OXFAMCloseup, Winter 2013

With this issue, we have given our magazine a new name: Closeup. It reflects our intention to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the people with whom we work and of the enterprise, drive, and dignity that defines their lives—even as many face terrible hardship. But hardship is only part of the story. Coupled with it—almost always—is a determination that can carry a region far.

In the pages ahead, you’ll read about civil society groups in Ghana that are working to ensure that the natural wealth of their country—its oil and gold—benefits its poorest citizens. You’ll also read about farmers in Haiti’s lush Artibonite valley where they have struggled to keep producing rice in the face of a flood of cheaper imports, mainly from the United States. Learn about the significant progress they are making, with Oxfam’s help, to revitalize their rice industry. As one farmer said, “We were hungry, but that is getting better all the time.”