"Oxfam is deeply saddened by the loss of such a dedicated and brave colleague. For many years, Mahdi had worked tirelessly and in an atmosphere of increasing danger to help the people of Somalia, who are struggling to cope with violence and drought," said Oxfam's Horn of Africa Manager, Robbert van den Berg.
"We wish to express our condolences and solidarity with his family and colleagues and with other civil society organizations working throughout Somalia under extremely difficult circumstances," said Mr van den Berg.
Oxfam International urges that a thorough and impartial investigation into the killing be carried out and that those responsible be put on trial.
Mohammed Abdulle Mahdi, known as 'Mahdi' to his friends, was the Director of the Women and Child Care Organisation (WOCCA) and was dedicated to helping vulnerable people in Somalia for many years.
In collaboration with Oxfam International, Mahdi worked to improve the lives of many different vulnerable groups; most recently, Mahdi had been working to help people forced to flee their homes because of extreme violence in Mogadishu and across Somalia.
This most recent killing illustrates the extreme dangers faced both by ordinary citizens and aid workers in Somalia. NGO workers like Mahdi are bravely and continuously working to deliver life-saving services to people in desperate need, but they are doing so in an atmosphere of increasingly real and imminent danger. It is the right of ordinary Somalis to be able to access the assistance that many of them so desperately need, and it is the right of aid workers to carry out their life-saving work unhindered and without fear.
All parties to the conflict must live up to their obligations to the people of Somalia by allowing full and unhindered access to those in need and to respect their obligations under International Humanitarian Law.
Only by living up to these obligations will the needs of all Somalis be met.
"This senseless loss of life underlines the extreme dangers that aid workers face trying to reach those in desperate need and deprives a whole community and family of a man dedicated to improving the lives of ordinary Somalis. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very difficult time," said Mr. van den Berg.
]]>One of the Oxfam aid workers who will join the team is Khalid Gill who was in the nearby city of Quetta when the earthquake struck?first as a smaller tremor, followed by a larger one. ?The first one woke us up at 4:30. It was not all that big a tremor but we all quickly got out of the house and into the street. It only lasted a minute or so,? said Gill. ?After a while we went back into the house even though we knew that there might be an aftershock. Then at 5:15 there was a really big tremor. The house was shaking so much so that the door became jammed. We eventually got out of the house. It was really scary and bitterly cold. Everything was shaking for several minutes.?
Despite being in a sparsely populated area, an estimated 2,500 to 3,500 people are reported to be affected. Access to the area is difficult in normal circumstances: It sits at approximately 7,874 feet above sea level. There are reports of at least 130 people killed and hundreds of homes damaged or flattened. It is believed that there are still people trapped and these figures may rise. Many were injured due to the collapse of poorly built mud and stonewall houses.
The most affected district is Ziarat. Union Council Kawash and Vortune are the other two most affected areas.
An emergency has been declared in the provincial hospitals where scores of people are being treated.
Pakistan army contingents with two helicopters have reached the earthquake-hit areas and are taking part in rescue operations. Medical teams have also rushed to the affected areas.
In Quetta, Oxfam has already identified suppliers of soap, buckets, plastic sheets, kitchen sets and food?all of which are needed for the relief effort.
To support the people of Pakistan, please consider making a contribution to Oxfam America?s Global Emergencies Fund.
]]>"As a result of the continued violence in eastern Congo, Oxfam and other international aid agencies have taken the decision to evacuate international staff from Goma as a precautionary measure this morning. National staff have been advised to stay at home. We will continue to monitor the situation closely, in the hope of being able to resume humanitarian assistance to those who so badly need it in the area.
"We are still committed to supplying clean water and sanitation to the over 65,000 people sheltering in Goma's camps. Because we work with community members in the camps, they have the know-how and resources to keep the water pumps running, and to ensure that sanitation is maintained. We delivered fuel and materials to the pumping station on Tuesday, which will allow camp residents to keep clean water running for the next two weeks. This will minimize the risk of diseases, like cholera, breaking out in the camps.
"If we cannot get back into the camps after two weeks, the situation will become more complicated. We urge all the armed groups in this conflict to stop fighting immediately, uphold their commitments and return to political dialogue. Further violence will only cause more human misery and suffering for people who have already suffered too much."
To support the people of Congo, please consider making a contribution to Oxfam America's Democratic Republic of Congo Relief & Rehabilitation Fund.
]]>In a report published today, Barbara Stocking, the chair of the Oxfam International Tsunami Fund Board, said: ?What has been achieved is astounding. Hundreds of thousands of people are now living in better conditions than they were in before the tsunami thanks to the generous support we received from the public, the hard work of our staff and local partners and the resilience of the affected communities to rebuild their lives.?
Oxfam received $294 million in donations to help affected people—more than 90 per cent of it from the public. The sum was used in Indonesia for instance where Oxfam was the first international agency to provide housing to tsunami survivors in Aceh, going on to build 1,566 permanent houses. In Sri Lanka, the international aid agency helped to restore the livelihoods of almost 170,000 people. Oxfam also funded, among other projects, the reconstruction of eight tsunami-affected secondary schools serving around 6,000 students each year. In India, Oxfam helped to restore the livelihoods of 660,000 people and create structures to allow them to save money.
?The money we received allowed us not only to help meet the immediate emergency needs of tsunami-affected populations, but also to try to address the factors that made them vulnerable: not least poverty and a lack of influence over their own lives,? Stocking said.
The activities of Oxfam and its partners ranged from the provision of emergency clean water and sanitation to people displaced by the disaster; improving the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poor and displaced people, especially women; and the construction of permanent houses to better protect communities against future disasters.
?The tangible results, such as the new houses and fishing boats, are only one marker of progress,? Stocking said. ?The less visible interventions are just as important. We have helped to give people better access to markets for their goods. We have helped them gain the knowledge they need to protect themselves against future disasters and the confidence to demand a say in decisions that affect them.?
Oxfam hopes that the world?s generous and speedy response to the devastation wrought by the tsunami will be regarded as landmark and will continue to improve the coordination between international agencies. Oxfam has extracted many lessons from the tsunami response, which have already been applied in subsequent disasters.
]]>Oxfam appealed to the international community to bring pressure to ensure an immediate end to the fighting, ensure the safety of the people of eastern Congo and create a genuine and lasting peace process.
?We need a major change in the world?s political engagement in the conflict in Congo. In the last ten years we have had peace agreements and peacekeeping troops but none have had sufficient, consistent international support. Nearly five and a half million people have died and millions of others have been forced from their homes. The world must stop allowing suffering on this scale to continue,? said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in Congo.
?There is not a military solution to this conflict nor can it be solved simply by providing more troops or military hardware. However, if done properly, additional military support could help improve security, enforce the ceasefire, protect civilians and allow aid agencies to provide help to those that desperately need it,? said Prodhan.
MONUC has so far been unable to ensure the peace and effectively protect the people of eastern Congo. Without better leadership and a genuine commitment to address both the immediate crisis and the factors that have created it, even with additional troops MONUC risks achieving very little.
Since August, some 200,000 people have been forced from their homes due to fighting between Laurent Nkunda?s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and the Congolese army. The fighting has intensified around Goma and surrounding areas in recent days forcing thousands more to flee their homes and the camps in which they sought refuge. The fighting has prevented life-saving help being provided to those who need it and humanitarian agencies have been forced to suspend operations in the area.
Oxfam supplies clean water and sanitation to 65,000 people sheltering in four camps around Goma and is preparing for a wider response as soon as humanitarian access is secured. On Thursday, international staff were forced to temporarily relocate out of Goma but national staff remain and measures are in place to maintain water and sanitation in the camps.
]]>Oxfam, which will be attending a conference on the issue today hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, says that after years of scientific progress, still less than ten percent of all medical research is being dedicated to diseases afflicting more than 90 percent of the world?s population.
Tropical diseases such as dengue fever or sleeping sickness affect millions of people in developing countries and yet only receive $1 out of every $100,000 spent globally on medical R&D;, according to the report Ending the R&D; Crisis in Public Health.
?Business as usual is just not getting the job done,? said Oxfam?s Rohit Malpani, co-author of the report. ?R&D; that focuses on the developing world?s urgent needs is still highly dependent and driven by intellectual property, even though this system is demonstrably failing the poor.?
Rich countries are continuing to lag seriously behind in providing resources for funding research for neglected diseases. Germany only provided $20 million in 2007 towards medical innovation benefiting the poor, a mere 0.12% of its overall research budget.
Even when governments do spend to improve R&D;, their initiatives have often been ineffective and wasteful, with little coordination and transparency. Advanced market commitment (AMCs) for instance —a promising mechanism to stimulate innovation for vaccines for neglected diseases—saw its first attempt being misspent.
The plan was to develop a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease, responsible for the deaths of 1.6 million children every year. Donors including Canada, the UK, Russia, Italy, Norway and the Gates Foundation handed over more than $1.5 billion to pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and Glaxo-Smith Kline. However, the money was spent to modify and deliver a vaccine that was already being developed for rich markets, failing to contribute to any real innovation.
?At a time when donors are held accountable for their aid budgets, it makes little sense that vital funds dedicated to R&D; are badly misspent,? said Malpani.
Oxfam said there is no shortage of ideas to improve research and development, such as prize funds and patent pools. The agency calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish a ?Global Fund for Research and Development? that would be dedicated to stimulating additional innovation in order to address the massive burden of diseases that primarily affect poor people in developing countries.
Malpani: ?For too many years the poor have been handed the left-over scraps from our global system of medical innovation. A U-turn on R&D; practices from the current industry-led and uncoordinated system is badly needed.?
]]>The agency warned that if donors were to slash their aid budgets by 25% as they did in the global recession of the nineties, it would mean cuts of more than US$25 billion. This could keep more than 700 million people from accessing vital healthcare services.
?These are deeply concerning signals from rich country leaders. This is exactly the opposite of what the developing world needs to hear right now. Donors must come up with an aid bail out which delivers on their promises to boost lending,? said Marita Hutjes, spokesperson for Oxfam International. ?And the next president ? to be elected in four weeks—should honor the promises made by the United States to support anti-poverty and health programs in poor countries.
?The same level of urgency used to bail out the financial sector must be shown for the millions now suffering from the fuel and food crises,? said Hutjes.
Global aid flows fell for the second consecutive year in 2007, dropping from US$104.4 billion in 2006 to US$103.7 billion. This means that donors are way off the mark to reach the commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on aid. The current figure represents just 0.28% GNI of all donors.
]]>Oxfam is currently delivering aid to approximately 85,000 people, and staff have been assessing several camps around the town of Goma as part of the scale-up process.
Oxfam?s Rebecca Wynn visited Kibati camp, four kilometers north of Goma, where around 7,000 displaced people are living in tarpaulin and banana-leaf shelters.
She said, ?The lull in the fighting has allowed us to assess what is needed and make plans to double our aid effort. The cease-fire has to hold if people are to get the aid they desperately need. At Kibati camp people have basic latrines and water pumps, but these are dirty and need to be maintained if we are to prevent disease spreading.?
Wynn continued, ?The people here don?t have food and they are hungry. Some people are going into the banana fields around the camp which is very dangerous because there are drunk soldiers around. They?re risking their lives but they are hungry and desperate.
?Many people are still arriving but others are risking leaving. They want to go home. They told me, ?We don?t want to be here. Why do we have to live in plastic shelters when we have houses?? But going home is a risk. They have the choice of staying here and being hungry or risking their lives going home,? added Wynn.
Wynn noted aid work could be stopped at any time.
"It's still tense. There is a ceasefire, but that ceasefire could break. There's still a real need for other countries to keep piling on the diplomatic pressure,? Wynn said.
Oxfam currently works in four camps in Goma, where it helps 65,000 people, and trucks water to 20,000 people in Kanyabayonga, north of Goma. It is plans to help an extra 100,000 people in area to the north and west of Goma.
]]>?With gas prices rising every day, US citizens wonder ?where does the money go?? At the same time Americans are feeling the pinch, these high prices are not translating into benefits for the citizens of oil-producing countries.
?More than half of the world?s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources. Oxfam, along with members of the international Publish What You Pay coalition, supports mandatory disclosure of oil, gas, and mining revenues to provide citizens of these countries with vital information to hold their governments accountable for how revenues are used.
?This legislation would help ensure that the US does not facilitate corruption, but increases our own energy security and empowers citizens of resource rich countries to demand accountability. In the current environment of secrecy, it is difficult to hold governments responsible for how resource revenues are used, which often leads to embezzlement, corruption, and the failure to reduce poverty.
?With record high oil prices and diminishing reserves, extractive companies are increasingly operating in new areas of developing countries. According to the UN Millennium Development Project, in Africa, oil revenues could exceed annual aid needs by $35 billion in the year 2015. Given the weakness of government oversight and human rights protections in many of these countries, it is even more important that companies be transparent.
?Natural resource revenues have the power to address poverty in an unprecedented way. An open and honest system will ensure that Americans and citizens of developing countries benefit from these industries. Even small oil booms can provide large sums of money to developing country producers, and governments need to be prepared by building transparent and accountable systems for managing natural resource wealth.
?This legislation could create a global standard of transparency in one of the least transparent but most important segments of the international economy.?
]]>?Oxfam applauds Representatives McCollum, Shays and Tierney for increasing the momentum that?s out there right now for US foreign aid reform,? said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. ?More members of the House should join them to become leaders on foreign aid reform and advocate for the resolution?s quick passage by the House of Representatives. The American people are ready to support them on this.?
The resolution reflects the consensus recommendations of the U.S. foreign policy community, congressionally mandated commissions, development experts and think tanks. And most importantly, it proposes a fresh new vision for America?s foreign aid?a positive and pragmatic re-engagement with our increasingly interconnected world.
US foreign aid has saved millions of lives and helped millions more overcome poverty. Yet, aid often fails to reach the people who need it most?the two and half billion people who survive on less than two dollars a day. American aid has become slow, bureaucratic, and fragmented. Built almost fifty years ago in response to the Cold War, the US foreign aid system needs to be reformed to make it more efficient, more modern, and more focused on ending global poverty.
?When President Kennedy laid out his vision for US foreign aid in his 1961 inaugural address, he painted a vision of American leadership based on our values. Americans have a fundamental interest in supporting the efforts of poor people and governments to escape poverty,? said Offenheiser. ?Without wholesale foreign aid reform, America will lack the tools it needs to lead the fight for a safer world for everyone. Like 1961, this is another once-in-a-generation opportunity, and Representatives McCollum, Shays and Tierney are seizing this mantle.?
Numerous governments have told Oxfam that while they appreciate American generosity, US foreign aid creates more headaches for them than aid from any other donor. While Oxfam America does not accept US funding, other agencies that do have told Oxfam that U.S. foreign aid is the most burdensome to administer.
?The US foreign aid system needs to end business as usual and focus on Smart Development,? said Offenheiser. ?Smart Development means Washington will need to put poor countries and poor people in control of their own future?it will need to engage in true partnerships and cede a measure of control. This won?t come easily for Washington, but it will mean the difference between investment and charity?success and failure.?
Oxfam America recently released Smart Development: Why US Foreign Aid Demands Major Reform. In it, the agency outlines its approach to Smart Development including implementing development in the context of the other forces at work in various societies, helping states govern effectively, creating markets that function fairly and working with poor people to achieve the basic tools to generate their own wealth over time.
]]>?This campaign has allowed Oxfam America to launch long-term initiatives with confidence,? said Janet McKinley, chair of the board of directors as well as the Campaign for Oxfam America. ?Now we know we?ve got the financial resources in hand to support some of our key programs over the coming three to five years. Nothing we work on can be resolved quickly?it requires staying power.?
McKinley and her husband, George Miller, committed over $5 million to the Campaign. Other lead Campaign donors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Individuals have contributed 46 percent of the donations for the Campaign for Oxfam America. Foundations and corporations have donated 54 percent. The Campaign received commitments for 14 gifts over $1 million.
Visa has made an initial three-year funding commitment to Oxfam America. The commitment is focused on humanitarian aid and targeted programs devoted to building inclusive economic growth to aid with poverty alleviation solutions.
?Visa?s commitment to Oxfam America, a highly-respected leader in advancing humanitarian aid, economic development, and poverty alleviation, is an integral part of Visa?s corporate responsibility program,? said Douglas Michelman, Global Head of Corporate Relations, Visa Inc. ?Visa shares Oxfam?s commitment to fostering greater economic independence among poor people and to helping individuals in vulnerable communities around the world, including in cases involving disaster relief efforts.?
In order to preserve its independence and voice, Oxfam America does not accept funding from the US government. The organization depends entirely on gifts and grants from individual donors, foundations, and corporations to carry out its mission of poverty alleviation and social justice.
]]>Oxfam's innovative approach to community finance breaks with that of traditional microfinance institutions. Saving for Change trains large numbers of savings and credit groups in the poorest regions of the world to save together and make loans to each other with their own resources instead of taking out a loan from a bank, credit union or microfinance institution.
"The first Saving for Change group was trained three years ago. Today, over 150,000 villagers in Mali and Cambodia have already joined savings and lending groups," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. "With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we will reach close to 550,000 villagers in the next three years."
With this growth, Saving for Change will become the largest microfinance program in these two countries and the only one reaching the rural poor at this scale. Village groups act as their own community banks, providing villagers with a place to save and easy access to loans. As a result, poor people living in remote areas with little or no financial institutions can access self-managed financial services to build assets, increase incomes, and improve the livelihoods of their families.
"Not only is Saving for Change different because it is based on saving instead of borrowing, it also relies on person-to-person training and relationships instead of technology. This helps build trust and ultimately makes the savings and lending groups more sustainable," said Offenheiser.
Oxfam will use this grant to replicate its community finance model in communities throughout Mali and Cambodia. In addition, it will allow the organization an opportunity to explore further program growth in Latin America.
Millions of people in Asia and Africa live on one dollar a day or less, and few have access to savings or other financial services that can help them increase their financial security and improve their lives. Without places to save, it is difficult for families to build savings to pay for educational fees, medical bills, or emergencies. Others have little or no access to micro loans that could improve their incomes through investments like setting up a small sales kiosk, buying crop fertilizer, or acquiring an animal for breeding.
Funding to expand Saving for Change comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Financial Services for the Poor initiative, which works with partners to make savings and other financial services available in developing countries so the poor can better manage life's risks and take advantage of life's opportunities.
"The innovative savings and lending approach has been successful at bringing affordable financial services to people with very low incomes living in remote communities," said Bob Christen, director of the Financial Services for the Poor initiative. "We believe that Saving for Change's groups will open the door to opportunity and increased household financial security for many poor people."
The grant also supports program evaluation and research that will help document and fully measure Oxfam's impact on communities. Researchers will be asking key questions on the affect participating in Saving for Change has including:
"The research component of this grant will help us fine tune our program so that it best meets the needs of the poor," concluded Offenheiser. "Documenting Saving for Change's success will also help build momentum for expanding savings-led community finance programs around the world."
Saving for Change is implemented by Oxfam America in collaboration with Freedom from Hunger and Norway-based Stromme Foundation. Freedom from Hunger's support includes developing training manuals, and contributing technical assistance for the planning, implementation and evaluation of the program. Stromme Foundation, along with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, underwrites the costs for the teams training savings and lending groups in Mali.
]]>The two organizations now seek to build on the unprecedented success of No Dirty Gold (NDG) and take on even greater challenges. EARTHWORKS will assume the management of NDG, and will continue to raise concerns about irresponsible practices at mine sites around the world as well as document progress towards best practices (see www.nodirtygold.org for more information). Oxfam America will intensify its work in this sector by launching a new initiative focused on the theme "Right to Know/Right to Decide," which will seek to empower local communities by calling on mining and oil companies to fully respect communities' basic rights to participate in decision-making and to fully disclose money they pay to foreign governments. Such information is a crucial first step for ensuring that governments use these funds to reduce poverty and protect human rights. Later this spring, EARTHWORKS will also be launching a new effort to pressure companies extracting fuel minerals to implement best practices and policies that protect communities and our climate.
Oxfam America and EARTHWORKS look forward to this new direction and as they pursue their shared goals of helping protect communities and the environment from irresponsible natural resource extraction. The two organizations invite all current supporters and anyone interested in reducing the negative impacts of the global oil, gas and mining industries to join in these efforts to promote industry reform.
]]>?We congratulate Secretary-Designate Clinton on her nomination to this critical leadership position at a time when the country faces a turning point in US foreign relations. We encourage Secretary-Designate Clinton to lead the new Administration on a foreign policy agenda that reengages with the international community and leads the fight against global poverty.
?The current economic crisis weighs heavily on those struggling to overcome extreme poverty. Today, nearly one-third—or about two billion—of the world?s people are living on less than $2 a day. Secretary-Designate Clinton must work toward positive long-term change through a foreign policy strategy that will reinvigorate the global economy and foster a more prosperous world for all.
?Currently, US programs to fight global poverty are scattered across two dozen federal agencies, with many competing agendas and strategies. We believe that US foreign aid needs a major overhaul. We look forward to working with Secretary-Designate Clinton to set clear purposes and priorities for our development programs, and put poverty reduction and recipient countries' needs at the forefront of development policy.
?With the current financial crisis, US foreign policy must promote economic growth at home and abroad. US foreign aid, done right, can promote global stability and create good will around the world and economic benefits for the poor that in turn will create stronger economic partners for the US.
?The international community is failing millions of vulnerable people in places like Afghanistan, Darfur and Congo. The incoming Secretary has an opportunity to build a 21st century State Department that can meet this challenge by doubling the number of core diplomatic personnel and moving resources to potential and ongoing conflict zones, especially in Eastern and Central Africa.
?Secretary-Designate Clinton must implement a diplomatic strategy that tackles many of the problems that fuel international conflicts—including poverty and inequality brought on by climate change and irresponsible natural resource exploitation.
?Climate change is quickly emerging as a powerful driver of poverty and instability around the world. It is time to focus on this crisis through a foreign policy agenda that addresses the impacts on poor communities internationally.
?Secretary-Designate Clinton must work with oil and mineral producing nations to promote greater transparency, respect human rights, and weed out rampant corruption, which has contributed to the widespread failure of the extractive industries to contribute to meaningful poverty reduction. ?We look forward to working with Secretary-Designate Clinton and the State Department to address the plight of millions of people living in hunger and poverty around the world.?
]]>"We are hopeful that we will see decisive and early action in the new administration to re-engage with the international community, lead the fight against global poverty, and create positive long-term change that will result in a more prosperous, secure world for all," said Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser. "At a time when the US economy is in trouble and Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about their own economic health, reforming foreign aid could increase its effectiveness without additional cost."
Oxfam America encourages the President-elect to follow through on commitments to help the global poor, who are least responsible for climate change, deal with its consequences. Oxfam warns that climate change is likely to increase economic and social instability, migration and refugee crises, and conflict over natural resources, and is quickly becoming a major driver of poverty and instability around the world.
"Addressing the impacts of global warming on poor communities in the US and abroad must be a priority for the Obama administration," said Offenheiser. "It is essential that the President-elect re-engage in the ongoing international negotiations for a post-2012 agreement on climate change that includes significant cuts in emissions, and funding to assist developing countries adapt to climate impacts. Forging the next international climate agreement cannot be done without the US."
Oxfam urges the President-elect to attend the forthcoming international climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland or, at the very least, send a high-level representative to signal to the world that the US is ready to lead on climate change.
In addition, Oxfam also urges the President-elect to help bring about strong US climate legislation that not only dramatically cuts US emissions, but also provides significant assistance to the most poor and vulnerable communities.
As a number of conflicts still ravage civilian populations around the world, Oxfam encourages the Obama administration to lead the world by building capable institutions, prioritizing the protection of civilians in its foreign assistance programs, and cooperating with allies to remove obstacles to peace and stability.
"The new administration has the opportunity to protect and assist civilians by acting much more quickly to tackle prolonged conflicts and prevent new ones," said Offenheiser. "Upon taking office, President-elect Obama must build a 21st century State Department by doubling the number of core diplomatic personnel and moving more personnel to potential and ongoing conflict zones."
Closer to home, Oxfam America also encourages President-elect Obama to revisit the failed recovery of the Gulf Coast following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"Despite three years of effort, the continued lack of affordable housing and the continued failure to ensure decent jobs provide stark proof of the failure of the Bush administration to adequately meet the needs of those who were impacted by this tragedy. This failure to respond to the desperate calls of Americans in need cannot continue," said Offenheiser. "President-elect Obama can restore faith in the ability of government to help those in need by helping to provide quality jobs and affordable housing for the low and moderate income families still unable to return to their former lives."
"We look forward to working with President-elect Obama and his administration and are encouraged that his leadership will help improve the plight of millions of people who suffer from hunger, violence and injustice around the world," said Offenheiser.
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