Standing up for women’s rights and local leadership in Uganda
Elizabeth Stevens describes how a small, local NGO has had an outsized impact on Uganda’s refugee response. Heart, guts, big ideas, and an investor. If you are launching a tiny women’s organization into the rough-and-tumble world of humanitarian response, you had better have all four. That’s what I concluded from my time with African Women and Youth Action for Development …
6 lessons on building resilience for displaced people in the Middle East and North Africa
Jude Powell and Shekhar Anand share the lessons learnt from Oxfam in the Middle East and North Africa on building the resilience for displaced people in the region. By the end of 2017 over 68 million men, women and children had been forcibly displaced from their homes through conflict, violence and persecution. The protracted armed conflicts in the Middle East …
Five things I’ve learned being a humanitarian aid worker
This World Humanitarian Day, Iffat Tahmid Fatema, Oxfam public health worker, shares what it’s like helping people in our Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh.
Lighting up the lives of Rohingya Refugees
Oxfam and partners at Loughborough University are looking at how lighting can be used to reduce the perceived risk of gender based violence around water and sanitation facilities in camps.
Introducing the new Gender Handbook for Humanitarian Action
For World Humanitarian Day Tess Dico-Young reflects on the process of producing the new, improved, IASC Gender Handbook for Humanitarian Action. Huge shifts have occurred in the humanitarian sector and humanitarian programme cycles over the past twelve years, including in standards and expectations for the integration of gender equality. Which is why, under the leadership of UN Women, and with …
The number to focus on this World Refugee Day
This World Refugee Day, Head of Humanitarian Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, Fionna Smyth, reflects on the recent UNHCR refugee figures and reminds us of those who are seeking safety in poorer countries. We’ve learned that more than 68 million people have been forced from their homes worldwide. It is the fifth year in a row that this number has hit …
Conflicts don’t just end, they are transformed into peace
Twenty years on from the Good Friday Agreement Fionna Smyth reflects on the process of conflict resolution and the role of humanitarian organizations. Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1970s I experienced the trauma of conflict first hand. Some of my friends and family suffered directly; others were scarred in less visible ways, from the hyper-vigilance, the lack of …
From waste to value: using solid waste for good sanitation in Uganda’s refugee settlements
WASH Advisor Parvin Ngala explains how Oxfam is working with others to turn solid waste into valuable energy in some of Uganda’s refugee settlements. In any densely populated area, good sanitation is bound to be a challenge. More so in a refugee settlement where essential facilities are often inadequate considering a rapid influx of people and massive populations. In 2016, …
No hope of earning an income for Syrian women in Jordan
As decision makers meet in Brussels to discuss the situation of Syrian refugees, Aisha Shtiwi shares the story of Ghozlan, one of millions of women refugees who can’t access work. “Our suffering started when we arrived. I went to every single place to find work in the camp, but no one hired me”, said Ghozlan, a young Syrian woman we …