Emergencies
When disaster strikes, Oxfam's worldwide network of partners is already on the scene, providing emergency assistance. Once the immediate danger has passed, Oxfam seeks out the root causes of crises and works to bring about lasting change.
Current emergencies
West Africa is in the grip of a food crisis, with a deadly combination of drought, poor harvests, and skyrocketing food prices that has placed more than 18 million people at risk of hunger and malnutrition.
Though the rain has started to fall, emergency conditions for millions of people affected by a severe drought and food crisis are expected to persist well into 2012.
In October 2011, a torrential, nine-day storm caused massive flooding, but Oxfam's decade-long investment in El Salvador deepened the capacity of partners and communities to care for their own.
On January 12, 2010 a major earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of Port-au-Prince causing catastrophic destruction in the western hemisphere's most impoverished nation.
In what many consider the largest humanitarian emergency in the world, millions are living in crowded camps or on the edges of towns and villages.
For the second year, massive floods are inundating millions of acres of land in Pakistan. Oxfam is rushing aid to the region, supporting search-and-rescue, planning food distribution, and supplying clean water and sanitation facilities.
Oxfam is helping people survive catastrophes like hurricanes and earthquakes, and the dangerous upheavals of war. Learn about Saving Lives 24/7.
Some progress has been made in Afghanistan, but continued conflict and insecurity have added to the hardships that make it one of the poorest countries in the world.
Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has cost nearly 5.4 million lives. Many have fled to neighboring countries or temporary camps, and government stability is fragile.
Responding to disasters is a crucial part of Oxfam's humanitarian mission. But finding ways to help communities prepare for and prevent natural events from becoming full-scale disasters is at the cutting edge of our work.
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Feature Story
West Africa food crisis: Senegalese singer Baaba Maal performs benefit concert
Maal visits drought-affected communities to raise awareness in growing Sahel crisis
Feature Story
West Africa food crisis: Dry times in 2011 threaten ability to plant in 2012
A farmer recounts the struggle to grow food and prepare for the 2012 growing season
Feature Story
West Africa food crisis: Farmers cope with food shortages
Confronted with a poor 2011 harvest, farmers find creative ways to earn money to buy food.
Feature Story
In Kolda, Senegal, farmers are struggling to feed their families
The last harvest of peanuts, a major cash crop in this region, plummeted by 60 percent leaving families with little money to buy the food they need.
Feature Story
Struggle in Sahel: 'If there's no pasture, nothing works'
'We've stayed on our ancestors' land and we've put up with everything, but if rain doesn't come, life would turn into a nightmare," says Koubra Hamid.
Feature Story
As food crisis looms, the lean season hits early in northern Senegal
An Oxfam team assesses the conditions around a group of small villages where many of the food reserves are now exhausted.
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