Oxfam Asia Blog

Making a wave of change in Chhhinchu

In January, I had a chance to meet some women leaders in Raising Her Voice project in Nepal. The five-year project, which ended in March 2012, empowered women at the village level to engage effectively in decision making processes and claim their rights.

After a few hours along the curvy road in Surkhet district, we finally reached Chhhinchu village, tucked away down the slope. I was blown away by the picturesque view of the village in front of me – mud houses painted in ivory colour and hay stacks sitting among green terraced paddy fields, sprinkled with the bright yellow colour of mustard flowers.

A group of almost twenty women leaders, greeted us with flower garlands and red bindhi, painted on our foreheads as a wish of luck before guiding us into the ‘meeting room’, a small room no larger than 12 square meters. I later found out that the room is actually a part of one of the women’s house used as a gathering space for them.

After we introduced ourselves, the women started telling their stories of change – personal stories how they have overcome discrimination and challenges, and successfully claimed their civil rights. One by one, confidence and pride shone in their faces. Their voice was loud and clear, and sometimes got even louder as their story progressed.

Pushpa

There was Pushpa, a 22 years old girl who is considered by her friends and family as ‘too old’ because she is still single. She is studying to become a public health person. Together with other women, they successfully advocated the Village Development Committee and secured a budget of 45,000 NPRs to construct a road in the village. “If women really want something, they can make it happen,” she said.

Then there was Ramkumari, who went out of her village for the first time in her life at her 40’s to an exposure visit in Pokhara, meeting and talking to other women group there. She was so nervous she forgot her name when the group was going around to introduce themselves. Today she is nothing but quiet when it comes to her rights. “We should not be scared to speak up,” she said. More »

Growing the seed of prosperity

This story is a part of Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Programme (EDP), an initiative that aims to support and invest in small rural enterprises in places financial institutions do not reach to improve their livelihoods.

Sita Oli (left) and Piwala Oli (right), seed producers in Kerani village in Surkhet district, Nepal.

At first, Piwala appeared to me as a small and fragile lady, but after we sat down and talked for a while, I noticed her lean, strong arms as she was gesturing. “Hard work keeps me slim.” She jokes, giggling and pat her flat abs.

As a vegetable seed producer and a mother of four in a small village called Kerani in Surkhet district, West of Nepal, her days begin at four or five o’clock in the morning with milking the cow and cooking breakfast for her husband and children. Before sunrise, she carries the milk and walks for two hours in the dark, with only the light from the torch, to sell the milk at the cooperative for 35 NPRs (26 Pence) per litre. When she returns home, it’s time to cook another meal for the family before going to work in the field in the afternoon, collecting fodder and tends to her vegetables until six in the evening. Throughout the day she only eats a few.

In winter time, she has to collect more fire wood to cook food ,hot water and other household chores she can only go to bed an hour or two before the clock strikes midnight.

“Men only work from ten to five, but women works from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep,” said Piwala.

Hard work, both domestic and in the field, seven days a week, 365 days a year, starts taking toll on her small physique. At age 37, Piwala starts having a back pain, which she thinks might be a result of the sterilization surgery that she had, but she continues to work hard, without much help.

“I want my children to have good education so I don’t allow them to work in the field too much,” said Piwala. “Our lives are much better now. I want to keep it this way so I have to work hard.” She still remembers the days when her children could only eat rice only once or twice a week. “Now we can have rice, vegetables and meat all the time. My hard work is paying off,” she said with a big smile. More »

Oxfam SMS goes live in Bangladesh with jubilations, reservations, energy and hopes

Hartal (strike by political activists) has been added as an integral part to political culture in Bangladesh. Since hartal becomes violent and protesters some times torch vehicles, Tapas (Humanitarian team colleague) and I sat on a cycle rikshaw from my residence and reached Oxfam office where festivity mood prevailed among all staff members on the eve of going live with Single Management Structure (SMS)*.

While riding cycle rikshaw, I continued thinking of the cycle rikshaw puller who happened to be among millions of the poor living in peri-urban slums around Dhaka. These rikshaw pullers are among the poor for whom Oxfam affiliates in Bangladesh (Oxfam GB, Oxfam Novib, Oxfam Hong Kong and Oxfam Australia) have developed a joint country strategy to bring about change in their lives.

For millions of the poor in Bangladesh Oxfam envisions that by the start of 2016 Bangladesh will have made substantial progress towards realising the rights and wellbeing of poor men and women through creating an environment containing empowered, resilient communities where women and men contribute jointly to good governance and leadership across Bangladesh.

“Oxfam anticipates programming in Bangladesh for the foreseeable future, measurable in decades. Even as the country becomes richer, aiming for middle income country status by 2021, there will remain huge work for the NGO sector in terms of complementary service delivery, holding the powerful to account and in terms of leveraging and influencing large scale change sufficient to impact the lives of around a third of the population (around 50-60 million people, overwhelmingly women and girls, in situations of extreme poverty and suffering. Oxfam will directly change the lives of around 100,000 households/500,000 women, men, girls and boys each year, and indirectly influence positive change affecting several million more,” says Joint Country Strategy for 2013-16. More »

Disasters and Climate Change- Resilience is of paramount importance

The cold Islamabad in December every year hosts dozens of senior researchers, analysts, activists and campaigners who come from across South Asia and rest of the world and share their research work and case studies on the issues facing the people of this region.

An independent think tank Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) organizes for them its annul sustainable development conference (SDC). The theme of this year’s SDC- the 15th in the series- was ‘Sustainable Development in South Asia- Shaping the future’. More »

Sharing the Pain and Cost of Climate Inaction

In the aftermath of Typhoon Pablo (Bopha), the Canadian youth in COP 18 stands with the Philippines. Photo Credit: Shubert Ciencia

The online newspaper showed a poignant picture of a rescuer comforting a little girl wrapped in a thin white blanket, her hair heavily caked in mud. The little girl was pulled out of the flood and mud where she lay submerged for almost a day, after typhoon Pablo slammed into her little town in Compostela Valley in the southern part of the Philippines. Her father and brother were still missing, like hundreds of people feared dead in the wake of this unusual typhoon – unusual in the sense that typhoons rarely pass this part of the Philippines. More »

In Photos: Typhoon Bopha (Pablo) affected communities and how Oxfam is helping

Oxfam is on the ground in Compostela Valley, Davao Region to provide humanitarian assistance to affected families due to Typhoon Bopha (or locally called Pablo). These are the photos (and video) tweeted by Abbi Luz, our Humanitarian Officer. Follow live updates daily on twitter @OxfaminPHL and Philippines’ blog

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First location: Galera Evacuation Centre (EC), New Bataan

This week, HRC-Oxfam came in to provide a 5,000l water bladder and 6 pit latrines for immediate water/sanitation needs

More »

Typhoon Pablo’s agri damage reaches P11.57-B mark; HRC and Oxfam call on government to allot funds for food security and livelihoods recovery

New Bataan, Compostella Valley, Philippines (December 12, 2012) – “Government must allot funds for livelihoods recovery and food security of Typhoon Pablo’s affected communities.” This is based on results of the Humanitarian Response Consortium (HRC) and Oxfam’s assessment in the areas of New Bataan in Compostella Valley, and Boston and Cateel in Davao Oriental. The findings came as the Department of Agriculture released Wednesday of P 11.57 billion as estimated total agricultural damages brought about by Typhoon Pablo. The HRC and the international humanitarian agency Oxfam have been delivering its emergency response here since Saturday.

“While the HRC and Oxfam are responding to the urgent needs of the people here like water and hygiene, we must, at the same time, think about the livelihoods situation of the affected areas in the coming months. We call on the government to allot resources for food security and livelihoods recovery of the people particularly in Davao Oriental and Compostella Valley,” says Kevin Lee, response manager for HRC’s and Oxfam’s Typhoon Pablo Emergency Response.

“There are urgent needs right now like food and water but in the long term, the bigger issue here is livelihoods. The banana plantations have been completely destroyed and the coconut plantations, rice crops and the trees have all fallen down. They might be able to survive in this first month, but what about the coming months and years? The challenge for the community is long-term since people here grow bananas and coconuts for a living,” adds Paul del Rosario, Oxfam Humanitarian Program Coordinator. More »

Huge challenges lie ahead for typhoon-affected communities in the Philippines

Travelling to New Bataan, in Compostela Valley, on the Philippines island of Mindanao, is a depressing experience. It’s one of the areas most devastated by Typhoon Bopha.

The drive takes us through dramatic scenery. Destroyed houses, downed power lines, and kilometres of vast banana and coconut plantations, crushed by the massive gusts and rains brought by Typhoon Bopha. The nearly-ripe bananas, carefully wrapped in blue plastic bags, now languish forlorn in the mud.

I’ve come here with teams from Oxfam and its humanitarian partners in the Philippines, members of the Humanitarian Response Consortium, who are beginning our emergency response in some of the worst hit areas.

The teams set about their work. First, there are courtesy calls with officials at the municipal centre, where the relief effort is being co-ordinated. All around us, there’s frantic activity. Lorries arrive with huge loads of rice and other food. Teams are preparing food bags for distribution. Outside, officials add fresh data on charts. It’s just past 9am, and I scan the information.

In the municipality, more than 10,000 families have been affected. About three and a half thousand people are staying in evacuation centres – a grandiose sounding term for any building that can provide the most basic of shelters for families traumatised by their experience. Rescue and recovery teams have found 234 bodies so far. And the smell of deaths hangs in the air, which is why most people here are walking around wearing facemasks. More »