Oxfam America Blog

Oxfam launched this message for ministers meeting in The Hague. Photo by Ton Vrijenhoek

When dozens of ministers from countries around the world met in The Hague yesterday to talk about the future of Afghanistan, the fate of 8.5 million people hung in the air. That’s the number of Afghans who face chronic uncertainty about whether they will have enough to eat. Already the health of more than a million young children and 500,000 women is at risk because of malnutrition.

Those numbers hit hard when you weigh them against the findings in a new field report from Afghanistan produced by Oxfam America. The report says that the US spends 20 times more in military activities and operations in the country than it does on development. And the money that does go to development isn’t always well coordinated:  The report cited one case of two separate contractors, both funded by USAID who, by chance, discovered they were doing almost the same project in the same place. Read the rest of this entry »

Equipped with cameras and a quick lesson on how to use them, 20 Afghan women and their children fanned out to record their lives last year in a project sponsored by Oxfam and its partner, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief. The images they captured—and the words they used to describe them—are filling my mind now as I read about a high-level  meeting on the future of Afghanistan that’s set to take place tomorrow in The Hague. Read the rest of this entry »

At the goat market in Moyale, Ethiopia, this goat herder gets ready to part with a prized posession. Photo by Sarah Livingston

“No more caffeine!” said the email from my husband at mid-morning. I’d been up since 5 a.m., gulping coffee and fretting. It’s always this way before I take a trip. Would my visa come on time? Would I remember to take the malaria medicine? Where was my yellow card? Was the Ciprofloxacin—the stomach-bug-cure-all—still good? Would I need that water bottle with the filter and iodine tablets? Read the rest of this entry »

As 2008 winds down, we’re highlighting photos we think best capture Oxfam’s work this year. Here is one of my favorites–with an explanation why. More to come from others.

Loko Dadacha, photographed by Sarah Livingston

In this supposed season of joy, trouble fills our world: a cholera outbreak and widespread hunger in Zimbabwe, a food crisis in Afghanistan that’s threatening five million people, bursts of violence in the eastern provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo that have forced a quarter of a million people from their homes, a conflict in Darfur that has dragged on for nearly six years and wrecked the lives of millions of Sudanese—the list goes on. And that’s the killer. Where is the hope in this bottomless pit of suffering?

I think I know. Read the rest of this entry »

Sub-Commissioner Blanca Lidia Figueroa of the National Police, El Salvador. Photo by Claudia Barrientos/Oxfam America

Earlier this week I read an excellent article in the NY Times by Carlotta Gall about Bamian, Afghanistan. Gall writes that women are driving cars, working as police officers, and there is even a woman governor there. As violence has diminished in this corner of the country, peace it seems, opens doors for women to stage “a quiet revolution.” But it is still not easy for women to take on non-traditional roles outside the home. One police lieutenant, after five years on the force, says “I had some problems at the beginning.” I’ll bet she did, and probably continues to. But at least the Taliban are not active in Bamian: Last month in Kandahar they murdered Malalai Kakar, a well-known female police captain.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve had a child or two, as I have, it’s difficult to look at maternal mortality rates and not consider them personally. Giving birth can be hard and scary work, even with the help of the best attendants and most high-tech medical facilities the developed world can offer. That’s why a graph like the one below is so unsettling—for all that it says about the conditions other mothers must endure, and for the stark fact that so many don’t survive.

To understand the graph a little better, and why it’s a useful tool for the kind of work we do, listen to Miriam Aschkenasy’s explanation:

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She’s Oxfam America’s public health specialist and an emergency room physician. This graph was put together for our humanitarian response department, which wanted to gauge the rates in some of the countries in which we work and compare them with western countries.

This graph shows the rates of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births in nine countries.
*The numbers have been adjusted to correct for misclassification and underreporting.

Traveling with her new baby under her burka, this 25-year-old woman is escorted by her father along the rough roads of Badakshan on her way to a health post two hours away to seek help for the bleeding she has been experiencing. There, she learned she has liver damage and may have problems with future deliveries. Photo by Alix Fazzina

Badakhshan, a remote and mountainous province in Afghanistan, has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world: For every 100,000 live births, 6,500 mothers die. About the time that statistic came across my desk, the New York Times ran a picture on its front page—and several more inside—showing the bone-dry hills and rudimentary living conditions in one of Afghanistan’s poorest provinces: Bamian. The Times story was about the hunger looming over one-quarter of the country’s population, and Oxfam’s warning about a potential humanitarian crisis. Drought, an unusually harsh winter, and a lack of security have all contributed to the food shortage.

Read the rest of this entry »