What Oxfam is Doing
- Helping Family Farmers
- Preventing Disasters
- Overcoming Discrimination and Exclusion
PREVENTING DISASTERS
Oxfam supports innovative organizations that are helping family farmers, women's organizations, and indigenous people in Central America defend their rights and improve their incomes.
In 1998, the Category Five Hurricane Mitch unleashed 180 mile-per-hour winds and deposited more than six feet of rain on Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Some 9,000 people were killed and more than 700,000 left homeless. Schools, bridges, water systems, and roads were destroyed. It was one of the most destructive hurricanes in history.
The conditions in which poor Central Americans live made them especially vulnerable to the storm—in houses made of sticks, mud, and grass on eroded land stripped of trees and topsoil. Those in remote regions, without access to televisions, newspapers, and radios, were the last to receive warnings.
In the first few months after Hurricane Mitch, Oxfam helped people to rebuild their homes or to build new homes designed to withstand future hurricanes. Our funding also helped farmers replant their fields and improve their irrigation systems so that they could quickly grow another crop to replace food lost in the storms.
Today, Central American organizations are developing contingency plans to respond to emergencies immediately and effectively. Oxfam helps communities secure radio communication networks, identify evacuation routes, and designate responsibilities.
In a region with little government support for disaster mitigation, this planning helps organizations implement their own solutions and save lives in the crucial first moments following any disaster.