This is Maggie’s garden. Put together with the hard work and contribution of many people to honour the life of Maggie Davis. It was officially opened on January 17th with, wine, food , laughter and speeches about her amazing life and achievements.

Maggie was born in 1914 in England and moved to Australia with her family where she farmed in Manjimup in the south-west of WA.

In 2005 she was presented with a certificate of appreciation by the Executive Director of Oxfam, Andrew Hewett for completing 30 Walk Against Want, charity walks for Oxfam. Many of which she organised. What is most remarkable is that the first one she organised was at an age when most of us are thinking of retiring, at the age of 65. The last one she did was at the age of 95, a year before she died. Her second last walk was aided by the use of two walking sticks and the last one with the aid of a wheeled walking frame she affectionately called ‘Roley.’

Maggie raised many thousands of dollars for health, water, education and livelihood programmes over the years through these walks and claimed nobody she asked ever refused to sponsor her. Perhaps more importantly she inspired thousands of people to get active with her tenacity and generosity.

Her charity work was not limited to Oxfam. Maggie also caught the train up from Fremantle every Wednesday to volunteer at the One World Centre (OWC), an education and resource centre with a focus on global issues based in the Oxfam building.

Maggie carried out many tasks in the OWC. One of them was to hand write and send out the overdue notices for resources from the library – and she did this without fear or favour – those handwritten letters meant there was always a very good return rate for the library! Another job was proof-reading documents. Her eye for detail and the time in which she was educated made her the perfect person for the job. One of the reasons she liked to do this was that she found the information in the resources she was reading interesting and felt that she was learning something new.

She may have been in her 90s but Maggie was always interested in new ideas, always on a quest to learn something new – she was 96 years young.

Maggie liked nothing more than afternoon tea time at the OWC, joined very often by Oxfam staff– with conversations often focussed on interesting stories, world politics and the conundrums of the human condition, Maggie dubbed this session ‘Philosophy Wednesday’ and her contributions to the discussions are sorely missed.

One of the things that motivated Maggies work at Oxfam and OWC more than anything was that, despite her 90 odd years, she wanted to be useful – and she was. But she was more than that she was great company and has for so many years an integral and treasured member of the OWC and Oxfam community.

Thank you Maggie, for the life you led, for the way you led it and for sharing a small part of it with us at the OWC and Oxfam. You and your garden will continue to be an inspiration to us all.

“The Child Rights guide is a valuable resource. There is a wealth of variety in both the information resources and the activities. I particularly appreciate the activities for the opportunity they provide students for some very sophisticated thinking.”  Michelle Hanger, Avila College, Victoria

Our friends at child rights organisation Plan International Australia have developed a fantastic new resource that explores the concepts of child rights. It’s tailored for students aged between 10 and 13 years, and has been designed specifically to align with the new Australian curriculum.

PLAN’s resource is one of many high quality resources developed by several non-government organisations (NGOs) including Oxfam, who are working in partnership with teachers and schools to educate our young people on active citizenship and social justice perspectives.

Common Threads: Weaving Child Rights into Global Education provides the knowledge and resources needed to introduce Australian students to the concept of child rights and responsibilities in a global context.

Plan International Australia chief executive Ian Wishart said Common Threads could help children to understand global poverty from a rights perspective and instil the knowledge and skills necessary for them to be active global citizens and help shape a better world for all children.

“Teachers know that when children have full access to their rights to survival, development, protection and participation they can develop to their full potential,” said Mr Wishart.

“This resource will help those educators who are teaching global education, specifically in the context of social justice and human rights. The main focus of this guide is child rights and how putting children at the centre of community development can have lifelong positive impacts — not just for children but for the entire community.

“Every one of us, young and old, needs to be aware of our rights and responsibilities as we take on the role of global citizens in this increasingly interconnected global world.”

Here at Oxfam, we’re strong believers in the meaningful inclusion of social justice, active citizenship and human rights in the curriculum.

Common Threads is presented in three modules: ‘Exploring Rights’, ‘Child Poverty’ and ‘Exploring the Convention on the Rights of the Child’.

Each module can be taught in its entirety over several weeks or can be individually incorporated into broader units of work.

“This is a great resource outlining Australia’s obligations to child rights in an accessible format for teachers and students; it illustrates the global nature of child rights and the connection to children reaching their potential,” says Catherine Branson, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Some key dates you may want to use Common Threads in conjunction with are:

Tuesday 12 June: World Day against Child Labour; 24 October: UNICEF’s Day for Change AND Universal Children’s Day.

Enjoy planning to use this resource in your classroom this year and passing it onto other teachers!

Meanwhile…

Watch this space for Oxfam’s innovative new active citizenship resource (linked to the Australian Curriculum: English), to be released in late Term One.

The spectre of hunger is again stalking the people of the western Sahel, at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Thanks to the early-warning systems funded by Canada and other donors, we now know that a major food crisis is brewing. We know in time to head it off.

Late and irregular rainfall, followed by plagues of birds, locusts and other pests have decimated the harvests of poor farmers and made pasture scarce for herders. Cereal production in the five countries of the region is down by a quarter from last year and is well below the five-year average. In Mauritania and Chad farmers harvested barely half what they got last year. National food reserves exist, but they hold nowhere near the quantity needed to mitigate the deficit.

Even if the market were well stocked, the prices of key cereals are 10 to 40%  higher than usual. Most people in the Sahel buy their food, and the most vulnerable families spend up to 80% of their income on it. As if failed harvests and skyrocketing prices weren’t enough, remittances from family members working in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire have evaporated due to the conflicts in those countries.

The Sahel is an ecologically fragile region prone to shocks. Even in a “normal” year, half of all children under five suffer chronic malnutrition. Rates of acute malnutrition among children are consistently above the 10 per cent threshold that for UNICEF defines an emergency. Years with no “crisis” still see 300,000 children die from malnutrition-related causes.

But the Sahel is not condemned to suffer Somalia’s fate. The region’s governments have acknowledged the depth of the coming crisis. Several have already mobilized the meagre resources they have on hand and asked for outside help. Donors are starting to engage, with Europe leading the way.

Early recognition provides us with an opportunity to avoid the mistakes of the past. Acting now could avoid a costly escalation that would put millions of people at risk of losing their livelihoods or losing their lives.

We are warned now about the impending tragedy in the Sahel. But will we act?

Find out more

Read Mark’s full op-ed article on thestar.com

Read more about the situation in West Africa

Peter’s shop is bustling with activity when we arrive. Clearly a central hub of the village and community, a group of men are chatting animatedly outside while Peter discusses business with a local fisherman inside.

I introduce myself and the team to Peter and he is at once telling us how happy he is to have more guests visiting him. “I am a celebrity here now,” he laughs. “Didn’t you know that Scarlett Johansson came here a few weeks ago?”

Peter shows us around his shop. The shelves contain everything from maize flour to ball point pens. Hanging centre stage are two photographs, one of Peter looking very stern and proud and another of the president of Kenya. Next door is his fish store. Outside he shows us the solar drier installed by Oxfam.

As the light starts to fade we prepare to take Peter’s photo. There must be at least 50 people quietly watching from the sidelines, giggling and pointing as Peter stands completely still holding up a fish, as if frozen. After each photo he grins back at us in the dark.

“People in this village see me as a role model as I gave birth to a new idea here of being a trader. Before my shop there were no other shops in the village and now when you look around you can see many. Twelve shops have opened here because I have shown them and taught them. People come to me for advice all the time and I help them. I am a pioneer and am proud to see that I have helped this village to start growing. I am happy that all of this has come from my idea of owning a business.”

From pastoralist to fisherman

Fishermen on Lake Turkana. Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg/Oxfam

“I was born into a poor family and I grew up without going to school. Everything I have learned has been from others. My family were pure pastoralists but they were not always poor; my grandparents started experiencing difficulties when I was young. There was a lot of death in the livestock and people started becoming very poor, conflict started between pastoralists and that way of life became very dangerous. Slowly the pastoralist life has started disappearing because of the persistent droughts in this area. People must start to adapt.

“When I was young I started dreaming about owning my own business. I wanted to learn a new way of life and move to the lake. Many pastoralists came from the hills and settled here near Lake Turkana. At first this village was very small but over time it grew and grew. When I came here I had nothing and I didn’t know how to fish. I had to learn from other fishermen on the lake. I used to go to the lake and work on other fishermen’s boats. They would take me out on the lake and show me how to fish and how to use the nets. Eventually I saved enough for my own boat and my own nets.

“All of the fishermen used to wait until they had 3 bails of fish and then they would take them to the town. I remember doing this nine times and I nearly had enough money saved to open my business and stop fishing. When I went to the town for the tenth time I was really happy, all of my money was waiting for me there and I laughed so hard as I knew I could open up my business.

“But my happiness did not last. On the way home that day I was stopped by bandits and they took all of my money. It is the only time I can remember laughing and crying so much on the same day. I cried a lot as I knew I would have to continue fishing on the lake until I could save the money again. Eventually I managed to save it all again and I opened my business.”

Learning new trades

Peter Abwell now lends nets and boats to new fishermen. Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg/Oxfam

“Now I want to support others and help them learn. I lend new fishermen nets and boats so that they can fish on the lake. Pastoralist families here are now adapting to a new way of life, they are fishing and learning new trades, and are starting to see the importance of education. They are sending their children to school so that they can improve their lives.

“If my wife was still here she would have been very supportive and given me lots of ideas, she was an enterprising woman. My wife helped me a lot in the beginning; we set up the shop from scratch.

“Sometimes when I go to sleep at night I dream that my wife is still here with us, of our family life before she died. I dream about her telling off the children and talking to me about the business. I have these dreams because I miss what used to be. When I wake up I realise it was just a dream and that she is gone. She died of Malaria in February this year. She was very sick and when I took her to hospital there was nothing they could do to help her. I cried all the time when she died. The whole family misses her.”

Fewer nightmares, but worries persist

“Two of my children start high school next year and I am currently preparing for the battle to find money to send them to university after that. I don’t want my children to be traders or fishermen. It was the best I could do for myself without an education but I want them to have good jobs elsewhere and live good lives.

“I used to dream that an enemy was coming from across the border and they were attacking the house. In the dream they broke my fence and stole all of my goats. A few months later nearly all of my goats died and I remembered this dream. I think my dream was a warning that my goats were going to die. I sometimes dream about lots of rain. That there are streams flowing and everything is washed away. I dream that I am on Lake Turkana. The winds are strong and my boat capsizes. Then suddenly I wake up and my heart is beating fast. If I dream about the winds being so strong I don’t go fishing the next day.

“I don’t have so many bad dreams now; I usually sleep and wake up without any dreams. Sometimes I dream about catching lots of fish and about my family. I worry a lot about my children and their future. I worry that the lake will become exhausted with too many fishermen.”

Fish from Lake Turkana: “Better than goat meat”

Peter Abwell with his solar drier installed by Oxfam. Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg/Oxfam

“In the past traders used to come to the lake with their fish and sell it for very high prices and then they stopped coming altogether. That is when Oxfam really helped to stabilise the market again. The prices started to stay at a good level. Oxfam has really empowered our community and I would like Oxfam to continue supporting us so we can grow and our businesses can grow.

“I love fish. My son brings me fresh fish from the lake, it is much better than goat meat, fish is healthy and fresh.”

Read more

View Alejandro’s photo series, Turkana by Night

Find out more about the humanitarian crisis in East Africa

Just a coincidence that it’s Oscars time in Hollywood, but we’ve had our own moment in the spotlight with The Global Journal ranking Oxfam number three on the world’s Top 100 Best NGOs list. Given that the number one pick is the Wikimedia Foundation and number two is Partners for Health, a small but highly respected NGO that works only in Haiti, being chosen number three is an important recognition of Oxfam’s global leadership.

“Recognizing the significant role of NGOs as influential agents of change on a global scale, The Global Journal has sought to move beyond outdated clichés and narrow conceptions about what an NGO is and does,” the article said. “From humanitarian relief to the environment, public health to education, microfinance to intellectual property, NGOs are increasingly at the forefront of developments shaping the lives of millions of people around the world.”

Here’s some of what the Journal says about Oxfam:

“In many ways, Oxfam encapsulates in one organization the various functions of a modern NGO. It engages in humanitarian work, assisting those immediately affected by conflict and natural disasters. It implements development programs, seeking to lift communities out of poverty with long-term, sustainable solutions. It lobbies and advocates, in a bid to affect policy decisions on the causes of conflict at local, national, and international levels. It undertakes in-depth and rigorous research into best practices and structural challenges. And it does all of these things effectively and to the highest standards.”

It’s heartening for Oxfam also to be recognised for our humanitarian response work. Philanthropedia, a network of international emergency experts whose mission is to improve the pace of social change, has ranked Oxfam America as number two in the International Emergency Response category.

From all of us at Oxfam, to all of our supporters around the world, we’d like to thank you for your continued support and belief in our work.

Originally posted on the Oxfam International website.

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