaction,” she said.

This October 16, World Food Day, Oxfam teamed up with other like-minded organizations to encourage people to think about food in a whole new way. Across the country and around the world, families and communities came together for conversations about where our food comes from, why fighting hunger is so important, and what we can do to create a fairer food system for everyone.

Oxfam America supporters like you played a major role in these efforts; in fact, your commitment and passion exceeded our expectations. As a way to say thank you for all that you did, here’s a quick look at what we accomplished together, by the numbers:

• Almost 9,000 – Number of World Food Day events in 47 states (including meals, potlucks, Oxfam America Hunger Banquets, and more) hosted by supporters of Oxfam America and our allies. Whether you brought  hundreds of people together on your campus or at your place of worship, or hosted an informal gathering for family and friends, all of you shared concrete, practical ways that we can come together to fix our broken food system.

• 5 – Number of principles of Oxfam’s GROW Method, which suggests easy ways to fight world hunger starting at your kitchen table. From blogging about the GROW Method to posting recipes on Pinterest, everyone from celebrity chefs to the media helped spread the word about these simple ways for everyday people to make a difference.

• 2 – Number of women farmers from Africa invited by Oxfam to share their perspectives at this year’s World Food Day events. Susan Godwin, an award-winning entrepreneur from Nigeria, and Diénaba Diallo, a small business owner and leader from Burkina Faso, spoke at community events organized by Oxfam volunteers in Ohio, Washington, DC, South Carolina, and more. Both also attended the World Food Prize conference in Iowa, where Godwin joined international experts on a panel called “One billion people hungry: Can we feed the world sustainably?”

• 120 – Number of #WFD2012 photos shared on Instagram

• 15 – Number of acclaimed restaurants from New York to San Francisco that served a special GROW Method meal on October 16 in honor of Oxfam and World Food Day.

• 150 – Number of people attending a GROW Method lunch at the World Food Prize conference in Iowa, hosted by celebrity chef and Oxfam supporter José Andrés, Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser, and Sisters on the Planet ambassador Ellen Gustafson.

• More than 40 – Number of countries where people participated in food-related events, contests, and actions to celebrate Oxfam’s global GROW Week 2012.

• 50 – Number of organizations, including Oxfam America, who successfully called on President Obama to issue a World Food Day proclamation this year; he was the first to do so since President Clinton.

Inspired? Find more ways to take action for Oxfam in your community.