Update from Gaza:
Getting aid into Gaza is one of the most difficult and expensive missions Oxfam has ever undertaken.
But despite the overwhelming challenges — and with your support behind us — our incredibly brave staff and partners have continued to provide urgent and essential support to 335,000 people in Gaza.
This includes clean water and sanitation, shelter, food, healthcare services, hygiene kits and other essentials.
With your donations, we’ve distributed cash and vouchers, dignity kits, and mother and baby kits, and provided clean drinking water and rehabilitated wastewater networks in Rafah.
And yet still — the devastation in Gaza is overwhelming. The number of people on the brink
As part of Oxfam’s WASH services in Gaza, the response includes installing bathrooms, water bladders, handwashing stations, domestic water systems, and distributing water taps in various areas of southern Gaza.
of famine has almost doubled since last year. Many are children, already dying of malnutrition and disease.
That’s why each and every day Oxfam is keeping up our calls for a ceasefire. And demanding that humanitarian aid be let swiftly through to the people who need it.
At the same time, we are preparing for an unprecedented humanitarian and development response as soon as the ceasefire is announced. Our best estimate is that Oxfam will require more than 40 million USD to help rebuild the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.
After traveling to the region, Lauren Ravon, Oxfam Canada’s Executive Director, shares firsthand experiences and perspectives of Oxfam staff and partner organizations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Learn more about Lauren’s trip by watching our recent webinar on YouTube or read her trip report on oxfam.ca.
Duaa Abu Sabha cooks in her tent in the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis Governorate while her husband plays with their children.
Photo Credit: Alef Multimedia/Oxfam
Mrs. Ngosa Matomola — District Adolescent Health Focal Point, Namwala District, Southern Province, Zambia.
Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Despite significant advances in preventing maternal and child mortality, the adolescent birth rate in sub-Saharan Africa is more than double the global average. The high pregnancy rate in adolescent girls is exacerbated by a lack of education and family planning resources and a low demand for and use of contraceptives.
Her Future Her Choice (HFHC) project focuses on advancing women’s and girls’ rights and responds to a direct need for information, services, and social and political change. Together with local organizations, we are putting sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) decision-making back in the hands of young women and adolescent girls.
Your kind gifts are helping secure the rights of women and girls around the world. From bans on child marriage, to access to contraception, to protection from gender-based violence … following are some of the individuals and groups who are working hard to secure their rights, with your support.
Romeo Quinn Burton, a youth-friendly health services focal point for Kalembo Health Centre in Balaka district, Malawi.
“We now have the capacity and technical know-how of assisting young people,” says Romeo.
Romeo Quinn Burton, welcoming clients in the waiting room.
Malawi
In Malawi, Romeo Quinn Burton and his colleagues didn’t have any way of helping visitors to their health centre who were seeking information on contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections.
But Oxfam-supported training helped change that. Training sessions specifically aimed to make sure health workers like Romeo had the necessary skills to help adolescent girls and young women, who were often told that contraceptives were only for older people.
Through the training, Romeo has gained the confidence to talk about Sexual Reproductive Health, and dispel the myths around contraceptives. He has become the go-to person in his community!
Photo Credit: Steve Makupe Photography/Oxfam
Photo Credit: Steve Makupe Photography/Oxfam
Photo Credit: Alex Lesa, Women’s Rights Coordinator – Oxfam in Zambia
Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Rights
In another area of Malawi, Chimwemwe, aged 24, has taken her sexual and reproductive rights into her own hands after participating in a peer-to-peer educator training session.
She even got her boyfriend involved. He was initially reluctant because in their community it is unusual for women to take a stand for their own sexuality.
Chimwemwe says that, “At first, he was surprised with my stand because in my community it is taboo for a lady to initiate sexual discussion in a relationship.”
Some people in the community believe that use of contraceptives can cause future infertility and birth defects.
The Network for Youth Development of the HFHC project organized peer-to-peer training sessions about SRHR and gender-based violence. It
Participating in the project has transformed Wassie Debash’s personal life. After learning more about the importance of family dialogue and the role of men in sexual health and reproductive rights (SRHR), he and his wife have chosen family planning, which has allowed her to work and contribute financially to their household.
was one of these sessions that inspired Chimwemwe to take a stand for her sexual and reproductive health.
Chimwemwe shares, “I am now free and happy.” She says, “I am no longer scared of an unplanned pregnancy because I use contraceptives.”
Ethiopia
When she was only in grade 10, Kulil Abebaw’s family informed her that she was to be married to a 31-year-old man she had never met.
Kulil was a peer educator connected to our local partner -Women’s Empowerment Action of the Her Future Her Choice project. The program gave her information about her sexual and reproductive health and rights. It also gave her the confidence and communication skills to assert them.
She went to her family and convinced them to call off the wedding.
Kulil didn’t stop there. Her determination to stop other girls in her grade from facing the same fate led her to lead a massive mobilization in her community.
The result? All forced weddings were called off.
Kulil and her friends are still in school, continuing their studies and mobilizing others to become agents of change against forced marriage.
*Her Future Her Choice projects are undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada, the generous Canadian public, and loyal Oxfam donors.
Laura Fazenda
Photo Credit: Oxfam in Mozambique
Chimwemwe
Photo Credit: Steve Makupe Photography/Oxfam
YOU CAN MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Make ending poverty part of your life story! When you make a gift in your estate to Oxfam Canada, you will help people break the cycle of poverty for years to come.
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Fahima from CFTA and her colleague during an awareness session conducted for the women in the CFTA shelter in Rafah.
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When you purchase a gift at Oxfam Unwrapped, you’re investing in projects and activities that tackle the root cause of poverty and advance women’s rights.
Give a meaningful and unique gift to someone special while supporting Oxfam’s vital work to save lives and advance opportunities for women around the world. When you purchase a gift, you’re making a donation of the same values, which allows us to supply these items to those who need it most. Now that’s a gift that will do good!
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