Voices For Change
Inside
Cover Photo: Raising Her Voice – Nepal Inside Photos: Raising Her Voice - Pakistan Community Discussion Classes are the primary tool in Oxfam’s Raising Her Voice programme. They are an opportunity for women to share and discuss issues affecting them, learn about their rights and legal protection afforded under Nepali law, and to find solidarity and support amongst each other. Raising Her Voice is a global programme being implemented in 17 countries to try to overcome the widespread marginalisation of women. Over five years (2007-2012) more than a million women have seen life-changing benefits as a result of RHV
International Women’s Day is a global celebration on March 8 th of each year to recognize progress made around the world to advance gender justice. Join Oxfam this International Women’s Day and help make a difference in your own community and around the world by raising awareness about women’s rights. Here’s how: 1- Invite your friends over for a get together on March 8th. Print out Oxfam’s Stories and Discussion Guide to host your get together 2- Read the stories and discuss with your friends. Make sure to pause and give cheers to the hard work of women’s rights activists around the world! 3- Take a photo, create an image or write a response as an individual or group to your experience reading the stories. Share it online to help others reflect on the work of women’s rights advocates around the world. Keen to help make a difference by raising awareness about women’s rights?
Oxfam is working in coalitions across Canada and around the world to support the work of women’s rights organizations.
Photo: Participant at International Women’s Day 2013 event -Ottawa
Oxfam’s newest program aims to build more respect for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of groups who suffer from discrimination in Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The Sexual Rights Centre aims to build a sexual rights culture in Zimbabwe by developing programmes focused on upholding international recommendations and standards on sexual rights. Focuses include the right to sexuality education, the right to live free from violence, the right to express and choose your sexual orientation without fear, the right to bodily integrity and the right to freely express one’s sexuality.
The Triangle Project contributes towards eradicating discrimination against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in South Africa. They provide various services to the LGBT community and they aim for the creation of a nondiscriminatory society, where organizations such as Triangle Project are a choice and not a necessity
Say What? works to create a gender-just nation in Zimbabwe with empowered, healthy and responsible students who enjoy their full reproductive health and rights. They ensure students participation in knowledge sharing, support provision, networking and advocacy to promote sexual reproductive health in partnership with service providers.
Oxfam’s work will support civil society organisations, groups and networks of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) persons in these countries. Oxfam’s support enables them to individually and collectively speak out on, and challenge, infringements of their human rights on the basis of sexual orientation. An important element of the program is to support the creation of an enabling environment in these countries to promote the rights of sexual minorities.
March 15th 2014 marks three years since the beginning of the Syrian conflict. To date over 100,000 have been killed in the conflict, 1 in 3 Syrians has been forced to flee their home and over 2 million people have left the country.
Oxfam is currently providing emergency response in Syria, Turkey and Jordan reaching almost a half million people, though many more are in need. Oxfam is calling for a ceasefire in Syria to stop the bloodshed and allow those who require assistance to access it. Photo: Two year Syrian Conflict Anniversary Vigil in Jordan
Oxfam runs programs on Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Gender Based Violence (GBV) in 40 countries around the world. Oxfam is proud to launch a Global Knowledge Hub to support and enhance our work in the fight to end violence. The Knowledge Hub will be launched at an event in February from South Africa. It will bring together people from twenty countries to discuss program strategies and create a global learning, research and advocacy agenda. Together, participating members of the Knowledge Hub will conduct and publish research on effective strategies for fighting violence and establish partnerships with universities, research institutions, and think tanks. This work will play an important role to influence policy around the world on issues of violence against women. Oxfam strives to be a leader in development by ensuring effective research, learning, and collaboration are at the heart of our work.
Photo: Oxfam partners in Zimbabwe in a drama performance to communicate HIV and AIDS messaging to the community
Wealthy elites have co-opted political power to rig the rules of the economic game, undermining democracy and creating a world where the
, worldwide development organization Oxfam warns in the report “Working For the Few: political capture and economic inequality.” Working For the Few, published ahead of the World Economic Forum, which took place in January 2014 in Davos, details the impact that widening inequality is having in both developed and developing countries, helping the richest undermine democratic processes and drive policies that promote their interests at the expense of everyone else. The report says that there is a growing global public awareness of this power-grab. Polls done for Oxfam in six countries (Brazil, India, South Africa, Spain, the UK and US) show that most people questioned in all those countries believe that laws are skewed in favor of the rich. Inequality has shot up the global agenda in recent years: US President Obama has made it a key priority for 2014. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified widening income disparities as the second greatest worldwide risk in the next 12-18 months. WEF’s Global Outlook report, published in November, warned inequality is undermining social stability and ‘threatening security on a global scale.’ Oxfam wants governments to take urgent action to reverse the trend. Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam Executive Director who attended the Davos meetings, said: “It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world’s population own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all sit comfortably in a single train car.”
Launched by a network of development and development cooperation agencies the Protect Aid Campaign is calling attention to the important role that foreign aid plays in the lives of people living in poverty. It asks the Government of Canada when considering budget decisions next week to not cut foreign aid funding. Approximately 2.5 billion people are living on less than $2 a day and foreign aid plays a vital role in helping to pull people out of poverty.