Media Releases

Up to 250 people per single water tap in refugee camps braced for arrival of coronavirus

April 6, 2020

Emergency WASH response to the conflict affected people in Taiz and Ibb Governorates of Yemen. Photo: Hitham Ahmed / Oxfam

Refugees living in camps are sharing one tap between up to 250 people and many have less than 3.5 square meters of living space per person which means it will make it extremely difficult to contain a coronavirus outbreak, Oxfam said today.

The virus could also be catastrophic for people and places hit by conflicts, like Yemen, Syria and South Sudan, who are already struggling with malnutrition, diseases like cholera and a lack of clean water and health facilities.

The standards for refugee camps, agreed by agencies responding to humanitarian crises, were simply not designed to cope with a global pandemic. They state that there should be one tap for no more than 250 people and 3.5 square meters of living space per person.

In some cases, even these minimum requirements are not met. The sprawling Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is severely overcrowded with 40,000 people per square kilometre.

Malnutrition and diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid are already a high risk in Cox’s Bazar, undermining the health of these communities. There is also very limited access to basic health services, let alone more specialised care.

In Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was built for 3000 people but now hosts nearly 20,000 people, there are up to 160 people using the same dirty toilet and over 500 people per one shower. In some parts of the camp, 325 people share one tap and there is no soap. Fifteen to 20 people can be living in a single shipping container, or in tents or makeshift shelters.

Advice from the World Health Organisation states that people should stay a meter away from anyone coughing or sneezing, wash their hands frequently and seek medical help as soon as symptoms become apparent to avoid spreading coronavirus.

Oxfam’s global Coronavirus Response Operations Lead, Marta Valdes Garcia, said: “The death toll around the world is rising rapidly but this will be just the tip of the iceberg if and when the virus spreads to the world’s most vulnerable communities”.

“Camps for people who have been forced to flee their homes are simply not set up to cope with a pandemic like coronavirus. Aid agencies will need to work even harder to prepare for and deal with the arrival of this disease.

“While many nations are understandably focused on containing the spread of the pandemic amongst their own population, it’s crucial they don’t turn their back on millions of the most vulnerable people worldwide. The international community needs to mobilise huge resources behind developing countries to cope if we’re to honour the promise of “no-one is safe until we’re all safe”.

“Millions of people in countries for instance across central, southern and eastern Africa are already suffering chronic and severe food shortages and will be equally hit hard by the disease and any restrictions needed to help deal with it, which are likely to further compromise their food security as well as their jobs and livelihoods,” she said.

Oxfam’s expertise is in water, sanitation, hygiene and public health promotion – vital for any attempts to manage the rate of inevitable infections – and it is working closely with local partner organisations to increase the number of communal taps and water distribution systems, toilets and engaging communities on improved hygiene practices.

Women are usually hardest hit during emergencies and as they carry out most of the care work, are especially vulnerable to exposure to the virus. Oxfam is also concerned about risk of gender-based violence as families are forced to remain in their homes and support centres and networks are closed.

Communities, local organisations, women and refugee-led organisations are already mobilising, and Oxfam is working alongside them to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Oxfam is also building up its work to help people in the poorest countries make a living and feed their families should coronavirus hit.

Beyond refugee camps, many other communities with whom Oxfam works are particularly vulnerable to the disease. In Gaza, where there are already 10 confirmed cases, there are more than 5,000 people per square kilometre and fewer than 70 intensive care beds for a population of two million. In Yemen, only 50 percent of health centres are functioning, and those that are open face severe shortages of medicines, equipment and staff. Around 17 million people – more than half the population – have no access to clean water.

Efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in several locations, like Yemen and Syria, were already underfunded. Now they must compete with each other for the resources to fight the Coronavirus all while the world reels from the economic effects of widespread shut-downs. The UN has called for $2 billion to fund a global coordinated response to coronavirus in vulnerable countries. Oxfam supports the UN call for a global cease-fire in order to help countries in conflict to cope.

Notes

The standards for size and capacity of refugee camps are set out here

Information on camp density in Bangladesh is available from UNHCR here

Oxfam is helping vulnerable communities affected by coronavirus, including:
Working with local partners to help 118,000 Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, and Rakhine state in Myanmar with clean water, soap and hygiene kits, as well as public health awareness information, including using female volunteers to disseminate hygiene and prevention awareness messages to women and girls at their doors. We are also supporting 5,000 vulnerable households in communities around Cox’s Bazar with water and sanitation.
Prompting hygiene awareness and hand washing to 76,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp, Jordan and distributing soap in communities hosting Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Rehabilitating a hospital and its isolation unit that serves a community of 50,000 in Iraq
Planning to build or repair 107 water points for people in Burkina Faso who have fled fighting
Carrying out hygiene awareness training for refugees in the north of Uganda
In Yemen, Oxfam is training volunteers to raise awareness and promote hygiene amongst conflict-affected communities.

UN Climate Summit postponed as a result of Coronavirus

April 2, 2020

Responding to the announcement that the UN Climate Summit due to take place in the UK in November, has been postponed until 2021 as a result of the Coronavirus, Chema Vera, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International said:

“This pause is understandable in light of efforts to stop the pandemic we all now face. But this should not mean pausing our vital efforts to respond to a climate crisis that is already threatening lives and pushing millions of people deeper into hunger and poverty.

“The UK, as host of the summit, can keep global momentum going by working with countries worldwide to commit to bold economic stimulus measures that will reduce carbon emissions as well as accelerate the recovery from coronavirus. Steps taken now to reshape the economy and clean industries of the future cannot wait.

“Governments are right now showing they are ready to cooperate. They should avoid repeating the same mistakes that were made after the 2008 global financial crisis when stimulus packages caused emissions to rebound.”

Health spending in poor countries must double immediately to prevent millions of deaths – Oxfam

March 30, 2020

Oxfam today called for a package of nearly US$160 billion in immediate debt cancellation and aid to fund a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response, to help prevent millions of deaths as a result of the Coronavirus. The five-point plan would enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the disease and build the capacity of health systems to care for those affected.

The pandemic has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. But with the disease now spreading to many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality risk accelerating the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. Nearly 3 billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, millions more do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible. As women make up 70 per cent of health workers and carry out most unpaid care work, it will hit them the hardest.

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said “In Mali there are three ventilators for one million people. In Zambia, one doctor for 10,000 people. We know from Oxfam’s experience of fighting Ebola that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. But we must act now and on a scale never seen before.

“Without urgent, ambitious and historic action, we could easily see the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.”

The Imperial College estimates that in the absence of interventions the Coronavirus could have led to 40 million deaths in the coming year. Oxfam calculates that doubling the health spending of the 85 poorest countries, home to nearly half the world’s population, would cost $159.5 billion dollars. This is less than 10 per cent of the US fiscal stimulus to fight Coronavirus. While some donor institutions have begun to increase funding, the scale is not anywhere near the immense size of the challenge.

Oxfam is working with local partners, ministries of heath and key UN agencies in 65 countries to respond to the crisis and help save lives. In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh where over 855,000 Rohingya are living in makeshift camps, Oxfam is already scaling up preventive measures like soap distribution and handwashing stations at communal facilities to help 70,000 refugees. In Zaatari camp, Jordan – the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world – Oxfam has already started hygiene and hand washing awareness for 2,000 children and aims to reach 78,000 people with water, hygiene and sanitation. And in Burkina Faso, where 780,000 people are internally displaced (IDP), Oxfam is currently working in some of the largest IDP areas ensuring that both host communities and displaced people have access to safe, clean water. To meet the desperate humanitarian need now emerging, all governments must step up and fully fund the UN Global Humanitarian Response plan.

Oxfam is calling for the G20 and other national governments to tackle the virus head on by agreeing an ambitious Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response. The five-point plan calls for:

Huge investment in prevention. Public health promotion, community engagement, access for humanitarian workers and provision of clean water and sanitation, especially handwashing
10 million new paid and protected health workers. Together with urgent funding and equipment for local responders and humanitarians already on the ground
Healthcare must be free. All fees for health should be removed, and free testing and treatment delivered
Governments must requisition all private facilities. Governments must requisition all healthcare capacity in their countries, ensuring that all facilities, private and public are directed towards fighting this virus and meeting all other essential healthcare needs
Vaccines and treatments must be a global public good. Global agreement must be reached that vaccines and treatments, when ready, will be made rapidly available to everyone who needs it free of charge. The profits of pharmaceutical corporations cannot be put ahead of the future of humanity

Vera added “It’s understandable that national leaders are focused on helping their own citizens, but G20 leaders must also find the space for supporting poor nations too. We can only beat this pandemic if we act in solidarity with every country and for every person. No one is safe until we are all safe.”

New Zealand’s Oxfam Trailwalker 2020 cancelled

March 16, 2020

Statement from Oxfam New Zealand executive director, Rachael Le Mesurier:

“It is with great regret that Oxfam New Zealand announces the difficult but necessary decision of cancelling Oxfam Trailwalker 2020, due to be held in Whakatāne this weekend, March 21-22.

“The safety and welfare of all Oxfam Trailwalker participants, supporters, volunteers and community members is paramount. We have been assessing the risks and have been informed at every stage of our event planning by government and health authority instructions on the issue of COVID-19 containment.

“It takes a great commitment of time and energy by walkers, and their supporters, to prepare for this event. For the event to be cancelled four days out is hugely disappointing for all involved – especially so for walkers and their supporters – as well as the volunteers, Whakatāne community groups and the Oxfam team who have all given so much of their time already.

“Oxfam New Zealand thanks all potential participants for their valued contribution to Oxfam Trailwalker, and the impressive achievements made so far in training and fundraising. We are thinking of them as they have to cancel their trips, their accommodation and most of all, their hopes and aspirations in getting over that line together.

“Likewise, we feel deeply for the community of Whakatāne who will be hard hit by this fresh challenge and who we were looking forward to working alongside in what was to be our fifth and final year in the region. At every stage, for 2020 and over the last 5 years, the full Whakatane community have been absolutely wonderful partners for Oxfam. Warm, generous with real commitment to both Trailwalker and the change in the world we all want to see”.

“Dealing with the challenge posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic is one that we must all face as a community cooperating together.”

Oxfam Trailwalker is the ultimate team endurance challenge – each team of four tackles either 100 kilometres in 36 hours, or 50 kilometres in 18 hours, to raise money for Oxfam’s fight against poverty. It is not a relay – the teams of four start and finish together.

While the event 2020 is not going ahead, the money raised to date is still needed and will be used to continue Oxfam’s committed and vital work into 2020, providing much-needed funds in ongoing humanitarian relief, including preparation for the spread of this pandemic to the Pacific, as well as finding lasting solutions to the challenges of climate crisis, poverty and injustice in the Pacific and beyond.

Oxfam has been very involved in humanitarian responses to epidemics (such as the Ebola crisis) and other communicable health risks around the world. Our WASH programmes have at their heart the need to prevent transmission through clean water and good health and sanitation. As a world leader in this area we appreciate the measures that are necessary to protect our community.

Notes for editors:

Oxfam Trailwalker was to be held this weekend – March 21-22, 2020 – in scenic Whakatāne. Teams of four walk 50 kilometres in 18 hours or 100 kilometres in 36 hours to raise money for Oxfam’s work fighting poverty in the Pacific and all over the world. You can still contribute to this challenge by supporting and donating to your favourite team at www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz

The event was held in the Bay of Plenty region for the fourth time in 2019. A hundred kilometres of trail through Whakatāne, Ōhope and Edgecumbe sees participants walking along coastal tracks, sandy beaches, farmland and native bush. It was the first major event to be held in Edgecumbe since the floods in 2017. The top fundraising team for 2019 was team ‘N X NW’ who raised over $15,000. In total, participants raised more than $995,000 towards Oxfam’s work to support communities living in poverty in 2019.

Oxfam Trailwalker is part of an international series of 17 events held worldwide in 10 countries. Over the years, the event has raised hundreds of millions of dollars internationally for Oxfam’s life-saving work.

The event debuted in New Zealand in 2006 and was held in Taupō for 10 years. The event moved to Whakatāne in 2016 – the same year a 50-kilometre trail was introduced as an alternative to the traditional 100-kilometre trail.

Set up by the legendary elite Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment in 1981 as a military exercise to test teamwork, endurance and determination, Oxfam Trailwalker is the ultimate physical and mental challenge. It began in 2006 in New Zealand. Since then over 13,000 participants have lined up at the start line and raised more than $11 million.

Oxfam’s international response to Covid-19

March 13, 2020

Oxfam has a comprehensive Covid-19 Staff Health protocol and has socialised best practice procedures for all our staff to follow in hygiene and infection management.

We are following authorities’ advice in every country we’re based. We’re posting time-sensitive updates on our internal channels for all of our staff, including on travel restrictions, self-isolation advice and contingency planning in the event of office closures. We’ve had to cancel various meetings, including for support, training and some staff deployments to avoid the risk of transmission and from staff being blocked on return from assignments. We’ve had some delay and cost increases of essential life-saving equipment as exports tighten from Asia especially. Given that our programs are predominately led, managed and staffed by national staff, and because we hold reserves and procure our goods and services locally where possible, we are hoping to minimise disruptions. However, we are certainly expecting that our operations will be increasingly affected.

Oxfam has substantial expertise in public health work and our preparedness planning for CV-19 is informed by lessons from past disease outbreaks including Zika and Ebola. We are developing guidance for contingency stocks and budget planning. We are working now to support our program teams across more than 65 countries on how best to respond operationally to CV-19 among the millions of people we support. We’ll work under the coordination of national Ministries of Health, key UN agencies and civil society health clusters, via our own local partnerships. We’re already focusing our operational work now on community engagement, i.e. helping people to minimise the risk of infection by providing them with accurate information and advice in local languages. Many of our teams are now increasing the delivery of soap, sanitation services including handwashing facilities, and clean water especially to people in higher-risk environments such as refugee camps or crowded urban areas.

Oxfam is very concerned should CV-19 establish itself in poorer countries with weaker public health systems and whose populations are already facing multiple threats to their health and livelihoods, such as from malnourishment and HIV. If the disease hits refugee camps and where people are already struggling to access adequate or affordable health care, CV-19 could become devastating. Women especially are likely to be hardest hit – 70% of the world’s health workers are women who’ll be on the frontline of infection risk – and women shoulder the vast burden of unpaid care which is bound to increase dramatically, whether caring for sick relatives or looking after children at home because schools are closed. We are also very concerned that the economic effects of CV-19 will likely hit the poorest, most heavily-indebted countries and the poorest, most vulnerable people most heavily because of entrenched issues of inequality. It is crucial that the international community support these poorer countries now in making the strongest-possible preparations.

Rosa Sala
Oxfam International Program Operations Director

Tens of thousands of people are still suffering one year on from Cyclone Idai

March 10, 2020

A family sheltering by the road — Maria, 31, with her six children with their only belongings sheltering from the rain by the side of the road. 24 hours before this photo was taken the rain came and the river banks burst causing their home to flood. Fearing another cyclone was coming they gathered all their life belongings and came to higher ground. Photo: Elena Heatherwick / Oxfam

Tens of thousands of people across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are still suffering 12 months after Cyclone Idai battered Southern Africa, warned Oxfam today. Cyclone Idai, one of the worst cyclones to hit Africa, made landfall on 14^th March 2019.

A new Oxfam briefing, ‘After the Storm,’ highlights that over 100,000 people in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still living in destroyed or damaged homes and makeshift shelters, while critical infrastructure including roads, water supplies, and schools have yet to be repaired making it difficult for people to access vital services or get back to work. It also shows that 9.7 million people across the three countries remain in desperate need of food aid as a result of cyclones, floods, drought and localised conflict.

The briefing explains how a toxic combination of factors – including an intensifying cycle of floods, drought and storms, deep rooted poverty and inequality, a patchy humanitarian response, and a lack of support for poor communities to adapt to, and recover, from climate shocks – have increased people’s vulnerability and made it harder for them to recover.

Nellie Nyang’wa, Oxfam’s Regional Director for Southern Africa, said:

“Cyclone Idai was anything but a natural disaster. This tragedy was fuelled by the climate crisis and super charged by poverty, inequality and the failures of national governments and the international community. The people of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trying to piece their lives back together in the face of huge challenges. Politicians in the region, and across the globe, need to match their commitment.”

Cyclone Idai is just one in of a number of extreme weather events to have hit Southern Africa in recent years. Idai landed five months into a drought that left millions in need of food aid – and the third severe drought to hit the region in the space of five years. Less than six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth battered northern Mozambique. Torrential rain and flash floods then hit northern and central Mozambique, between December 2019 and February 2020.

Despite the escalating climate crisis, poor communities are not getting enough help to adapt, and there is no dedicated fund to help poor countries recover from the loss and damage caused by climate-fuelled disasters. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, was forced to take on an additional debt of $118 million from the International Monetary Fund to begin rebuilding. The cyclone caused an estimated US$3.2 billion worth of damage – roughly half of Mozambique’s national budget and equivalent to the impact of 23 Hurricane Katrina’s hitting the United States.

Virginia Defunho, a farmer and a mother from Josina Machel village in Mozambique lost everything in the cyclone. The crops she planted in the aftermath of the cyclone were damaged by severe floods in January. She said:

“Idai has destroyed my mind. It makes me feel angry sometimes. My child is crying because he wants food and there is nothing to give. My child has succeeded to grade ten, but I don’t have the money to pay for him to enrol back at school. We are worried about the future because we don’t know if the weather is going to be like this or if it will change back to normal. If [the cyclone] comes a second time, what will our lives be?

A slow and patchy international humanitarian response has also hampered recovery. Less than half of the US$450.2 million humanitarian funding requested by the UN in the wake of the cyclones has been committed to date. The flow of funds is also slowing with just $42,000 pledged since the beginning of the year.

Poverty and inequality also exacerbated the destructive power of the cyclone and are acting as a major barrier to recovery. While the richest live on the highest ground in the strongest houses and can rely on savings and insurance to help them recover, the poorest communities struggle to rebuild their lives. Women in Malawi own just 17 percent of the land in the country, even though they produce 80 percent of household food. As a result, women who were displaced from their land are less able to protect their property for their return – and are left at the back of the queue when it comes to accessing alternative plots of land.

“Rich polluting governments must ensure the humanitarian appeal is fully funded and deliver the climate finance that communities need to adapt to and rebuild from climate shocks. National governments must help climate-proof our communities – for example by helping small-holder farmers to adapt their farming techniques – and tackle the poverty and inequality that make people more vulnerable to disaster,” added Nyang’wa.

Notes to Editor

The briefing “After the Storm: barriers to recovery one year on from Cyclone Idai” is available here

Globally, Oxfam raised over NZ$28 million to help 788,168 people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the cyclones – including communities in some of the most remote and difficult to reach areas. Oxfam and our partners provided emergency assistance such as food aid, blankets and hygiene kits; installed latrines and water pumps in temporary camps; and helped raise awareness of issues such as gender-based violence, which often spikes after a disaster. Oxfam is also working with communities over the long term to help them adapt to changing the climate – for example by helping smallholder farmers diversify their crops and adapt their farming techniques.