News & Media

Winnie Byanyima during her recent visit to Nigeria – a nation on the brink of famine. Photo: Tom Saater/Oxfam

The passionate and wise Winnie Byanyima, head of Oxfam International, came to visit New Zealand for the first time last week.

She spoke on everything from the huge number of displaced people around the world, the broken economic system and dangerous political power, to the devastating effects of the sale of arms, the unprecedented four famines across Africa and in Yemen, and the US withdrawal from the Paris Accord and climate change.

Below is part two of the top five things Winnie Byanyima said while she was here in NZ.

On the broken economic system and dangerous political power

“You can see that rich companies have been pushing wages down. In the last 30 years wages have not risen globally, but they increase their reward at the top. They pay peanuts to their suppliers, and then the shareholders take more and more of the profits out of the companies… this kind of business model that maximises for shareholders and cheats the worker, cheats the producer, cheats the consumer and destroys the environment is what we must change.”

– Interview with Kim Hill, Radio New Zealand

“We’re not against globalisation, but it has to be a globalisation that benefits all; workers, producers, the planet, communities. We can’t have globalisation that’s based on rewarding just the owners of capital. That’s a wrong and unjust globalisation.”

– Interview with Corin Dann, TVNZ’s Q+A.

“Poverty is a political problem. Poverty and injustice are rooted in powerlessness – and we tackle power. We tackle governments. We tackle companies. We ask them to do justice to ordinary people. There is no way we are going to end poverty without being political in that sense… we speak truth to power.”

– Interview with Corin Dann, TVNZ’s Q+A.

“All of us need to work as citizens to claim back power. Power has been taken by a few economic elites working in collusion with a few political elites. It’s a global problem.”

– Interview with Kim Hill, Radio New Zealand

On the four famines

“Famine is a failure because you can see it coming and you can stop it if you take the right actions. The responsibility first and foremost lies with the governments… it’s also a failure of the international community. We have a common humanity, we have commitments, we have made a law that we will respond, we will not let people die… when people die it diminishes my humanity, even though it’s another part of the world.”

– An Evening with Winnie Byanyima, Q Theatre event.

Missed part one?

The passionate and wise Winnie Byanyima, head of Oxfam International, came to visit New Zealand for the first time last week.

She spoke on everything from the huge number of displaced people around the world, the broken economic system and dangerous political power, to the devastating effects of the sale of arms, the unprecedented four famines across Africa and in Yemen, and the US withdrawal from the Paris Accord and climate change.

Want all of that in a nutshell? You’ve come to the right place. Here’s a collection of the top five things Winnie said on these important topics whilst here in New Zealand, part one.

On the US withdrawal from the Paris Accord and climate change

“I think this American decision on the Paris Agreement is a real opportunity for the rest of the world to be angry and, therefore, more ambitious about tackling climate change… I’m seeing an opportunity to re-mobilise. And I think, New Zealand, you should lead. This is a region that’s facing the consequences right now.”

– An Evening with Winnie Byanyima, Q Theatre event.

“This is a story that New Zealanders and people in the Pacific understand so well because you’re already facing it. Everywhere I hear the stories of people who are being wiped out by cyclones, by hurricanes – you’re at the forefront of this and you need to lead the world to demand that rich countries put down climate financing to help those who have not caused it, but who are facing the consequences.”

– Interview with Kim Hill, Radio New Zealand

“My uncle in my village in Uganda, who’s just a herdsman, would take 180 years to emit the same carbon emissions as an ordinary American citizen would in one year. It’s not fair for them to walk away.”

– Interview with Kim Hill, Radio New Zealand

“This is the greatness that’s in humanity. What we are seeing today is that actually the poor countries, the developing countries, are showing more leadership on climate change than the rich countries who have the means to solve the problem and who caused the problem.”

– Interview with Kim Hill, Radio New Zealand

On the refugee crisis

“Today my country, Uganda, very poor country, has more than a million South Sudanese refugees. We open our doors and we say ‘come and share what we have, we are poor, but we can’t let you die’. That is the principal of humanity, of humanitarianism, that all these countries signed on in the United Nations and are now turning their backs on… these are not people just escaping to look for a better future, they’re fleeing for their lives.”

A special thank you to Kiwi supporters from Winnie herself:

Want more? Click here for part two.

Here’s your mission. Ensure a newborn has safe passage down the crocodile-infested Nile River, protect first-born Hebrew sons from death at the hands of Egyptian soldiers, unlock 10 commandments, and lead your followers to the Promised Land.

Should you choose to accept, you’ll be providing hope to refugees around the world – thanks to an initiative started by Chinh and Khoa Vu.

Khoa (left) and Chinh Vu. Photo: Courtesy of Ayotree

Their adventure game, Moses the Freedom Fighter, educates players about the refugee experience while raising funds for Oxfam’s work with refugees.

It’s the Vus’ first venture into gaming, but even more remarkable than this accomplishment is their decision to donate all proceeds to Oxfam’s refugee fund, which benefits millions of people who have been displaced by conflict in Syria and other countries, including Yemen and Iraq. Though free to download and play, all money brought in by ads goes toward supporting refugees. They’ve also set up a donation page.

Khoa describes the decision to team up with Oxfam as a no-brainer. Chinh and Khoa—raised by parents who escaped a totalitarian regime in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States as refugees—know first-hand what it’s like to flee from a life of oppression and tyranny.

Chinh set off on a high-stakes voyage from Vietnam to freedom when he was six years old. His father was a high-ranking officer in the South Vietnamese Army. After the war, he was sent to a re-education camp and during that time, Chinh was cared for by his grandparents. When his father was released in 1979, he told Chinh, “We’re going on a little trip.” That trip turned out to be their escape.

Chinh and a number of other family members, including his father and younger brother Joe, were part of the mass migration from Vietnam by boat—a group later termed “boat people.” During the treacherous journey, they were lost at sea for three days before their SOS sign was sighted by a fishing boat that pulled them in to the mainland. In the scuffle, two female relatives got caught in a riptide and drowned. The Vus were stationed at a refugee camp on Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia, which at the time hosted as many as 40,000 refugees, before they were resettled to the United States.

Khoa, a decade younger, was born in the US, but he too was shaped by the Vu family origin tale. “I heard stories from my parents about this crazy boat voyage,” he says. “They endured pirates and people drowning. Now, the images we’re seeing of Syrian refugees look so similar. I’ll sit down with my mom to watch TV and she’ll say, ‘the boat people, we are the same;’ she recognizes herself.”

Video game fanatics themselves, bulding their own game was a dream of theirs. They began developing it over a year and a half ago. Then, just as they were finishing up their game, President Trump signed an executive order barring refugees from Muslim-majority countries from the US.

What started out as a simple game became a symbol of resistance.

“All of a sudden there’s this ban, and it was like wait a second, hold on, we come from a refugee family,” said Khoa. “We realised the same thing keeps happening, whether it’s the Syrians of today, the Vietnamese of yesterday, or Hebrews during Moses’ time.”

Moses the Freedom Fighter was released in March. Since then, it has been translated into 14 languages and downloaded and played more than 5,000 times by people in 29 countries. “After we released the game, we found that it connected with a lot of people,” says Khoa.

The Vus set a fundraising goal of $10,000 by World Refugee Day on June 20. As of June 15, they have raised more than $2,000. For Khoa and Chinh, the most fulfilling part of the experience is seeing their message of empathy and acceptance for those who have faced down genocide, intolerance, and injustice not only amplified, but reflected through support for their fund.

“Ultimately, the statement we’re making is not political,” says Khoa. “It’s humanitarian. This game is for anyone—from refugees to undocumented immigrants to migrant workers—who has been pushed to the outskirts of society, or felt the hand of oppression.”

---

Derived from the blog by Divya Amladi (Oxfam America)

The game is available for download via iTunes and Google Play.

For more information on the game, visit http://www.freemoses.org/

Help the brothers reach their goal!

The rare story of a Syrian family who came to Europe on a humanitarian visa

Text: Laura Hurtado / Oxfam Intermón

The story of this family is unusual. Most Syrian refugees who have made it to Europe have got there illegally and by taking perilous journeys. War in their homeland and Fortress Europe left them no other option.
But here is a different Syrian tale, which shows there are other ways to give sanctuary to those fleeing the war.

Syria: where it begins

---

Petite, bright-eyed Syrian Fatem remembers well the fear she felt when the war broke out in her hometown of Raqqa. She still shivers at the thought. “We were living in the heart of the conflict. Every time we kissed each other goodnight we thought it could be the last time,” she recalls.

Due to the conflict, her husband Khalil couldn´t work and so money was tight. They were expecting their first child but couldn´t see a doctor. Amid the water and supply shortages, the final straw came when Ahmed was born and they couldn´t buy any milk to feed him as there was none. “That was the moment when we clearly realized we couldn´t stay in Syria anymore,” says Khalil. He decided to go to Lebanon to find a job and a place to live – his young family would then join him.

The most prized possession that he brought with him was a photo album showing their happy days in Syria: their wedding; their parents; the beautiful house they lived in; the land he used to work.

First stop: Lebanon

---

The day when Khalil arrived in Lebanon he had to sleep on the streets. It was like a premonition; a clear warning that nothing in this country would be easy.

For four years, the family struggled to make ends meet in Lebanon, a small country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, and where 70% of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line. Khalil has worked as an electrician, a plumber and a painter, but despite this, he has had to seek out loans more than once in order to feed his family, which has grown with the birth of Mohamed, who is now 1 year old.

Their home is a small, cramped and dark room in a town in Mount Lebanon, an hour away from Beirut. The rent is lower here than in the capital. “In the beginning, the floor was bare earth and the roof was leaking. The landlord refused to fix it”, says Khalil. Their kitchen is outside, where it is hard to cook especially in the freezing snowy winters. The children often fall ill and Fatem now has an allergy, leading to a persistent cough and bouts of vomiting. “I suffocate in this room,” she says.

The promise of a new life

---

One day, Khalil learned from a neighbour there was a possibility to travel to Italy with a humanitarian visa – meaning in a safe and legal way.

After much research, the family met with the Italian organisations that have been working on securing humanitarian visas for Syrian refugees through humanitarian corridors. This initiative aims to avoid deaths at sea, and human trafficking: the Italian government has agreed to receive 1,000 refugees in two years through this project. While welcome, this is just a token number as the conflict in Syria has pushed more than  5 million people to become refugees in neighbouring countries. But those behind this initiative want to focus on how lives can be saved if there is a political will, rather than on the numbers, for now.

Dreams

---

At first, Fatem was sceptical. She thought that they wouldn´t be chosen to travel to Italy. But, after a few interviews, the family was selected.

Syrian refugees have to meet a number of criteria in order to receive humanitarian visas. A key criterion is that they are in a vulnerable situation, such as families with young children.  According to UNHCR, this vulnerable status also applies to unaccompanied minors, single mothers, the elderly and sick, and those who have been abused or tortured.

Why a person wants to go to Italy is also taken into account as well as their chances at success in a new environment. “Adaptation is not the same for a young educated person as for an illiterate elderly one,” explains Simone Scotta, from Mediterranean Hope, who has been working on the family’s case from Lebanon. “Many Syrian refugees think everything will improve once in Italy, but we insist on explaining that the culture is very different, that nobody speaks their language and that they will lose the support network they have in Lebanon.”

The farewell

---

The night before the flight, Khalil and Fatem couldn’t sleep. They had been crossing out the days on their calendar for months, their suitcases ready and waiting in a corner of their tiny home. They shed some tears, feeling happy and sad: torn by their situation.

They were leaving behind all those they had shared four years with their cousin’s family, who welcomed them into their home during their first month and who shared with them what little they had, and their neighbours, most of them Syrian, who had fled to Lebanon just like them.

But above all, they were moving further away from their dear Syria. This journey would take them far away from their loved ones, from their culture, from their land.

A heavy blow

---

The journey took 24 hours, starting at 4am in Beirut and ending in the city of Cecina in the middle of Tuscany. During the bus trip from Rome to their new home, they found out they would have to share a flat with another Syrian refugee family. This bit of news left them perplexed and fraught.

But they soon found out from Oxfam, the NGO in charge of their accommodation during their first year, that this was a temporary measure. Though they would eventually have their own home, it was made clear that renting property as a refugee can be a tricky task.

Italy: the end of the journey

---

Upon their arrival to Tuscany, two Italian social workers from Oxfam brought them to their new temporary home: a sunny flat with a garden, a big living room with a fitted kitchen, three bedrooms, central heating, a washing machine and a TV.

Via a translator, the family learnt that they would receive money every month to buy food, medicine and other essentials, for six months. They would also have WiFi in the apartment and home-based Italian language lessons so they don’t have to leave their children. The family would also receive help in how to apply for asylum and look for jobs. At the end of the six months, the family would be considered self-sufficient.

“I never imagined we would end up living in Italy. I thought the war would only last for two or three years, but the situation just gets worse,” comments Khalil as he tunes in to an ArabicTV channel to get the latest news from Syria.  “I hope people in Europe don´t think we are terrorists or extremists. We are here because we are running away from them, from the conflict.” Fatem adds: “We want a future for our children. That is why we are willing to learn a new language and adapt to different customs.”

When we say goodbye, we ask them if they would like to go back to Syria when the war ends – if they would like this tale to end where it began. “Of course we will go back,” Fatem says without the shadow of a doubt. “But if a long time passes and my children feel established here, we will only go back to visit. The stability of our family comes first.”

Photos: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

A moving first-hand account of the effects of the terrible conflict Yemen has been suffering for the past few years, but a call to remain hopeful, however, that peace will arise after the war’s darkness. This entry posted by Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam Yemen’s Country Director, on 12 June 2017.

As the sun rises, covering the rocky mountains with a coat of gold, we are welcomed to Yemen by fishermen and dolphins jumping out of the blue water.

After a 14-hour boat journey from Djibouti, the view of Aden city in the early morning was a magical sight. At first, life in the city looked normal: road dividers were freshly painted, people were chatting while sipping red tea or having breakfast in small restaurants, youth were playing pool in the streets, and taxis were shouting to collect their passengers. However, as we moved in the city, buildings riddled with bullet holes appeared, several residential areas and hotels had their roof collapsed, and cars were waiting in long queues for petrol.

This tableau of contrasts was telling the story of Aden.

The second day after our arrival, we travelled to Lahj with the Aden team. Our conversation kept switching between the work Oxfam does in Aden and other Southern governorates, and the destruction passing before our eyes, a terrible witness of the conflict Yemen has been suffering for the past few years.

Oxfam is there

In such a volatile and insecure environment, Oxfam continues to provide water, improved sanitation and basic hygiene assistance to more than 130,000 affected individuals in Lahj governorate. The team sometimes travels for more than two to three hours to reach the target location. Community engagement is thus key to deliver assistance. Our staff along with community based volunteers consults affected community as well as key leaders to identify the intervention. The affected community not only participates in water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities, but also works closely with host communities to ensure that social harmony is maintained.

In Lahj, the focus is to rebuild the water supply system to help both displaced persons as well as local communities, and Oxfam works with the local water and sanitation authority to ensure the sustainability and viability of the rehabilitated system. Displaced people in these areas used to collect water only once in a week because of the long distances they had to walk to reach the wells. Now, both IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and host communities can access water on daily basis.

Meeting community members made clear that war has impacted everyone, and they all share their grief and pain and support each other. The strong bonding between displaced people and host communities despite their high level of hardship also indicates that Yemeni people have come a long way through several wars and conflict and are therefore more resilient.

Water tank built by Oxfam in Al-Jalilah village, in Al-Dhale governorate. Credit: Omar Algunaid/Oxfam, March 2017

Hunger is rampant

The impact of war and conflict in Aden and surrounding governorates is very high. More than two million people were affected since the beginning of the crisis. Food insecurity in Lahj, Abyan and Al Dhale is rising and remain among the governorates in Yemen with high food assistance need.

The tragedy and suffering of Abdullah, a 70-year-old man who had to flee Abyan during the peak of the war, speaks for itself. However, he does believe that peace will return back to Yemen, but to survive, he had to mortgage his pension card to feed his family. There are many invisible people like him who probably would like to see peace come back to Yemen so their impoverished lives can improve.

Displacement crisis

Tough host communities initially provided spaces to displaced persons, but in addition now, displaced people have started settling down in barren land areas on their own. Those who managed to return back to their original location are now severely impacted by a cholera outbreak. Lack of provision of salaries to government employees have further added burden to the households who host displaced families. Water, food assistance and healthcare remain the top three priorities. Hardship has reached to a threshold where affected people are willing to mortgage anything and everything they can. Basic services and utilities including water, education and health have been halted to a greater extent and therefore increasing stress on affected communities.

Oxfam Yemen Country Director, Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, visits the pumping room in Al-Roweed village, as part of the water project Oxfam implemented in the area. Also there, Al-Melah district Manager and members of the water management committee. Credit: Omar Algunaid/Oxfam, February 2017

Fighting cholera

Saleema* is community health volunteer who works with Oxfam and is a true agent for change. She raises awareness with the affected communities on the importance of clean and safe water.  She visits houses and speaks to women, elders and young girls to ensure key health messages are understood and applied. Increasing numbers of youth, such as Saleema, support affected communities to rebuild their lives and to help build social cohesion.

Last year when a cholera outbreak was declared in Yemen, Aden was one of the governorates among others like Al-Hudaydah where most suspected cases were registered.

Resilience in the face of darkness

As we returned from Lahj, the smell and taste of Mindi (local chicken meal with rice) and mouth watering local paratha (wheat based chapati) reminded us that that Yemeni people’s resilience had also stood strong in the face of adversity.

As the Apollo boat finally departed Aden after sunset, with the noise of waves gushing in and the dark smudging in, we remembered that a beautiful sunrise would welcome us upon arrival, in a similar way that humanitarian needs in Aden and surrounding governorates continue to grow. We remain hopeful, however, that peace will arise after the war’s darkness.

This entry posted by Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam Yemen’s Country Director, on 12 June 2017.
*Name changed to protect identity.

Yemen is in the grip of a runaway cholera epidemic that is killing one person nearly every hour and if not contained will threaten the lives of thousands of people in the coming months. We’re calling for a massive aid effort and an immediate ceasefire to allow health and aid workers to tackle the outbreak.

Please donate to save lives today