World Humanitarian Day
Today (August 19th) is World Humanitarian Day, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has produced a video celebrating aid workers across the globe.
BLOGS
A month of fasting begins
Wednesday was the first day of Ramadan - the Islamic month of fasting. For the next forty days I will fast from dawn till dusk. You may wonder whether fasting affects my ability to concentrate at work. Actually I’ve been doing it since I was young so I don’t have any difficulties; I’m already used to fasting at work.
Bondi gets a Make Poverty History push
Oxfam intern Giselle Hall reports back on a recent Make Poverty History action on the streets of Bondi.
The rise of the fairtrade ‘cool’ factor?
According to a three-part series on the history of coffee, even as late as the 1980s, coffee drinking in America was on the decline - drinking coffee just wasn’t cool. Is coffee currently in the process of another consumer-driven transformation, with the rise of Fairtrade coffee?
Pakistan floods: Sukkur, a city living in fear
As river levels begin to rise in Sukkur, the third largest city in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, anxiety also begins to swell. A first-person account by Oxfam staffer Mubashar Hasan
Passionate teachers bring opportunity
I’ve been visiting Oxfam-built schools in remote areas of Stung Treng province. We went to monitor post-construction progress, while doing in-the-field media training. Inaccessible by car, arrival at the first school was a five hour, bumpy and muddy moto-ride deep into the jungle.
Pakistan floods: Saving livestock while fleeing Sindh
Floodwater is approaching fast to the district Daud in Sindh Province. Oxfam staffer Mubashar Hasan offers this heartbreaking eyewitness account from the village of Sial.
Pakistan floods: An aid worker’s diary Day 5
Day 5 of Zulfiquar Ali Haider's diary from Pakistan. A public health engineer for Oxfam, he is in Swat - one of the worst-hit areas from the floods. This is his eyewitness account.
Changing the status quo for women workers
Last year I had the opportunity to join in some leadership training conducted by the NGO Kapal Perempuan. I learnt many new things from the training, but as just one example, something that really impressed on me was the way that we perceive the differences between women and men. It’s not true to say that only men can be described as “providers”. But in the past this is an assumption that I had always accepted.
Fremantle candidate’s forum
More than 200 people rocked up to a recent candidate’s forum in Fremantle where Labor incumbent Melissa Parke MP faced off with five other candidates.
