Background
- Introduction
- Challenges to Progress
- Oxfam in CAMEXCA
OXFAM IN CAMEXCA
Some 65 million people—more than half of the total population of the six countries in which Oxfam works in Central America—live in poverty. More than 30 million live on less than $1 a day. A variety of factors contribute to the widespread poverty in this area.
Oxfam America first established an office in Mexico in 1989. Four years later, the office moved to El Salvador, where it now employs a staff of 13.
Oxfam's work in this region, however, dates back to the solidarity movement in Central America in the 1980s, and today we maintain the strong links we forged helping people recover from wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As a result, Oxfam's commitment to supporting human rights and peace initiatives is well respected across Central America.
The projects Oxfam supports in Central America address the most crucial human rights and development issues. Many focus on developing citizen participation in government. Oxfam America has initiated a two-year, $1 million program in El Salvador to foster democracy between an extremely closed Salvadoran government and its citizens. Today, 13 Oxfam partners, including small producer cooperatives and disaster-preparedness organizations, are learning how to represent their interests in local and national government. Women are the focus of almost half the project’s resources.