October 21st, 2009 | by Guest blogger
Andrew Blejwas is Oxfam’s regional communications officer for the US.
When I first moved to Alabama five years ago, just about all I knew about the state was that it was hot, and Montgomery was known as both the cradle of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. But mostly, it was hot. So last week when we had what amounted to a cold snap—about three days of weather in the 50s—conversations usually started with some variation on the theme of global warming: “So much for global warming,” someone would say. Or, “We really could use some of that global warming about now.”
If only it were that easy to turn global warming on and off like a switch. For a lot of us, global warming is a euphemism for climate change, something we don’t fully understand, something happening somewhere else—certainly “not in my backyard.” Even in sweltering Alabama, we don’t talk about global warming until it gets cold. But climate change is happening, and it is in our backyard.
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August 29th, 2009 | by Coco McCabe
In the year following Hurricane Katrina, Cleo and Martin Sylvester lived in a FEMA trailer while they put together the financing they needed to rebuild their own home. Photo by Steve Thackston/Oxfam America
On the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina , Andrew Blejwas, one of our colleagues who has been working with many of the communities on the US Gulf Coast, looks back on the long years that have passed since that storm turned so many lives upside down and revealed so much about injustices in our country. Here are a few of his thoughts:
Four years after Katrina, a lot has changed. Many homes are rebuilt, there are far fewer trailers than there were just a year ago, and communities are beginning to get back on their feet. But not much has changed either. There should not be more homes to rebuild, there should not be any families still living in trailers, and communities should have more support getting back on their feet.
Though Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were one-time events, the issues they helped unmask in the region are pervasive and long-standing. It’s going to take more than just a few years worth of work to reverse the poverty and social injustice that are pervasive on the Gulf Coast of the US. Oxfam is making a commitment to address the long-term issues that affect the region and will continue to work with dedicated partners there who are already working tirelessly to do just that.
July 7th, 2009 | by Anna Kramer
Miss Betty Jane Adams of Chauvin, LA. Photo: Grazioso Pictures
This June was one of the weirdest months I’ve ever seen in New England. Instead of warm days, we had endless cool and rainy weather. The Boston skyline vanished behind a perpetual cloud bank. Lately, I’ve taken to leaving my sunglasses at home and hauling my umbrella around instead.
Of course, besides giving Bostonians a chance to complain (something we love dearly), the unseasonal weather hasn’t really disrupted our lives. I haven’t put in my air conditioner yet, and some of my neighbors have held off on planting their summer gardens. But overall, we can live with it.
A thousand or so miles south of us, though, the weather is changing in a way that’s much more lasting and profound. Last week I watched some stunning footage filmed in the bayous of Louisiana, part of a series of forthcoming short films by Oxfam about building people’s resilience to climate change. The story centers on a local organization building elevated “lift houses” to protect Gulf Coast residents from increasingly severe floods and storms.
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December 30th, 2008 | by Anna Kramer
As 2008 draws to a close, we’re highlighting some of the photos that we thought best captured Oxfam’s work this year. Here are my own personal picks; more to come from others.
Photo: Steve Thackston / Oxfam America
This portrait of Biloxi, MS resident Mary Meltz appeared in Mirror on America, Oxfam’s report on the state of US Gulf Coast recovery three years after Hurricane Katrina. Meltz stands in front of her new home, where construction is nearly complete, thanks to the efforts of her son Michael (an artist who covered the walls with elaborate murals), community groups, and teams of volunteers. Visible over her shoulder is the FEMA trailer where Meltz lived for nearly three years.
To me, this divided image–and Meltz’s look of weary, patient hope–captures the in-between state of many of the people I met when I visited Biloxi in June. Three years after the storm, they are still struggling to rebuild their lives, even as they look to better times ahead.
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October 10th, 2008 | by Anna Kramer
Sharon in action. Photo by Liliana Rodriguez / Oxfam America
Last week I talked to Sharon Hanshaw, executive director of Oxfam America partner Coastal Women for Change (CWC), about her group’s grassroots efforts to register voters in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Here’s Sharon on the importance of going door-to-door, the best thing to say when you’re holding a megaphone, and what inspired a 70-year-old woman to register for the first time:
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Oh and also: voter registration deadlines are fast approaching in most US states. If you haven’t registered yet—or if you know someone who needs to—go to www.headcount.org. This nonpartisan group offers voter links, helpful FAQs, and of course, a fast and easy registration form.
September 12th, 2008 | by Kenny Rae
The atmosphere in the Gumbo Shop, a long-established restaurant in New Orleans’ French Quarter, was celebratory. And so it should be. The city, so traumatized by Hurricane Katrina three years ago had, despite dire predictions, been spared the wrath of Hurricane Gustav, which had veered westward before making landfall. The whole city had evacuated, but now people were coming back, and getting on with their lives again.
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September 3rd, 2008 | by Coco McCabe
As the storm-wracked coast of Louisiana faces the fallout from another hurricane–with potentially more on the way–Oxfam is supporting our local partner organizations to provide emergency supplies and assistance in rebuilding to those in need. Read the rest of this entry »
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