Tag: Women

“There is only one activity in the community — surviving.” Louise and her family escaped armed rebels, but now they face a new danger — deadly, dirty water.

No matter where you live, raising a family is a tough job. But if you’re a parent living in poverty, raising a family becomes more than a difficult task: it can test their very limits to survive.

Discrimination and injustice are major causes of poverty worldwide, and for women, it can have devastating effects.

Every day Irene would risk her life to water her crops and feed her children. Today, she’s a co-producer at an award-winning banana farm and changing the future for her family. Discover how Oxfam and you make a difference to people in poverty around the world.

Oxfam’s Community Consent Index looks at the public commitments of 38 oil, gas, and mining companies in relation to women’s participation and decision-making in projects. The results are disappointing.

The Mekong river is a vital resource for poor and vulnerable people in the lower Mekong region, including essential water for fisheries and agriculture. Major development decisions — like dams — can affect the food security of the surrounding communities. The impacts of development on women and ethnic minorities is of particular concern.

Straight Talk is an Australian program that connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with the political system and builds the capacity of women as change makers. One such woman is Heather Shearer, an Aranda woman from Labrapuntja near Ntaria (Hermannsburg), a member of the Stolen Generation and proud mum/grandmother.

Climate change affects us all, but it often impacts women the hardest. In many parts of the world it tends to be women who grow the family’s food, fetch fuel and water, and bring up the children. It’s women who are most likely to be in harm’s way when disaster strikes. So when clean water becomes harder to find during a drought, or when crops are destroyed by floods, it’s often up to women like Ipaishe to find solutions.

Right across the globe, Australian aid is making a difference in women’s lives – to survive, to gain an education, to build a business, to lead. Right now, projects like Oxfam’s work in Zambia, which empowers women and builds their economic independence, are under threat because of the largest planned cuts to Australian aid in history. This International Women’s Day, call on the Australian Government to keep supporting those women by supporting Australian aid.

At 29, Rangina Karga is living proof of just how far some Afghan women have come since the fall of the Taliban. But as international forces leave, the risk of a drop in aid that helped protect the gains and rights Afghan women have fought so hard for, is a real one.