News & Media

Ration Challenge participant shares her experience

July 2, 2018

“I’ve been to Syria and seen it as a functioning society where there was everything we have here. There were shops, you could get ice cream – all the things we take for granted, they had too. I had a few people say, oh, they won’t know any different. But they do. And even if they didn’t, does that make it better or worse?”

Cara McGrath and her team hold the small amount of food they ate during Ration Challenge week – exactly the same food distributed to Syrian refugees living in camps in Jordan.

Cara McGrath was one of over 5,000 Kiwis who took on the Ration Challenge, experiencing a glimpse of one of the many challenges that refugees face day in, day out, by eating the same rations they do for one week. The funds she and other participants raised will provide food and access to healthcare and education for Syrian families facing an indefinite amount of time in refugee camps in Jordan, as well as contributing to Oxfam’s work around the globe – particularly in the Pacific region.

She felt drawn to the challenge as she thought of her experience in Syria in 2001, remembering a time in the Middle East long before the refugee crisis we’re witnessing today. Seeing the challenge on Facebook was a call to action for Cara, and a chance to stand in solidarity with millions of displaced, traumatised families now seeking refuge in Jordan.

“The challenge was hard, but I still had a nice bed and a nice house, I had my family around me, I wasn’t traumatised or afraid. I hadn’t realised it but food is a big part of what motivated me through my day. It is so much a part of how we interact with each other.”

Cara is part of Team OLS, the Ration Challenge’s front-running fundraising team, sitting on an incredible team total of $10,665.

“We are the teachers, board, school fundraising team and supporters for a tiny little school in Methven in the South Island, called Our Lady of the Snows School. One of the school’s core values is social justice, so it’s great to know that parents are doing something at home and it’s happening in the classroom too. Everyone’s on the same page.”

The food in the ration packs that Cara and over 5,000 other Kiwis ate during Refugee Week is exactly the same food, in almost exactly the same quantities, that is distributed to refugees in the camps – just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, sardines, flour and oil.

“I wasn’t a huge fan of the lentil soup, I have to say. I ate it for two or three days in a row, and when I only had a tiny bit left I put it in with my rice and had fried rice and lentils – and it was really good! I was so disappointed that I’d been eating lentil soup for three days when I could have been eating fried lentils!”

Fortunately for Cara and her team, they fundraised enough to gain rewards to add a little variety to their week – spice, sugar, milk, vegetables and even some extra protein, all achieved by meeting fundraising targets. But for Cara, the biggest motivator was knowing that – for her – the challenge would come to an end.

“We get to finish it. I kept thinking, I’ll have that on Friday when I finish. It would be so much harder not knowing when it’s going to finish, or if it’s going to finish. We’re so remote and isolated here, we’re in our own little bubble, and sometimes it’s hard for people to think outside their bubble.”

One member of Team OLS – Tania Goodwin – even extended the challenge to her junior students, crafting a full day of teaching around the refugee crisis. The children were taught about the realities of refugee life, and watched videos of refugee families. They wrote prayers to Syrian children, a helped their teacher measure out her rations for the week. They even fled from their classroom and into a safe space, where they built shelters and worked from inside them.

A class of children from Our Lady of the Snows School help their teacher, Tania Goodwin, ration out her food for the week.

Cara has a word of advice for those thinking about being part of the challenge in future: “Read the information and get to know the stuff. Oxfam sends out loads of great things, so using those and building an understanding then means it’s more than just an experience where you don’t eat very much for a week – you actually learn something too.”

This awesome Ration Challenge team consists of Deidra O’Shea, Sonia Cullen, Rachel Clark, Kylie Fitzgerald, Connie Quigley, Becky Dirks, Georgia Annear, Tania Goodwin, Pattie Ree, Colm McGrath, and Cara McGrath.

To support them, visit their fundraising page.

Our Cyclone Gita response continues

June 27, 2018

Mausa Halala (pictured) is a volunteer with the Tonga National Youth Congress – Oxfam’s local partner in Tonga. He and other volunteers, trained and equipped by Oxfam to provide emergency water supplies, were working within hours of the storm, purifying and distributing safe drinking water on Tongatapu and ‘Eua. Thanks to your ongoing support, they’re still responding! Photo: Darren Brunk

Oxfam & partner’s ongoing response to Cyclone Gita.

“This has been a great experience… going out and [reaching] people that are in need shows us just how much our students are willing to help people,” says ‘Ofa Pakalani of Tonga National Youth Congress, Oxfam’s partner in Tonga.

When you support Oxfam’s response to disasters such as Tropical Cyclone Gita, which struck the Kingdom of Tonga in February, you’re supporting teams of local volunteers who are often affected by the very emergencies they’re responding to. Who better to support and develop a community than those from it?

We’ve built a strong partnership over nearly 10 years with Tonga National Youth Congress (TNYC). Thanks to your support, we’re able to provide disaster preparedness and response training to teams of youth volunteers across Tonga so that when disasters like Cyclone Gita hit, young Tongans have the confidence, training and equipment to lead response efforts and help their communities recover.

The youth involved with TNYC are showing the positive impact that young people can have in their communities, and they are saving and rebuilding lives in the process. And your support is helping make TNYC’s work possible! The funds generously donated by Oxfam NZ’s supporters are being used to purchase supplies for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) kits that TNYC distribute to those in need, as well as keeping vital equipment running and maintained, and providing support to TNYC volunteers as they dedicate days and weeks away from home to help their country recover.

“This response shows the power of partnerships with local organisations. TNYC youth volunteers are leading an excellent disaster response that is saving lives and alleviating suffering. In the process, TNYCis changing public attitudes in Tonga around youth for the better, by demonstrating the contribution that young Tongans can make to their community,” says Darren Brunk, Oxfam NZ’s humanitarian specialist, who works closely with the TNYC volunteers.

Working together with Oxfam, TNYC volunteers were among the first responders in the country when Cyclone Gita hit, and have been working tirelessly ever since to rebuild the lives of those in their local communities.

The response began as a life-saving one. More than 70,000 people on the islands of Tongatapu and ‘Eua were affected, with homes and community buildings destroyed, crops ruined and lives turned upside down. Thousands of rainwater tanks were toppled and communal water sources were flooded with contaminated water, leaving 17,000 people without water or at risk of contracting a disease. TNYC were out immediately following the storm and distributed 1,431 emergency relief items like soap and tarpaulins, filtered contaminated water, cleaned and repaired tanks, and provided emergency water storage and distribution. Since the cyclone, Oxfam and TNYC have provided over 1,107,000 litres of safe drinking water to affected communities – that’s enough to supply the entire population of Tonga for two days!

On top of this, Oxfam and TNYC are conducting hygiene education classes at schools, helping protect 3,600 children from water and vector-borne disease. Alongside TNYC and Caritas Aotearoa NZ, and with financial support from the New Zealand Government, we had urgently-needed supplies on the ground ready for distribution before the storm hit – an action unique amongst international humanitarian NGOs.

Four months after the storm, we’re still there with TNYC working on the long-term rebuild. Cyclone Gita devastated many vital food sources and markets in Tonga – coconuts, bananas, fruit trees and root crops. Together with support from the New Zealand Government, Oxfam and TNYC are growing seedlings and distributing seeds to 800 farmers to help recover their livelihoods. Working with communities, we’re also identifying and assisting the most vulnerable families – such as single women-headed households and people with disabilities – to buy the produce grown through this initiative and to sell at local markets so as to restore their own incomes and livelihoods.

TNYC’s incredible work has garnered a lot of positive feedback from the communities reached:

“Thank you for everything, we feel a lot safer now.”

“Thank you TNYC volunteer workers for the hard work. We appreciate everything that you have all done.”

“The technology used to purify our water installs a sense of assurance that we can expect clean and safe water.”

“Come back! ‘Eua needs you TNYC and Oxfam!”

Ripe For Change

June 25, 2018

Inequality is rampant across the global economy, and the agro-food sector is no exception.

At the top, big supermarkets and other corporate food giants dominate global food markets, allowing them to squeeze value from vast supply chains that span the globe, while at the bottom the bargaining power of small-scale farmers and workers has been steadily eroded in many of the countries from which they source.

The result is widespread human suffering among the women and men producing food for supermarkets around the world. From forced labour aboard fishing vessels in Southeast Asia, to poverty wages on Indian tea plantations and hunger faced by workers on South African grape farms, human and labour rights abuses are all too common in food supply chains.

In an era of gross global inequality and escalating climate change, this business model is increasingly unsustainable. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Governments, food companies, small-scale farmers and workers, and citizens around the world can all help to rebalance power in food supply chains and ensure they more fairly reward those producing our food. The supermarket sector is ripe for change.

There is no justifiable reason that the human and labour rights of women and men supplying supermarkets cannot be respected. There is no moral excuse for anyone producing our food to go hungry. This report launches Oxfam’s new campaign to expose the root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains and to mobilise the power of people around the world to help end it, starting with a focus on the role of supermarkets.

Download file:

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Summary.pdf

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Full Report.pdf

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Methodology.pdf

Race against time for Rohingya refugees as monsoon rains, flooding and landslides continue

June 18, 2018

While 5000 Kiwis take part in Oxfam’s Ration Challenge in support of refugees this World Refugee Week, Rohingya refugees are facing life-threatening rains and disease as monsoon rains continue to lash the camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

There have been over 130 landslides, 3,300 damaged shelters and 28,000 Rohingya refugees affected as monsoon rains continue to fall, Oxfam said today.

A survey of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh carried out by Oxfam before the start of the monsoon season found that more than half were almost completely unprepared for the floods, landslides and disease that accompany the monsoon weather, with women most at risk.

Gabriela Luz-Meillet, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Programme Coordinator in Bangladesh, said:

“The monsoon rains are causing flooding, landslides and disease outbreaks in the Rohingya refugee camps. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in temporary shelters, on hills of compacted mud which are completely shorn of protective trees and plants. Those hills could melt into the earth. There are refugees alive today who will not make it through to the end of the rainy season.

“Oxfam is working with the government of Bangladesh and the United Nations to relocate refugees to safer areas and to make the remaining areas as weather-proof as possible. It is a race against time. We are doing what we can but there aren’t enough safe areas for all the refugees who need to move, so it is vital those who remain in danger know what to do in an emergency.”

Luz-Meillet said refugees could anticipate and prepare for the severe impacts of a monsoon in their homes in Myanmar. However now they had fled to Bangladesh they were struggling to deal with the weather.

“Most of the refugees come from small villages where they know how to deal with extreme weather. But now they are living in a huge tent city, disorientated and scared, and they are telling us that they lack the knowledge and resources to survive in this strange new environment. Women are in greater danger than men. They are frequently confined to their homes and do not know how to find shelter or to get help.

“We need to ensure that refugees get the information and resources that they need so they can deal with the bad weather and its consequences. Everyone working on the response needs to consult refugees so they can feel in control of their own lives. Everyone working in the camps is doing their best but we need to make sure that this response meets both the needs of the Rohingya and international humanitarian standards. Work on the ground should be matched by diplomatic efforts by the governments of Bangladesh, Myanmar and others to find long-term solutions for the Rohingya people. We cannot allow these people to endure another monsoon in these dangerous conditions in the camp.”

Oxfam New Zealand’s executive director Rachael Le Mesurier said urgent help was needed to reach the most vulnerable people before the situation worsens. “It’s heart-breaking to see people who have already been through so much – fleeing terrible violence, losing their homes, seeing family members killed – now facing even further hardship as extreme weather threatens their lives, families and homes once again.

“There is a high chance that without urgent assistance, some of these vulnerable people will not survive the next few months.”

Oxfam surveyed residents of the refugee camps in Bangladesh and found that 59% of women and 53% of men do not know how to ensure the safety and security of their families during and after a disaster.

Only around a quarter of refugees surveyed know where the nearest shelter is in case of a cyclone warning, with two thirds of women unaware of its location. Amongst men, 38% of men do not know the whereabouts of a shelter and 34% say there is no shelter.

Oxfam also ran a series of focus groups. All the groups told researchers that their shelters will be unable to withstand the rains, were concerned they couldn’t stockpile food and firewood, and felt reliant on aid agencies. Many thought they would be cut off by the rains and unable to access help, and the female groups feared struggling to feed their families should this occur.

Since last August a camp the size of a small city has been created from scratch, and the scale of the crisis has meant that resources have been mostly focused on the day-to-day efforts needed to supply nearly a million people with food, water, shelter and other life-saving goods.

A total of 200,000 out of over 900,000 refugees are categorised as at risk from flooding and landslides, with around 24,000 of those considered at high risk. So far nearly 25,000 refugees have been relocated to freshly prepared, flattened ground that should be safe from landslides and flooding.

/ends

Notes to editors:

The figures for landslides, damaged shelters and refugees affected are correct as of 15 June 2018.

Oxfam surveyed 383 refugees and 482 households in in the two main refugee areas of Ukhia and Teknaf, giving a 5% margin of error. Oxfam ran a series of focus groups and key informant interviews in Unchiprang and Nayapara camps in April 2018, consulting 109 refugees, of which 46% were women.

Currently Oxfam has provided vital aid to at least 240,000 people and is planning to reach 300,000. It has helped people stay healthy by installing water points, toilets and showers, distributing soap, and talking about good hygiene. Oxfam has installed a sewage facility for 50,000 people, which will rise to 100,000. To help local communities cope with water shortages, it is providing an average of 300,000 litres of chlorinated water daily in the Teknaf area.

Oxfam has provided 23,000 households with vouchers that can be exchanged at local markets for nutritious vegetables and ingredients to supplement their basic rations – including spinach, eggs, dried fish and spices.

Oxfam has a team of 125 staff and more than 1000 community-based volunteers in Cox’s Bazar working hard to provide emergency aid in a $25 million response. This is currently Oxfam’s third biggest humanitarian program, after Yemen and Ethiopia.

The Ration Challenge is a fundraising challenge that shows refugees Kiwis are with them, not against them, by living off the same food rations as a refugee would in Syria for one week. Participants fundraise and the money goes towards supporting those very refugees in Syria as well as Oxfam’s work around the world. It is occurring for the first time in New Zealand this World Refugee Week and so far over 5300 participants have raised almost $500,000.

Donations to Oxfam’s Rohingya refugee crisis appeal can be made at www.oxfam.org.nz.

Photo: Zaheda*, a Rohingya woman living in a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, attempts to secure her home as well as possible against the extreme weather. Credit: Oxfam New Zealand

Hodeida offensive must be stopped to save lives and the chance for peace

June 12, 2018

The UN and NGOs received warnings over the weekend for staff to evacuate Hodeida by Tuesday ahead of the offensive, affirming the humanitarian community’s worst fears for Yemen.

The UN peace envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths has already said that this attack would “take peace off the table in a single stroke,” and the UN has cited the worst case scenario: 250,000 dead, with hundreds of thousands more affected.

Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director Muhsin Siddiquey said, “It’s hard to imagine how life for the people of Yemen could get any more difficult, but an attack on Hodeida will bring more death, destruction and push vital resources like food, fuel and medicine even further out of reach. To avert catastrophe, we call on the international community, including the UN Security Council, to call for de-escalation and restraint, and to exert pressure and take action to ensure the parties keep Hodeida and Saleef ports open and uphold their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.”

The people of Yemen have already had the lifelines of food, fuel and medicine blocked for years, but the offensive on Hodeida will massively escalate this humanitarian crisis while millions already are on the brink of famine. Oxfam is hearing from local NGOs that there has been a dramatic increase in families forced to leave their homes in the last couple of days. Truck drivers are too frightened to enter Hodeida to move vital food and supplies, and businesses are closing, leaving civilians in the war path without basic supplies. The fact that this attack would happen during Ramadan makes it even more difficult for families to prepare.

Siddiquey said, “Even with these warnings, this assault and escalation of the conflict is not a foregone conclusion – there is time for all parties to navigate a path to peace and save countless lives, and the international community must continue to stand up for this peace and the lives of the Yemeni people.”

The US has recently stated it will not participate in the battle for Hodeida and that it opposes military activity that will exacerbate the humanitarian situation. This was a stance taken to wipe its hands clean of the death toll that will surely follow this offensive, but the US must publicly and explicitly warn against this attack, with clear consequences for the UAE if it goes forward. This is a moment that will show if the US will step up and use its influence to save lives in Yemen, and the world is watching.

Over 12,000 people evacuated in Guatemala, Oxfam provides humanitarian aid

June 8, 2018

More than 12,000 people have evacuated from their homes due to the eruption of Volcán de Fuego, which continues to spew fresh torrents of lava and rocks, thick ash and clouds of smoke.

The official death toll stands at 99, but at least 197 people remain unaccounted for. Ana María Méndez, Oxfam in Guatemala Country Director, said: “Volcán de Fuego is still erupting and we don’t know when it will stop. The area around the volcano is not safe, and it has been too dangerous and too hot to reach most of the communities located downslope from the volcano. We know that two villages were engulfed by pyroclastic flows, a mixture of lava blocks and gases that can reach temperatures up to 700°C. People are working under very harsh conditions and rescue efforts are being severely hampered by the lack of adequate equipment, poor visibility and roads closed due to the ash, lava flows and mudslides. A planned humanitarian assessment had to be postponed due to perilous conditions. More than 1.7 million people, mainly indigenous communities, have been affected by the eruption, including electricity cuts, collapsed homes and bridges, no access to clean water, ruined crops and areas cut off from main roads. The ash and lava flows are also cutting off the supply of food to the communities surrounding the volcano.” Oxfam is working with the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction in Guatemala (Conred) and local partner organizations to provide water filters, essential hygiene items and other vital aid to people who have fled or have been evacuated. We are also equipping emergency shelters with industrial kitchens, propane gas cylinders and cooking utensils. Yesterday an Oxfam team in the affected area was stranded in the community of La Trinidad after streams of scorching water coming down from the volcano cut off roads. Oxfam and partner organization staff were forced to spend the night in La Trinidad. Iván Aguilar, Oxfam in Guatemala Humanitarian Coordinator, said: “The number of people in emergency shelters doubled from less than 2,000 to 4,000 over the past three days. People in several communities are waiting for heavy machinery to open roads to reach the shelters. People are afraid, very afraid. Some even had to be evacuated from an emergency shelter when the volcano unexpectedly unleashed fast-moving pyroclastic flows in the area. Right now rainfall is intense, and this could trigger lahars, a powerful type of mudslide formed from volcanic ash and debris, which can reach areas that were not originally affected by the eruption itself.” Oxfam will continue to focus on delivering safe drinking water and improving hygiene and sanitation conditions for people in emergency shelters. Even though Guatemalan authorities report more than 12,000 evacuees, only 4,000 are currently housed in emergency shelters. Many people have sought shelter with family and friends, but the evacuee-to-sheltered ratio raises great concern, as many people may not have access to basic living conditions. Besides losing all their belongings, and in many cases family members, communities face great uncertainty about the future. The eruption and mudslides have destroyed homes, infrastructure and farms. Oxfam’s response will include supporting those affected to rebuild their livelihoods, through a comprehensive humanitarian response that advances women’s rights and empowerment, delivered in collaboration with its partner organizations in the country.