Your gifts in action

In Cambodia over 10 million people do not have access to clean drinking water. This means many have to drink dirty water from wells and ponds which can lead to illnesses such as Typhoid and diarrhoea.

In Prei Preal Khor village Oxfam has set up an innovative water station to provide the community with safe drinking water. Using solar powered pumps the station draws water from nearby wells and pushes it through several sand filters before being bottled up for sale. 

Almost half the population in Rwanda live in poverty but malnutrition and poverty is most common among small-scale farmers and female-headed households, many of whom are widows.

To empower these women, increase their income and raise their position in the community, Oxfam is training them to grow pineapple suckers that they can then sell to farmers. ‘Pineapple sucker’ is the term for the starting point of a pineapple that the pineapple plant grows from and they are in high demand.

Dahprose, who received the training from Oxfam, now also trains other vulnerable women in pineapple sucker production. She says, “My life is better than before. Now I have a good house, I have clean water, electricity, I pay school fees for my children, and there’s a point to my work. Now I am calm. I know how to request and manage a loan. I advise my fellow women on how to get and manage a loan, and if my husband died today, I would be able take care of my children.”

In Kianga Village, Malawi, many families are farmers that rely on their crops for food and income. However, with the increasing dry spells in the area, many crops are failing.

Through the ‘Goat pass-it-on scheme’, Oxfam is able to help farming families have a varied and reliable income. A goat can produce up to six kids a year that can be sold, provide manure to improve crops and produce milk. A family that receives a goat returns the first born kid so that someone else in their community can then benefit.

In Monrovia’s overcrowded slums, water and sanitation facilities are desperately needed. After two civil wars Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrohea are a serious problem across the country particularly in the overcrowded slums.

To prevent outbreaks of disease, Oxfam started building biofil latrines, communal latrines and tap stands in the area. Kebbeh, a university student, says, “Before if I wanted to use the toilet, I go to this swamp. It makes the swamp dirty, it’s harmful, but what to do? Because there’s no toilet, you just have to do it.”

Kebbeh and her family received a biofil latrine from Oxfam and she feels relief that she no longer has to use the snake infested swamp. “Oh my toilet, I’m so happy, I don’t know how to describe it, I just say to God thank you for it, because it’s so beautiful, when I’m sleeping, I can be happy.”