We work with communities to tackle the causes of poverty through a combination of hands-on expertise, financial investment and education. In addition, we give people a voice to speak out against the laws, actions and policies that keep them in poverty.
Every day you are part of Ireland’s efforts to tackle poverty, inequality, discrimination, conflict and climate change worldwide. Through Ireland’s overseas development programme, Irish Aid, the Irish people contribute a small portion of their taxes to support development and humanitarian work carried out by organisations like us at Oxfam Ireland.
Registration centre in an old Tesco building. Oxfam staff present to discuss the needs. Photo: Tineke Dhaese/Oxfam
The war in Ukraine is threatening the lives and livelihoods of civilians and forcing millions to flee. Homes have been destroyed or are unsafe to live in. Families are being separated and people injured and killed. Heavy fighting, shelling and air strikes across Ukraine have had devastating consequences for its citizens. Critical infrastructure such as health facilities, water supplies and schools have been damaged or destroyed. Huge numbers of refugees are arriving into Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and other neighbouring countries with only what they can carry.
Delivery of hygiene and sanitation items at Ukraine House. Photo: Tineke Dhaese/Oxfam
Oxfam is supporting the humanitarian system both in Ukraine, and specifically in Poland, Moldova and Romania to reach between 10-25% of affected people –up to 800,000 or more if possible –with what they need.
We are channelling our support, expertise and funding through local organisations –those who are working directly with the refugees themselves –helping them to expand their own capacities and impact.
Oxfam will ensure that this collective response is guided by humanitarian principlesof humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality, and by using a feminist approachthat prioritises ways that prevent risks to women and girls and is informed always by gendered analysis.
Together with our partners, we are also advocating for more political and economic support, both internationally and nationally, to refugees so they are able to realise their rights, in safety and dignity.
Two disabled toilets in Medyka. Photo: Tineke Dhaese/Oxfam
Oxfam Response
Michelle Farrington, Hygiene and Sanitation Promotion in Poland discusses Oxfam’s Response. At the moment Oxfam is providing basic water and sanitation facilities and hygiene items that people can take while traveling on to their final destinations.
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Protection
Ola Perczynska, Protection Coordinator in Poland discussing Oxfam’s response. Ola is originally from Poland but has a long experience as a humanitarian in conflicts and crisis around the world.
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WASH
At a refugee centre in the border area of Korczowa in Poland. A shopping centre is being used to accommodate incoming Ukrainian refugees.
Angus Mc Bride, Wash Coordinator discusses Oxfam's response of installing shower facilities and hand washing stations to meet the health and hygiene needs at this centre.
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Work with Oxfam Partner
Oxfam is channeling around 44% of its funding response via national partners in Poland, Romania and Moldova; a further 18% via international partners in Ukraine itself; 30% on its own humanitarian aid, equipment, technical and operational response; and 9% on a Program Management Team that sets, and is accountable for, strategy, policy, management and administration of the entire response.
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Lilya Kalinowska Volunteer Coordinator at Ukrainian House talks about working with Oxfam and the start of this partnership. Oxfam is meeting the immediate hygiene needs and plans to develop this to provide more longer term logistical, sanitation and protection supports.
Thank you to all who have supported our work. In Poland, Oxfam have already reached more than 225,000 people. We are concentrating on protection, water and sanitation, and food and economic security. We are providing cash and basic sanitation facilities for families in need of urgent assistance.
Oxfam has worked on migration and displacement within Europe since 2015. With our partner organisations we have assisted more than 280,000 people in Greece, Italy, Spain, and the Balkans. Together we have provided them with legal aid, protection, water and sanitation activities, and distributed food and non-food items such as blankets and clothes. But not all refugees are being treated equally.
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Millions of people have cross Ukraine’s border into neighbouring countries seeking safety and refuge. Wherever you come from, your right to seek safety and find refuge is the same. At the end of last year, the number of people forced to flee in search of refuge exceeded 84 million globally. At any border in Europe –Ukraine or beyond – we cannot have a system that treats people differently for any reason, including where they come from.
Nearly 12 million Ukrainians have fled their homes from the war, 5 million into neighbouring countries.
Oxfam have a busy partner-led humanitarian response running in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and Romania, aiming to reach up to 800,000 people, or more if possible. In Poland, we have already reached more than 225,000 people.
We are concentrating on protection, water and sanitation, and food and economic security. We are providing cash and basic sanitation facilities for families in need of urgent assistance.
Pascaline, public health officer, shows the community at the Mwaka IDP site, DRC, how to use a new handwashing station that can be quickly installed in a variety of emergency settings. Photo: Arlette Bashizi/Oxfam
2021. So much continuing turbulation and uncertainty for everyone. A year – another one – when the need for us all to stand up and stand together, to help others, has been so very difficult to do. But a year – another one – when time after time, across the world in big ways and small, the power of people to organize, reach out and help one another prevailed – inevitable, vital, positive and affirming – again and again.
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Our supporters and partners reached over 25 million people last year through Oxfam’s humanitarian and programmatic work, more than 14 million of them directly from our Covid-related responses. With your support, we worked with 4128 partner agencies and implemented 1843 projects worldwide. Thank you. We hope all of our supporters, partners, staff, the people living in the communities across the world, can take a moment of reflection and pride in this snapshot of stories that hint of the work we accomplished together to make a real difference in many millions of people’s lives in 2021.
Photo: Roanna Rahman/Oxfam
In India, we raced against time to protect the most vulnerable from Covid-19.
When the second wave of COVID-19 hit India in late April, it created a public health crisis that left hospitals overwhelmed and people literally dying in the streets. In less than a month, the country saw more than 100,000 deaths, bringing the total death toll to more than 300,000 – the third highest in the world behind the United States and Brazil.
To help government hospitals cope with this deadly second wave, Oxfam procured and delivered medical equipment such as oxygen generators, thermometers and oxygen tanks, beds, and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for frontline health workers. We also assisted people who have lost their means of livelihood and helped migrant workers stranded far from home with no work, money or food during lockdowns.
Photo: Kaff Media/Oxfam
In Yemen, we worked tirelessly to provide relief to the most affected.
Salem* and his son Omar* (name changed) had been displaced four times before moving to Alswidan Camp in Marib, Yemen, where they now live with five other members of the family in a tiny tent. Each time they would leave behind everything and walk for days to reach their next safe location. Omar was born in 2015, the year the war in Yemen started – war is all he has ever known.
Conflict continued for a sixth year in Yemen, devastating livelihoods and leaving 13.5 million people suffering from acute hunger. Almost 70 percent of the population urgently need humanitarian assistance. Oxfam is providing clean water and hygiene items to help people avoid cholera and COVID-19, cash to help them buy food, and support for earning a living through agriculture and small businesses.
Photo: Hosam Salem/Oxfam
In Gaza, we helped Palestinians rebuild and recover from violence.
Abdelsamad Alqanou, Oxfam Water and Sanitation officer, is following the implementation of water and sewage maintenance work in a neighbourhood in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.
After 11 days of intense bombardment over the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire was called on the 21st of May. According to the Ministry of Health, 242 Palestinians were killed, and 1,900 were injured. Israeli attacks caused severe damages to residential and commercial buildings, schools, and infrastructure, including roads, electricity networks, water installations and agricultural lands. Over 2,500 people have been made homeless due to the destruction of their homes.
To meet the urgent needs, Oxfam provided water and sanitation services with spare parts for operation and maintenance during emergencies, including water and sewage pipes, valves, pumps, filters, and oil.
Photo: Shaikh Ashraf Ali/Oxfam
In Bangladesh, we strove to promote health and safety across the refugee camps.
In July, several days of heavy monsoon rain in Southeast Bangladesh led to severe flooding and landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. Rainwater displaced families and inundated roads and bridges, shelters, and critical infrastructure – heightening the risk of water-borne illness.
Impacted communities were surrounded by water—but none of it was safe to drink. The flooding occurred as Bangladesh was logging a record spike in Covid-19 cases – placing refugees, host communities, and responders at heightened risk from the virus.
With our partners, we provided critical repairs to water and sanitation facilities, distributed jerry cans of emergency drinking water and water purification tablets, and shared essential health awareness information to keep refugees safe in the crisis. (Photo: Shaikh Ashraf Ali/Oxfam)
Photo: Mustafa Osman/Oxfam
In South Sudan, we protected girls’ education from the pandemic impacts.
Winnie (name changed), 17, is a graduate student in Oxfam’s Education for Life-program in Juba, South Sudan. A lot of young girls in her area have left school during the lockdown, but with Oxfam’s support, many have been able to return. “I knew that I would eventually go back to school after the lockdown. My biggest dream is to become a lawyer, to solve the issues in my society,” says Winnie.
Women and girls have been the most severely affected by conflict, COVID-19, and climate change in South Sudan. The pandemic and resulting closure of schools in March 2020 exacerbated many of the challenges they face in pursuing an education, like early and forced marriage, teen pregnancy and gender-based violence.
Photo: Zaid Al-Bayati/Oxfam
In Iraq, we supported families with cash assistance and grants to start businesses.
It is four years since the city of Mosul and its environs were returned from ISIS control to that of the Government of Iraq. Thousands of families, who had fled the violence and lived in camps, are now returning. They join others living among destroyed houses, lacking access to healthcare, education, and water. The challenges are immense. We have been supporting people of Mosul with cash assistance, grants to start businesses, repairs to schools and access to water.
Farah (name changed) started her own hair salon after the liberation of the city. It is the main income now for her and her family. “After ISIS everything changed. I gained more independence as now our society has finally realized that women can provide not only for themselves but for their kids and whole family”, she said.
Photo: Arlene Bax/Oxfam
In Vanuatu, we used blockchain technology to revolutionize humanitarian aid.
In times of crisis, traditional aid distributions of food, shelter and other emergency supplies are not always the best or most efficient way to provide relief. Oxfam is one of the first humanitarian organisations to use blockchain technology for cash transfer programming, to deliver emergency cash in a faster, cheaper and more transparent fashion than ever before.
The UnBlocked Cash solution consists of the e-voucher “tap-and-pay” cards used by beneficiaries, a smartphone app through which vendors receive the payments, and an online platform where NGOs like Oxfam can monitor transactions remotely and in real-time.
After a ground-breaking pilot in Vanuatu, we scaled the project to distribute cash and voucher assistance to over 35,000 beneficiaries affected by the Category 5 Cyclone Harold and COVID-19.
Photo: Juanito Bantong/Oxfam
In the Philippines, we sowed the seeds of climate resiliency.
When devastating Typhoon Goni barreled across the Philippines November 2020, it came at the worst possible time - rice harvest season – and while the region was still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Quinta a week before. These typhoons are a common occurrence in the country. They have grown in severity and frequency and are in large part due to climate change. Every time, it takes months for farmers to recover.
After Typhoon Goni, Rice Watch Action Network (RWAN) offered community leaders in Carangcang village to help them start growing vegetables hydroponically (without soil) through a project funded by Oxfam. Instead of distributing seeds, RWAN and Oxfam distributed seedlings. This way, not only would the community have seeds, but they also had the ability to grow plants that could supply seeds to other farmers.
Photo: Samuel Turpin/Oxfam
In Burkina Faso, we helped farmers grow food in a hot and dry climate.
Imagine growing vegetables in temperatures approaching 50 degrees with recurrent droughts. In Burkina Faso, where farmers struggle to survive the effects of climate change, it is a matter of survival for much of the population that depends on agriculture for their food. “All my life I have been farming," says Alizeta Sawadogo, 55, “I used to grow cereals. But it rains less and less, and the dry season is getting longer and hotter. Yields are getting lower and lower.”
With the support of Oxfam and local partner ATAD, Alizeta joined a group of 50 vulnerable and landless women in a collective farm of two hectares, where she learned about climate change adaptation. For Alizeta, it is an opportunity to reinvent herself: “I have learned to produce organic food using environmentally friendly techniques,” she says. “I can feed my family all year round.”
Photo: Tatiana Cardeal/Oxfam
In Brazil, we revealed labour exploitation in coffee farms.
Inequality in the food system has never been higher. Despite the food industry generating revenue of trillions of dollars annually the vast numbers of people who go to bed hungry are themselves food producers or agricultural workers. Covid-19 has sharpened these inequalities and pushed many food workers and farmers in the Global South into greater poverty.
FELIPE NAME CHANGED, 33, lives in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, where he earns his living from temporary jobs. With the pandemic, opportunities became scarce. He worked in slavery-like conditions on a coffee farm in the south of the state. He and a colleague harvested about 2.5 tons of coffee a day and received no salary. They drank contaminated water, slept on the floor and received no equipment to protect themselves from Covid-19.
Photo: Andy Aitchison/Oxfam
In cities across the world, we marched for climate justice.
Climate change has no borders and affects us all. It especially hurts those in poorer countries, which are also the countries that contribute the least to it. The next decade is critical to putting us onto a safer track. We only have eight years left to turn the tides and prevent a catastrophic global temperature rise.
As world leaders gathered at COP26 in Glasgow, we joined the World Climate March to pressure them to act now on the climate crisis. On 6th of November, the Global Day of Action saw thousands of people marching for climate justice in cities and towns across the world. In Glasgow and London our march brought the voices of thousands of activists, particularly the most affected people and areas, to the streets via video screens, ad-bikes and pedicabs.
You might feel too small to make a difference. But small is beautiful.
BEGINNINGS
I started my life in India. At the age of nine, I became a Jain monk. In my late teens, I became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi in the movement for land reform. With Vinoba Bhave and hundreds of thousands of people, we walked around India, calling for social justice.
Later, my friend and I were inspired by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell who was calling for nuclear bombs to be banned. We decided to walk from India to Moscow, to Paris, to London, to Washington DC. At that time, these were the four nuclear capitals. For two and a half years we walked 8000 miles, crossing 15 countries, connecting with people around the world. Because war comes out of fear. Peace comes out of trust.
"So you're small…small is beautiful. Trees are made of thousands of small leaves. And the trees are made of thousands of small fruit. Humanity now is 7, 8 billion small, small, individuals. So every individual is equally important, never underestimate the value of your work you are doing.” - Satish Kumar
DO NO HARM
My religion is humanity, respect and love for nature. My activism is about compassion for all living beings, whatever your religion, whatever your nationality, whatever your background.
Doctors take the Hippocratic oath when they graduate and promise to ‘do no harm'. I would like to promote the idea of a Hippocratic oath for humanity. Wherever you are, whatever your profession, you are guided by the principle to ‘do no harm'. Do no harm to nature. Polluting our oceans with plastic, destroying the rainforests that are the lungs of the earth are acts of harm to nature. Do no harm to people. Cheap labour and war are acts of harm to people. If we do no harm then together we can create a safe world for everyone.
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CLIMATE JUSTICE
Climate change is affecting the poorest people who are least responsible for it. Therefore, social justice and climate action are deeply interlinked.
Fossil fuels come from deep down in coal mines and oil fields. I call it energy from hell. We have created climate change, which is like creating hell on earth. Pollution, poverty, waste and wars are all human-made.
What is made by humans can be changed by humans. We are creative and imaginative. Let's use more wind and water energy, which I call light energy coming from the heavens, from above. We have power to transform the world. We cannot change history, but we can change the future.
THE REAL POWER IS THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
World leaders gathering at summits once a year is not going to solve the climate crisis. We have to create a strong grassroots movement of people to influence governments, business leaders, industrialists, economists to change course, and to make our world a safe place to live.
It's a journey. To be an activist, you have to be an optimist. Seeing all the young people around the world today demanding change and transformation gives me hope. They are taking the initiative. They will not be satisfied with a system that is causing climate change and destroying biodiversity. I hope that the pressure which the young people and grassroots movements are adding will lead to a much bigger change in the next five years.
You might feel too small to make a difference. But small is beautiful. Trees are made of thousands of small leaves. Humanity now is eight billion small individuals. Every individual is equally important. Never underestimate the value of the work you are doing. Whatever you do, do it imaginatively, creatively, lovingly, beautifully. That's all you can do.
Satish Kumar is an Oxfam Ambassador, Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist, and co-founder of Schumacher College in Devon where he is a Visiting Fellow.