Oxfam America

"Ocean's 13" Cast and Producer Donate $750,000 to Oxfam America through the "Not On Our Watch" Initiative

7 June 2007

For more information, contact:
Adrienne Leicester Smith
617-728-2406 (office)
asmith@oxfamamerica.org

LOS ANGELES — Not On Our Watch, an initiative that raises awareness and funds for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and beyond, is pleased to announce a $750,000 grant to Oxfam toward their life-saving humanitarian efforts in Darfur. Among those on the board for Not On Our Watch are George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub. This timely gift provides support to Oxfam's existing work in Darfur as well as to new programs that will help make local people and communities stronger and more prepared to respond to long term challenges.

"The people of Darfur urgently need the help of organizations like Oxfam,” said George Clooney, Not On Our Watch co-founder.

The grant aids Oxfam's ability to serve over 500,000 displaced people in Darfur and neighboring Chad. In addition to supporting the provision of urgently needed clean water, safe sanitation, and other public health work, the donation will fund longer term needs:

  • Safety for Women: Women often face attack when they leave the safety of camps to gather firewood for cooking. Fuel efficient stoves save lives by requiring fewer trips outside the camps. These stoves are better for the environment, as they require less wood to cook meals. With this additional support, Oxfam will expand distribution to 20,000 people.
  • Training: Continued training for local residents in community leadership, environmentally sustainable livelihood skills, and public health issues. Oxfam is helping build the next generation of community leaders who are needed more than ever as the conflict drags on.
  • Expansion of water and public health delivery: Establishing water points by means of trucking in water and drilling for available water; building latrines to keep people safe when living in dense camp conditions; hygiene promotion to prevent outbreaks of disease and to serve as an education point for knowledge that people can bring back to their homes when the conditions are secure enough for their return.

"More than three years of violence in Darfur has devastated millions of people and left them on the edge of survival," said President of Oxfam America, Raymond C. Offenheiser. “We have to find a way to reach more people, get them the support they need, and help them plan for the future.”

About Not On Our Watch

Not On Our Watch was founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities. Drawing on the powerful voice of citizen artists, activists, and cultural leaders, our mission is to generate lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for the vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced. Web site: www.notonourwatchproject.org.
Pumping Water is Only Part of the Work

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60,000 displaced people have access to clean water thanks in part to Oxfam’s work: The town of Kebkabiya now has its first-ever water system. Fetching water still takes work—a task that typically falls to women and girls. Four girls, pumping fast, can fill a five-gallon water jug in one-and-a-half minutes. To catch every drop, they use a plastic soda bottle, with its bottom cut off, to funnel the water into jugs. Once filled, each jug weighs nearly 42 pounds. Some women balance a jug on their heads or strap one to their backs to carry home. Donkeys also get saddled with heavy loads, trudging back from the pumps with bulging water sacks.
photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America
Wood Gathering Exposes Darfur Women to Grave Risks

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Violence makes it unsafe for women like Hawa Abdullha to leave camps and towns to search for wood for cooking fires. Oxfam helped fund a program that taught women in the town of Kebkabiya to make and use fuel-efficient stoves that cut the need for firewood by as much as half, thereby dropping the number of trips women have to make for wood. Another benefit: The stoves reduce deforestation in an over-strained environment.
photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America