Oxfam America Blog

Local groups of human rights activists such as this one in Matola Gare, outside Maputo, are working hard to educate people about the rights of women under the 2004 Family Law. A new domestic violence bill will add more work in the education of women about their rights in Mozambique. Photo by Brett Eloff/Oxfam America.

We are just hearing some good news this week from our program officer Michael Chimedza in Maputo that Mozambique’s parliament has passed a bill on domestic violence. This is a significant milestone for women in that it now allows police and prosecutors to act directly against perpetrators of domestic violence against women and children as a “public crime” or criminal matter. This is significant: the police no longer have to wait for a victim to file a formal complaint to take action. Read the rest of this entry »

HIV/AIDS caregiver Lebogang Molefi, right, with patient Maria Mogale, in South Africa’s North West Province. Molefi works for Pholo Modi Wa Sechaba, one of thousands of community organizations helping the country’s roughly 5.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Photo: Brett Eloff / Oxfam America

Last month I won a free subscription to the glitzy celebrity magazine US Weekly. At first I was skeptical, but I’ll admit it’s become a guilty pleasure: After working on poverty issues all week at Oxfam, I kind of enjoy reading about fashion faux pas and learning how celebrities are “just like us!”

I never thought the two worlds would collide, but they did last week, when the magazine covered pop singer Madonna’s battle to adopt Mercy James, a 3-year-old girl from Malawi. It was bizarre to flip through those shiny pages, filled with expensive clothes and glamorous photos, and then read about a country with a reported 1.5 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

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When I first read Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments about AIDS and condoms – “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” he told reporters aboard a plane heading to Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem” – I flipped out.

I remember muttering to my husband on the train ride into work that it’s one thing for the pope to believe that sort of thing because of his religious beliefs; it’s another for him to actually undermine the work of NGOs like Oxfam around the world, which are encouraging prevention efforts.

Itumeleng Modimola is a caregiver, community worker, HIV/AIDS counselor, fund raiser, and mentor for families affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Photo by: Brett Eloff / Oxfam America.

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With 2008 behind us, we’re highlighting photos we think best capture Oxfam’s work last year.

Here at Oxfam America’s headquarters we have all the writers sharing one small area of the office. It’s me and three women: Coco, Anna, and Andrea. I grew up with three sisters (one older and two younger…no brothers) so it is all rather disturbingly familiar. I know it is not easy to share an office with me, what with all the loud phone calls in my bad French and even worse Spanish. I therefore dedicate my best pictures of 2008 blog post to my office mates, because it I am constantly impressed by the hard work women do to eradicate poverty, here at the office and everywhere I go.

photo by Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam America

Last January I visited this pond in southern Ethiopia, where an ethnic Borena woman helped pass water up to the troughs for cows to drink. Oxfam America helped build this pond in a place called Gololcha, where more than 4,000 cows a day can get water during the dry season. Borena women are not routinely consulted about how to manage water resources like this one, but the men did not seem to mind this strong woman pitching in to the hard labor. With changes in rainfall patterns and scarce pastures in this area of Ethiopia, the Borena people will have to start encouraging women to take a more active role in creating ways for them to survive the dry times. Read the rest of this entry »

In a market in South Africa, a woman sells pins to commemorate those lost to AIDS. Photo by Emily Farr

Emily Farr, a humanitarian livelihoods specialist for Oxfam America, writes about the flood of memories that washed over her at the close of World AIDS Day.

By Emily Farr

Yesterday was December 1, 2008: World AIDS Day. This year I didn’t do much to mark the occasion, but I did wear a beaded red AIDS ribbon pinned to my shirt. I bought about a dozen of these pins a couple of weeks ago at a market in South Africa as a little memento for some colleagues, and had enough foresight to keep one for myself.

A few times during the day I’d glanced down, startled, having forgotten about my pin. It wasn’t until I began cooking dinner later that evening that I took the time to stop and reflect on why I wore that pin all day. Read the rest of this entry »

Children get lunch after school in Soweto, South Africa. Programs like this serving orphans and vulnerable children are essential, but must be matched with efforts to create laws and policies that will help reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. Photo by Brett Eloff/Oxfam America.

World AIDS Day is today, and the usual analysis of how the world is coping with reducing the global epidemic of HIV and AIDS is enhanced by a story by Celia Dugger in the New York Times last week:  A report by Harvard University estimates that 330,000 lives were lost in South Africa between 2000 and 2005 by the country’s failure to implement a timely distribution of anti-retroviral medication. The study, “Estimating the Lost Benefits of AntiretroviralDrug Use in South Africa,” also says 30,000 babies were born with HIV due to lack of access to proper medication for pregnant women. “there is no evidence yet of major changes in HIV-related behaviour.” Disturbing trends continue: Women are still disproportionately affected, legal reforms that would help protect the rights of women are slow in coming, and the ambitious National Strategic AIDS Plan finished in 2007 is sluggish in producing meaningful results.

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Community theatre performance in Kliptown, South Africa. Women in southern Africa are disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis due to discrimination and violence. Photo by Laura McFarlane/Oxfam America

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced this week that it was awarding its Prize for Achievement for African Leadership to Botswana’s former president Festus Mogae, who led the country from 1998-2008. During his tenure, Botswana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to provide free anti-retroviral medication to all its citizens living with HIV, and by 2007 was treating 90 percent of people living with HIV or AIDS, according to UNAIDS.

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