Category: Emergencies

By Oxfam’s Humanitarian Press Officer, Caroline Gluck “Unemployment is the only thing we have here”, declared Dumel Deralus, smiling grimly as we sat in the shell of a concrete building that will soon be a new expanded home for the Organisation for Community Development in Thomazeau, (ODECT), an Oxfam partner working to improve economic and […] Read more »

By Caroline Berger, Oxfam Great Britain’s Regional and Information Communications Officer for the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the CIS Like many people, my impression of Somalia is coloured by the familiar TV images of a lawless land governed by conflict, piracy and bloodshed. With this in mind I was a little apprehensive to visit […] Read more »

In the midst of famine, Somali children survive with the help of Oxfam partner SAACID, whose community therapeutic care centres across Mogadishu are admitting more than 3,000 malnourished children every week. Read more »

New agricultural know-how and a sense of community have turned Ethiopian widow Balcha’s life around. Despair has been replaced by hope and an unfamiliar sense of possibility… Read more »

21-year-old Maryana, a nurse for one of Oxfam’s Somali partners, works at an emergency therapeutic centre in Mogadishu. Here she talks about the many challenges she faces in providing free health care to thousands of malnourished children. Read more »

Agricultural communities in southern Somalia – the country’s grain basket – are being severely affected by the current drought, which has resulted in widespread failure of crops. But an Oxfam project is helping farmers get through this difficult time and providing hope for a better harvest in January. Read more »

By Scarlett Johansson, Oxfam Ambassador. Originally published in the Huffington Post In the Turkana region of Northern Kenya, there is some sign of hope. The area is home to herders and most communities are devastated by the loss of their livestock (goats, sheep, cattle) which once provided a source of food and income. However, some […] Read more »

An estimated 1.8 million women, men, and children in Somalia have been driven from their homes by the combination of famine and conflict. Since early August, Oxfam has provided clean water and sanitation for an estimated 11,000 Somali refugees in Hilaweyn camp, in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia. Three refugees in the camp share their stories: Read more »

Around 1,000 Somali refugees arrive each day at the Hiloweyn camp, in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia, just a few kilometres from the Somali border. It’s a race against time to install water tanks and tap stands so people can access water as the camp swells in size. Read more »

Chee Chee Leung visited Dadaab, expecting the world’s largest refugee camp to be a site brimming over with sadness, sickness and despair. Instead she was surprised to find plenty of smiles. Read more »