Oxfam GB :: leading UK charity fighting global poverty

What does poverty look like?

Emelina in Honduras

Emelina Dominguez is 47 and lives in La Paz, a hilly, agricultural area of western Honduras. Many farmers here have only small plots of land, and they struggle to make enough money to provide for their families. Emelina married young, but her husband was very violent and refused to let her leave the house. She was afraid to report the abuse as her children would have no food if their father was sent to jail. On top of this, Emelina worked long hours in the coffee fields for just 18 lempira (50p) a day. When she returned home, she had to do all the cooking and cleaning, even when she was pregnant.
[Photo: Gilvan Barreto]

Wubalem in Ethiopia

Wubalem Shiferaw lives in rural Ethiopia, one of the seven poorest countries in the world, with her husband and daughter. She earns a meagre living labouring for others and producing honey from bees. She uses the same traditional beekeeping techniques as her grandparents did before her. "We have no land to farm so it has always been very hard for us to make money. For years we have been eating just one small meal a day. The old-style beehives, up in the trees, do not help the bees to produce honey, and as a result the yield we get per hive is too small."
[Photo: Tom Pietrasik]

Shahul in Pakistan

Shahul believes she is around 70 years old. Her house was completely washed away when huge floods hit her village in Pakistan. She walked for oneand-a-half days with her family to get to the safety of a school classroom, which they shared with 100 other people. "We were living happily in our village when the water came. We didn't know the flood was coming. The water started coming into the house during the night and we just had time to get the children out. All our livestock drowned - we had six cows, six sheep and two ox. The only one to survive was a buffalo, but now that's sick - there is little for it to eat."

[Photo: Jane Beesley]

Have you noticed these stories are all about women?

That's because the majority of people living in poverty are women. They tend to have fewer resources, fewer rights, and fewer opportunities to make life-shaping decisions than men. There are many, often complex, reasons why women are not reaching their full potential. Domestic violence, discrimination, and lack of education are among the biggest barriers.

We work with communities to overcome poverty

We support innovators

Oxfam supports social innovators, like Dolores, who enable women to overcome poverty.

Dolores lives in a part of western Honduras where many women suffer domestic violence. With Oxfam's help, Dolores and four other women have set up a women's co-operative. They run a community radio station to reach women who are kept in their homes by their husbands, and organise support groups to help women report domestic violence. They also buy farmland and encourage members to farm it together, to help vulnerable women earn an income and gain independence.

The co-operative changed Emelina's life.

"I remember being a very shy woman. I was experiencing a lot of violence at home and was afraid to leave my house. These five women who started the organisation helped me to break this pattern, this barrier. Thanks to these women, I have managed to train myself and improve my self esteem." Emelina now grows and sells her own coffee and trains other women to become farmers.

We help people to overcome poverty

This is a traditional beehive used by beekeepers in the Amhara district of Ethiopia.

People have kept bees this way for hundreds of years - the hive is made from a tree trunk pinned to the side of a house wall. These hives have low yields, leak honey, and have to be harvested by someone putting in their bare arm and scraping the contents out - a painful process. This isn't considered appropriate work for women, so they are unable to benefit from producing and selling their own honey.

To help beekeepers earn a better living, Oxfam is supporting a beekeeper's co-operative.

Women like Wubalem Shiferaw (pictured with her husband Tsega Bekele) have received modern beehives which increase yields by 400%, as well as protective clothing and training on selling honey. What's more, the co-operative ensures that profits are shared between members rather than being passed onto brokers and agents. It means people like Wubalem and her husband can earn a living to pay for essentials such as food and medicine.

We help people take control

To create sustainable, long-term change, it's vital that people take control of their own lives and decisions.

One of the ways we help that happen is by giving out cash in emergency situations. Cash is more flexible than food aid, as it allows people to decide what to spend their money on - food, household essentials or medicines. Cash also helps to rejuvenate a local economy that may have been affected by a crisis. Oxfam has been using cash in humanitarian situations since the early 1990s.

Shahul received a cheque from Oxfam after her family's home in Pakistan was destroyed by floods in 2010. "We prefer to get cash because you can buy food with it but we could also get other necessities like medicine and food for the buffalo," she says. Cash doesn't solve all the problems for someone like Shahul - as she will have to return home and rebuild her house when the water goes down - but at least she has had the dignity of choice and has started to take back control of her life.

[Photos, clockwise from top left: Gilvan Barretto, Crispin Hughes, Timothy Allen, Tom Pietrasik, Gilvan Barretto, ]

We work to tackle the root cause of poverty

Providing health care in Zambia

Nurse Brenda Mwila tends to a young child with an ear infection at a clinic in Zambia.
[Photo: Oxfam]

In Zambia, one-in-ten children die before their fifth birthday, and 17% of adults live with HIV and AIDS. The health care system is severely underfunded, and clinics across the country regularly run out of medicines. In September 2011, Oxfam joined the 'vote health for all' campaign in Zambia, to put health on the agenda during the national elections. In the process, we helped thousands of Zambians to get their views on health care heard by key decision makers. Immediately after the election, the new president increased health care spending by 45% in his first budget. Oxfam's initial investment of $83,000 helped to bring about a $126 million rise in health funding for Zambians.

Life-saving support for West Africa

Adoaga Ousmane, 45, receives a distribution of oil, maize and beans as part of Oxfam's response to the food crisis in Chad.
[Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith]

In June 2012, Oxfam supporters in the UK called on the Government to improve its response to the food crisis in the Sahel, West Africa. The Government listened - and increased funding by £15.4 million. This money was desperately needed to provide immediate assistance to the 18.7 million people going hungry in the region. The sustained pressure from Oxfam supporters and the wider UK public made a big difference. We are still working to address the deeper issues that prevent such crises from recurring year after year.

Enough food for everyone

Leyla Kayere, 76, with her crop of tomatoes grown with support from Oxfam in Malawi.
[Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith]

The ongoing crisis in the Sahel is part of a wider food story that affects us all. A whole host of factors such as climate change, land grabs, food price spikes and intensive farming are stopping one billion people worldwide from having enough to eat. The way the world produces and distributes its food benefits some people but not everyone. There is a food system and, just like the financial system, it's not working for the benefit of all. We need to fix this. Through GROW, we are campaigning to ensure that, in a world where there's enough food to go around, no-one has to go to bed hungry.

Find out more about GROW

While our development and emergency work helps millions of people to work their way out of poverty, we also strive to tackle the underlying causes of poverty. We want to make sure that laws and policies help poor people - this will create longer-term change, and improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Who makes this possible? You do.

[Photo: Photo:Jan Rowley]

Fundraisers and donors help to raise around 27% of Oxfam's income, and often represent Oxfam in their communities too.

Oxfam speakers educate adults and children about the complex issues that keep people living in poverty, and what Oxfam does to make change happen.

The British public continues to pressure the government to spend money on aid. And because of this, Oxfam receives funding to help people break free from poverty.

[Photo: Howard Davies]

Shop volunteers help to raise around 23% of Oxfam's gross income, and represent Oxfam in their communities too.

Campaigners put pressure on decision makers to tackle the root causes of poverty.

Many others

do lots of wonderful things to help Oxfam fight poverty - from festival stewards and musicians to clothes-givers and Unwrapped gift-buyers. Whatever your talent or passion, you can use it to make a difference - just talk to us to get involved.

[Photo: Jane Stockdale]

Thank you for everything you do for people living in poverty.
Working together - alongside people like Emelina, Wubalem, Shahul (whose stories you read earlier) and many others - we are making the world a fairer place for everyone.

For every £1 you give, Oxfam spends:

84p directly on emergency, development and campaigning work.

9p on running costs and support.

7p generating future income.

How we spend you money

Cookies on oxfam

Oxfam Live 2012 Exhibition