Annual Report 2012 - Oxfam Canada

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industry, trade and fisheries agencies requesting support. After a week with no response, the group descended on the government offices to ask why. This was something that had never happened before – a women’s group going directly to local authorities to voice their concerns. Eventually their proposal to improve the quality of their dried meat and salted eggs was accepted. Nurlia hopes that with this support they will generate more funds and they can become members of the industry and trade agency cooperative and sell their products throughout the region. For Nurlia, being self-reliant and having capital is the key change. “Women here don’t have to ask their husbands for money anymore, because they have their own money.” Growing a family’s future Gloria’s family includes her husband Pedro, seven children, 30 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren. They all live and work together on her small farm in Terrabonna, two hours north of Managua, Nicaragua. And together they’re harvesting a growing surplus of garden vegetables. The key to their success is a large well that lets them irrigate their crops – and the support of FEMUPROCAN, an Oxfam partner organization that connects cooperatives of farm women across the country. Gloria says before the well she and her family grew beans and corn. In a good year, they’d harvest two crops. Terrabonna is dry and the weather is increasingly unpredictable. Years of drought followed by recurring flash floods meant yields were low and unpredictable. They often failed to grow enough to feed themselves, much less pay off the loans for seed and fertilizer – or earn extra cash to pay school fees. But with the help of FEMUPROCAN and Oxfam they were able to break this cycle of subsistence and start to improve their quality of life. With sweat equity and a loan for materials, Gloria and her family dug a large well on their farm. With a look of pride, Gloria says “with that water we have been able to transform the farm – and our lives.” Most of her land is now used for tomatoes, onions, peppers and plantain Gloria Mairena on her farmland – cash crops that need lots of labour. But in Gloria’s case, that’s not a problem as everyone pitches in. There are no tractors or trucks or fancy equipment. Fields are ploughed and prepared by hand. She sprouts her own seedlings in a small hut from seeds she has bought or conserved. Compost and fertilizer – all natural – are also applied by hand. The produce is then picked and sold to traders who supply Managua’s wholesalers. Pascal Chaput Prices vary from day to day but the income is good enough that she’s been able to pay off her loan for the well and the working capital she borrows from FEMUPROCAN. Her family is eating well and the younger ones are staying in school longer. And she’s been able to double her land holdings to five manzanas [3.5 hectares or 8.5 acres] by buying an adjacent property. Many ways to be powerful Jacoba Armoed doesn’t stand out in a crowd. She’s not the first one to speak, nor the loudest. But in recent years, she has found that there are many ways to be powerful. Jacoba was born in the Western Cape region of Jacoba Armoed tells her story South Africa. She lived on a farm owned by a rich, white landowner. She worked alongside her husband who for years was partly paid in alcohol. He beat her regularly. Without her name on the deed of her own home, she had to endure the abuse. One day she’d had enough. There was no obvious tipping point. It just became unbearable, so Jacoba reached out. She contacted Oxfam partner, Women on Farms Project (WFP), an organization determined to see South African women experience the same constitutional rights as men. WFP builds capacity through rights-based education, advocacy, lobbying, and work with individual women. They also helped to nurture the evolution of South Africa’s first and only women-led trade union of farm workers that brings women together to support one another. As women began to share their stories they quickly picked up on the common threads of poverty, threats of eviction, and gender-based violence. Before connecting with WFP, Jacoba felt isolated and powerless. The only examples of leadership she’d seen had been the brutal actions of the landowners and managers. Jacoba used the information about her rights and made application for an interdict to stop the abuse. She attributes the cessation of abuse to the interdict but also to her own sense of power and leadership. There are a lot of ways to be powerful. That’s something that has become clear to Jacoba, who served on the board of WFP until December 2011. Her husband has stopped beating her, and has become proud of her work. In private it is sometimes still a struggle for him to accept that she is often out of the house for meetings, but in public she overhears him bragging about her successes. Oxfam Oxfam CANADA 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2012
The GROW campaign In June 2011, Oxfam launched a new, four year campaign, GROW. The campaign’s aim is to tackle the failings in the global food system. Almost a billion of us go to bed hungry every night, the majority women and girls. This isn’t because there isn’t enough food, but because of deep imbalances in opportunity and control of resources. Women are responsible for the majority of food production in many developing countries but they are the least likely to have access to markets, land and credit. We’re working to create a movement of people to build a future where everyone on the planet has enough to eat, always. We’re focusing on four interlinked aspects of the global food system that contribute to world hunger, particularly for women: Land grabs: These unfair deals by powerful countries and companies are forcing poor farmers and communities from their land. We want to change the policies of governments and companies and give farming communities the support they need to thrive. Food price volatility: In the current economic climate everyone has noticed increases in food prices, but for the world’s poorest people, who spend 80 per cent of their income on food just to survive, any increase has devastating effects. GROW targets the key causes of volatile food prices that make food unaffordable, such as the use of land for biofuel rather than for food, and food speculation where big banks bet on the prices of staple foods, increasing prices. Supporting sustainable farming: Oxfam continues to support farmers to grow food in a sustainable way through our livelihoods programs and the GROW campaign. For our world to grow together, we need to change the way the world thinks about farming. We want to see more investment and support for small-scale farmers so they can produce food in a sustainable way. Climate change: Climate change and extreme weather conditions which wipe out crops are having a major effect on the world’s food resources. Our programs enable communities to adapt to the changes in their environment that affect their ability to feed themselves. GROW is an ambitious campaign, but in an age where we’re more connected than ever, we’ve seen the changes that people can achieve when acting together. International Women’s Day March 8, 2012, marked the 101st International Women’s Day. In an amazing show of solidarity around the world, Oxfam and our partners demonstrated our ongoing commitment to women’s rights, drawing attention to the issues through events, actions, marches and panels. Here are a few examples: • In Bangladesh, Oxfam held film screenings, meetings and press conferences across five divisional centers to highlight the issues facing women in Bangladesh. • In Myanmar, Oxfam and the Women Protection Technical Working Group celebrated the Day with the Department of Social Welfare. This group then met with officials from other key ministries to discuss proposed initiatives related to national strategic plans for the advancement of women in Myanmar. • In Nicaragua, a group of women’s movement actors composed of more than 20 feminist organizations and numerous individual women, participated in a national march and communicated their messages with stickers and signs promoting the women’s movement. • In Canada, Oxfam promoted the voices of women, small scale farmers and producers around the world through a series of local events in communities across the country, challenging Canadians to help fix the broken food system. Zimbabwe: Ipaishe had enjoyed a simple life until her husband died. She was one of the first to recieve a plot to farm. She cycles the 6 km to the field. “I have always longed to own a piece of land where I can satisfy my desire for farming. It’s a dream come true.” Annie Bunderoth/Oxfam Oxfam CANADA 5 ANNUAL REPORT 2012
Page 1 and 2: Pascal Chaput Oxfam CANADA ANNUAL R
Page 3: Oxfam Canada in action Nick Danzige
Page 7 and 8: Canada China Japan Cuba Haiti Guate
Page 9 and 10: accounts How your donations worked
Page 11 and 12: Our accountability Oxfam Unwrapped

Annual Report 2012 - Oxfam Canada

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