When's the last time a small-farm family called it quits and had to sell their land for development? Probably yesterday or the day before.
There's no coincidence here. The loss of truly fresh fruits and vegetables, grown for their taste, and the loss of farmland and small-scale farmers are two faces of the same coin. In this issue of EXCHANGE, we meet Michael Rozyne, founder and managing director of Oxfam partner Red Tomato.
Also in this issue, ethnic discrimination in Guatemala—and the Mayan defense. Plus, how community radio is engaging Senegal's youth, and the humanitarian imperative of land mine clearance in war-torn Afghanistan.
]]>?Oxfam?s experience is that aid air drops can help but are hugely expensive and very limited in what they can deliver,? said Michael Delaney, director of humanitarian response for Oxfam America.
Air dropping aid does not guarantee that food and other relief supplies will reach the people most in need. In many cases it is the strongest and fittest who get to the aid first, and not the sick or injured who most need help and assistance. In a natural disaster such as Cyclone Nargis or conflict like Darfur it?s not only food that is needed but also sophisticated equipment such as clean water and sanitation systems weighing tons as well as highly skilled staff to operate them, all of which cannot be dropped from the sky.
?If there isn?t an aid operation on the ground to distribute the aid, the air drops can exacerbate any tense relations within communities with only the fittest and fastest benefiting,? said Delaney.
?At best aid air drops can only be a partial solution, at worst they give the illusion that somehow we are addressing this ever-worsening humanitarian crisis. The biggest risk is that aid air drops will be a distraction from what is really needed ? a highly effective aid operation on the ground. The highest diplomatic effort is still required to ensure that aid and aid experts are allowed into Myanmar to help save lives,? added Delaney.
In any humanitarian response, including in Myanmar today, what?s always needed more than air drops is a well coordinated and widespread aid operation on the ground. The humanitarian relief operation mounted in Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is a text book case of what?s required following a major humanitarian catastrophe. Within days of the tsunami relief flights carrying equipment and relief personnel were permitted to land to assist those affected by the disaster.
?There can be no substitute for an aid operation on the ground. It?s the best way to save lives and to ensure aid is targeted at the most vulnerable people,? said Delaney.
And that is the quandary in cyclone-affected parts of Myanmar today. Should aid be parachuted in or should agencies such as Oxfam alongside local partners be allowed to operate on the ground? Oxfam wants to be allowed to operate in Myanmar because it has years of experience responding to natural and man-made disasters around the world.
?We support a call for international aid agencies such as Oxfam to be permitted to work in cyclone-affected parts of Myanmar,? said Delaney. ?We have the experience and expertise to save lives and we?d obviously welcome a chance to play our part assisting the millions of people affected by this natural disasters.?
In readiness to respond Oxfam has pre-positioned relief supplies as well as aid workers in the region. In total Oxfam has nearly 90 highly-trained experienced disaster response specialists including logisticians, water engineers and public health experts on standby and ready to leave at a moment?s notice.
]]>Nearly half of Somalia?s population, or 3.25 million people, are now in need of emergency aid. This is a 77% increase since the beginning of 2008. This number has increased dramatically over the past year due to the destructive combination of extreme insecurity, drought and record-high food prices. The situation is expected to deteriorate further with ordinary Somalis bearing the brunt of the cost.
Despite the ongoing political process we have not witnessed any lessening of the violence that continues to have a horrendous impact on civilians.
In the last few weeks, renewed shelling in Mogadishu has displaced approximately 37,000 civilians from their homes. Over the past nine months, 870,000 have fled for their lives. A total of 1.1 million people are currently displaced in Somalia today.
We are appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportional use of force by all armed parties to the conflict, which is further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
The poorest of Mogadishu?s residents have no means to flee the extreme violence and have limited means to earn a living leaving them completely dependent on humanitarian assistance. This while the average Somali has seen price increases for food and water of up to 1,000 percent, plunging many into worsening poverty. One in six children under five, or approximately 180,000 children, is acutely malnourished in South and Central Somalia.
Aid workers are increasingly the victims of assassination and kidnapping and are now seen as legitimate targets. This year alone 24 aid workers, of which 20 are Somali nationals, have been killed whilst carrying out their work. The whereabouts of another ten are unknown. There have been 111 reported security incidents directly targeting aid agencies.
National and international aid agencies are prevented from responding effectively to the needs of ordinary Somalis because of violence and severely limited access. At present, South and Central Somalia is almost entirely off limits to international staff of aid agencies.
We call upon all parties to the conflict to allow aid agencies unhindered access to Somalis who are in desperate need of emergency assistance.
The international community has completely failed Somali civilians. We call on the international community to make the protection of Somali civilians a top priority now.
Signatories to the statement (52 National and International NGOs):
President Bush?s visit to Mississippi and Louisiana, days before the third anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, comes as a new report from Oxfam America reveals how little progress has been made and what still remains to be done to restore the region and repair the communities affected three years ago.
?If the history of the Katrina recovery were written today, it would be a tragedy. Far too little progress has been made despite the remarkable effort and ingenuity of the people of the region who are fighting to restore their homes and their lives,? said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. ?Much of the progress has come at the hands of Gulf Coast residents - in spite of significant hurdles placed in front of them by the federal government. The next administration must act quickly to remove those hurdles so Gulf Coast residents can truly and finally recover from the storms.?
Oxfam?s report, Mirror on America, which will be released Tuesday, reveals just how much work remains to be done, and provides recommendations to speed an equitable recovery, including:
President Bush rightly commended many who have worked hard to rebuild their homes and their lives. Unfortunately, so many have done so on their own, with less help than they could have used from the federal government.
Rebuilding the region has proved to be difficult. Many living along the Gulf Coast have been hit by a double injustice. On one hand they can?t afford the rising costs of rent, housing, insurance and utilities. On the other, they can?t find the kind of jobs they need to offset those increased expenses. It is not too late, however, for the many thousands who still need help.
?A new administration will face the challenge of correcting the mistakes of its predecessor and a critical opportunity to rebuild the Gulf Coast better and stronger,? said Rhonda Jackson, Louisiana State Policy Specialist for Oxfam America. ?The time is now to renew our promise and commit to a full Gulf Coast recovery.?
]]>A team of aid workers are traveling to Wenchuan County in Sichuan?the quake?s epicenter?from their base in Kunming, Yunnan province. They will assess the damage and coordinate emergency relief work.
?This is the biggest earthquake in China for decades. Oxfam staff are now in contact with local government agencies and other partners in the affected areas and preparing for emergency response work,? said Lum Kwok Choi of Oxfam Hong Kong. ?Our initial assessment is that survivors of the earthquake are in need of clean water, food, medicine, clothing and blankets. Oxfam Hong Kong is urgently appealing for donations from the public. In the longer-term, it is clear that rehabilitation and reconstruction will be massive tasks.?
Oxfam Hong Kong operates community development projects in Gansu Province which has also been affected, and is most likely to do emergency work in Wen County, which was seriously hit.
]]>?An immediate ceasefire is desperately needed. Fresh fighting around the town of Kibati today just 2kms north of Goma forced thousands of weary people to flee in panic yet again and seriously jeopardizes the ability of aid agencies like Oxfam to help them.
?The UN peacekeeping force needs more troops not just greater powers. There are clearly not enough troops to provide the security and protection so desperately needed not just around Goma but elsewhere in eastern Congo as well.
?It?s one thing to sit in Nairobi deliberating about what needs to be done. We have had a lot of talk about action—we now need to see that talk put into action.?
]]>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.
]]>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 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.
]]>?This funding will help save lives and prevent further suffering to hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe,? said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. ?With the oncoming rainy season, an already devastating cholera outbreak could become catastrophic unless issues of unsafe water and sanitation are addressed.?
The funding will enhance Oxfam?s existing response by providing safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. In addition, the initiative will sensitize community members to effectively identify the disease and instruct them to seek immediate treatment when it occurs, and teach them how to prevent contamination to others. Lastly, the funding will also support community members initiating their own community based Cholera Early Warning Systems to collect data and identify potential risks to their water sources to reduce the spread of the disease.
?Immediate treatment for those affected, and the implementation of prevention measures, are critical to helping stop the further spread of this disease in Zimbabwe,? said Chip Lyons, director of Special Initiatives in the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ?Oxfam?s long-standing track record of responding to international emergencies make them well positioned to not only provide relief, but also to establish a foundation for community awareness around prevention.?
?Not only will this award be used for immediate response, but it will also be used for prevention,? said Ransom Mariga, head of Oxfam America?s program in Zimbabwe. ?This is especially important for the many people in Zimbabwe who are hungry and for whom cholera would be lethal.?
Cholera is a water-borne disease. This outbreak is a result of the breakdown of health, basic water and sanitation services and has already killed over 1,600 people since August and infected over 33,000 around the country, according to the World Health Organization. Zimbabweans are desperately short of food, health care, clean water and safe sanitation. In addition to the cholera outbreak, at least 3.8 million people do not have enough to eat ? going without food for days at a time. Oxfam has been responding to the humanitarian emergency through food distribution and limited water and hygiene work.
]]>?A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Myanmar and the threat of a second wave of death must drive discussions on Sunday towards cooperation, compromise, and creative responses to getting more aid into the Irrawaddy Delta,? said Sara Ireland, Oxfam?s regional director for East Asia, Sarah Ireland.
?Some aid is getting through and there are signs that more will be delivered but not in enough quantity and not quickly enough. The aid bridge that ASEAN has begun to create into Myanmar must rapidly become a highway wide enough to meet the needs of the people in the hardest hit areas,? she said.
After weeks of uncertainty about how to get access to assist those affected by Cyclone Nargis, ASEAN on Monday announced that it would lead a coordinating mechanism that would work closely with the UN to get more aid into Myanmar.
?The ASEAN initiative is a real chance to begin the turnaround for the people of Myanmar. The donor community must also seize this opportunity and fully support it,? Ireland said.
?This is going to be a long haul and a massive aid effort will be needed as part of the ASEAN mechanism and the international aid community, which includes aid workers and agencies from many countries around the world, will need to support and assist in this effort with technical expertise, experience and skills.?
Ireland said that while aid has reached some people in the delta region, major gaps remain in the level and speed of the response?particularly in crucial areas of clean water, shelter, emergency food, and medical supplies.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 500,000 people lost their homes in the cyclone. According to the UN, only 150,000 were in government or other shelters. This needs to be addressed urgently, Oxfam said.
The agency said with only 250,000 of 750,000 people in need of urgent food reached with a two-week ration of rice, food aid was vital according to the UN World Food Program. According to nutrition research by Save the Children, 30,000 children in the delta are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and will die by the first week of June unless this food gap is filled.
With the fast-approaching monsoon season and the end of the planting season in five to seven weeks, prompt action is necessary if further unnecessary suffering is to be avoided.
Oxfam said while ASEAN was working to resolve issues around access into the country it was vital that donors and aid agencies worked to help ensure access within the country to the hardest hit areas, particularly along the waterways and the dirt roads that have been all but washed away.
Given their experience in responding to disasters such as the 2004 tsunami and Pakistan earthquake in 2005, Oxfam said its staff members and their skills could play a significant role in supporting ASEAN.
In Myanmar, people?s resistance to disease is weakened daily because of lack of food and shelter, exposure to the elements, and drinking surface water that is likely to be contaminated with human and animal waste. This creates a breeding ground for diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
With people exposed to the elements, huddled together in crowded areas and suffering from hunger other risks such as measles, chest infections, pneumonia and diphtheria could devastate already weakened people, especially the very young and weak.
?As representatives from rich world governments meet this weekend they must harness ASEAN's task force and offer it financial and skilled support so that there are no further delays in getting help to those people who so desperately need it,? Ireland said.
]]>In camps across North Kivu women have been raped while searching for food and firewood and forced into doing humiliating tasks at gunpoint. Children, separated from their families, are recruited into armed groups.
"People have told us that they feel like they are the living dead and that their lives no longer have any value. The world needs to show them that that is not true, by redoubling their efforts to secure a ceasefire and by providing immediate additional support to the UN peacekeepers. It is clear that hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Congo are not getting the protection they desperately need," said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Some findings from the assessments include:
"There is nowhere to hide from eastern Congo's brutal violence; it follows people to places of supposed sanctuary and safety. With increased reports of rape, forced labor, and harassment by armed men in the camps and communities, it is no surprise that biggest priority amongst people is security. Many have fled for the second, third, or even fourth time. They are sick of the violence and want it to end," said Prodhan.
Oxfam is calling for immediate additional military support for the UN's peacekeeping force, MONUC, to help stop the violence, provide security, protect civilians and allow aid agencies to provide help to those that desperately need it. As Oxfam's assessments show, the peacekeepers are clearly struggling to keep the long-suffering people of Congo safe.
Redeploying troops from elsewhere in the Kivu provinces and eastern Congo is not an option as other parts of the region are also insecure and in danger of all-out conflict. To do so would leave civilians elsewhere vulnerable to attack. In Dungu in the northwest Orientale Province thousands have been forced to flee an upsurge in fighting, including 57,000 in recent attacks on 1 and 2 November.
"There appears to be no urgency in the international community's talks on the crisis, but this is a deeply urgent situation. The world is failing in its responsibility to protect Congo's innocent civilians," said Prodhan.
Deployment of extra troops must be combined with sustained diplomatic pressure to achieve a political solution and address the underlying causes of the conflict.
Oxfam is calling on the UN's special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo to unify peace efforts and find a sustainable solution to this protracted conflict.
]]>"My trip with Oxfam to the Democratic Republic of Congo was a mind blowing odyssey into the heart of Africa, equal parts informative and inspiring. It is a country filled with iron-willed people, suffering through one of the worst humanitarian situations on the planet. Oxfam is doing a lot of good work, but there is still much more to be done," said Hirsch.
The DRC is the most deadly conflict since World War II, where over 5.4 million people have died, 1.3 million are displaced, and violence and rape are a daily threat.
He began his trip in the poverty-stricken Maniema Province where Oxfam is working with former child soldiers to disarm and re-integrate them back into their home communities. In some cases, the children were forcibly taken from their homes to become fighters during the height of the conflict. These men are now working with their communities to attain forgiveness for wrongs committed and to work towards a peaceful future.
Hirsch's visit concluded in the province of North Kivu, where conflict is still affecting the population. At two camps for Internally Displaced People, he spoke with families driven from their homes by armed groups and saw the cramped conditions of over 9,000 people waiting for safe conditions which will allow them to return to their villages. Oxfam is providing water and sanitation to over 40,000 people that live in the four camps in the Goma, North Kivu area. Oxfam's President, Raymond C. Offenheiser, stated that the actor's involvement can help keep the international community focused on this chronic emergency.
"By supporting Oxfam, Emile can help shed light on the issues facing Congo at this critical time. The people of Congo need our help to feel safe and protected and to keep the country on the path to peace. They have not lost hope for a better future, and we must keep that hope alive. Emile's visit emphasizes that the people of Congo are not alone," said Offenheiser.
Since Hirsch's return from the DRC, an additional quarter of a million people have been forced from their homes due to increased violence and the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
"The good people on this earth cannot turn a blind eye to Congo now, at a time when once again they are on the brink of absolute crisis. By keeping the world's attention on Congo, it puts pressure on the leaders of our planet to take immediate diplomatic action. This may be the only way change will ever come to Congo. After visiting Goma earlier this year, it saddens me to think that many of the people I talked to in the camp are now even worse off, as chaos threatens to envelope them once again. My thoughts are with them," said Hirsch.
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