an UNJUST climate Amelia Siki, 18 months old and severely malnourished O NE Malnutrition and Climate Change – Indonesia O NE Fourteen Years after a Factory Fire – China O NE Life in Civil War – Nepal O NE The Making of a School – China O NE Rights and Ability – Hong Kong O NE Better Banking – Vietnam Injustice runs deep in climate change. It is primarily people in rich countries who have caused the problem with many decades of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is people in poor countries who bear the brunt of the impact, with more poverty, hunger and disease. In Indonesia, the third most populous country in Asia, more and more people are suffering from malnutrition due to climate change. Millions of farmers and fishers are at risk. Rainfall patterns are unpredictable, and crops have failed. The sea is rising, and coastal land is disappearing. For centuries, the wet and dry seasons have been distinct: everyone could count on the rainy season from November to March, and then the dry from April to October. In 2006-2007, the rainy season was so short that drought occurred in parts of country. Now is the time to spotlight the crisis, as Indonesia is hosting the December 2007 conference of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. The conference is being held in the middle of what is known as the ‘hunger gap months’. "We are very concerned during this period, from October onwards," says Yanne Tamonob, Oxfam's malnutrition project manager. "The harvest was bad this year.” ALMOST ONE-FOURTH: MALNOURISHED In the remote village of Tes, official figures indicate that of the 60 children under five, 23 were underweight in July 2007, and 13 had severe malnutrition. Tes is located in one of the poorest districts of West Timor, which is one of the poorest parts of Indonesia. Aureliana Siki is worried about her 18-month-old daughter, Amelia, who flagship event has since been ‘exported’ to England (South Downs), Japan (around Mount Fuji), New Zealand (Lake Taupo) and to Melbourne and Sydney. And in summer 2008, to Belgium. The sound of 1,000 teams at the starting point is indescribable. Can I say it is the sound of joy in one’s body, in a connection with nature as 1,000 trees surround you, and in the joy of an innate sense that many things in life are in fact possible. Yes, in Nepal, the 10-year civil war is ending. In Hong Kong, there is a beginning, in 1981, the 100km MacLehose Trail had just recently opened; before this time, much of the border zone with mainland China was closed to non-military personnel. People in Hong Kong could now enjoy stunning scenery and very fresh air in what can be a very polluted city. In the past, Trailwalker was for men only. Soldiers only. When Oxfam Hong Kong was asked to get involved, in 1986, we helped open the event to women and civilians. There were about 50 teams. Now there are more than 1,000 teams. And this is only in Hong Kong. Our new alliance of 20 disability groups. Some serious action on climate change might just happen in Indonesia. And in Chongqing, China, a factory worker who lost 75 per cent of her skin to a fire has opened a pioneering centre for migrant workers and for people with disabilities. We all have a disability of some kind. We all have ability. And possibility. Madeleine Marie Slavick Editor, Oxfam News E-magazine Oxfam Hong Kong [email protected]Autumn in Hong Kong, 8 November, to be precise. Tomorrow, four people with a ‘disability’ will prove their ability. They begin an arduous 100km trail through some very beautiful Hong Kong countryside: hill after hill, sandy coastline, bamboo woods, and the 1,000 metre Tai Mo Shan or Foggy Mountain. Cancer, paralysis, amputation – this might mean the end to many things to many people, but these four individuals have met their life challenges and are all athletes, three of them at an international level as competitors in the 2008 Paralym- pic Games in Beijing and Hong Kong. They take to the trail in the name of possibility, in the belief in change. They and 1,000 other teams are joining Oxfam Trailwalker, a 48-hour hike, our biggest fundraiser of the year. The event itself has changed dramatically and democratically. In the November 2007
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an UNJUST climate
Amelia Siki, 18 months old and severely malnourished
Xu Yi works on Urban Livelihoods issues with Oxfam Hong Kong. She is based in Beijing. Photos of Siu Ying are courtesy of Zi Qiang.
Empowerment, after the Fire
interviewed say that “nothing happen-
ed as it was supposed to happen.”
Essentially, not knowing when to plant
is the beginning of hunger.
Several projects are underway to
assist people in West Timor to adjust
to changes in the climate, and to
improve people’s nutrition, especially
children’s. Aureliana is one of 500
farmers receiving training from Oxfam
in growing vegetables such as tomatoes
and water spinach to diversify her
family's food intake and income.
Oxfam has also supported research
on three different islands in Indonesia
to identify how climate change is
affecting food production, how farmers
and fishers can act and find solutions,
and how mitigation and adaptation
projects are being implemented by the
government.
Oxfam Hong Kong is also collabo-
rating to run climate forecast application
projects across Southeast Asia. We
will focus on developing alternative
energy sources, rebuilding community
infrastructure (such as water storage
facilities) , setting up community-
based farmers’ schools, and running
various livelihood-based projects with
farmers and herders. This project is in
coordination with the Asian Disaster
Preparedness Center in Bangkok, which
also trains meteorologists, community-
based workers and farmers in climate
forecasting so that communities can
adjust the planting and harvesting
cycles of their crops.
Oxfam Hong Kong positions Climate Change as an ‘Economic Justice’ issue.For more: http://www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/category?cid=53988&lang=iso-8859-1 This article was adapted from an article by James Painter for BBC News. Photos by James Painter.
By Xu Yi
policies and measures are not properly
executed in rural areas. When she
learned that there were 50,000 people
in her county with access to only a few
services, she said to herself, “Why wait?
Let’s set up something ourselves.” That
was in 2002.
At the beginning, Siu Ying ran a
hotline right from her home. Gradually,
her advice was more and more sought
after, and she officially registered her
service as a non-profit organisation.
Zi Qiang now has a small office, three
full-time staff, and dozens of volunteers.
cracked. Siu Ying moved quickly with her
crutch and wore long sleeves because
the sun is too strong for her burns. Some
of the villagers here have a disease that
ruins eyesight, and they have difficulty
finding work. The family gave us a warm
welcome, and Siu Ying listened carefully
to their situation, saying that there
must be some kind of work that can
sustain their livelihood. She promised to
arrange a project that could assist them,
and empower them.
Zi Qiang also works with silicosis
patients, and runs activities in three
The people whom Siu Ying enc-
ourages and supports would not know
how much frustration and pain she
herself has endured in the past, and I
value Siu Ying’s positive attitude and
warm heart towards other disadvantaged
people. Siu Ying remains level-headed
and modest, “I hope Zi Qiang can serve
our target groups better. We need
to learn more from other NGOs. We
should not act blindly.” She energetically
attends various capacity building
workshops and shares what she learns
with her colleagues. “To better assist
20% of young children in Tes, West Timor, are malnourished
an UNJUST climate
Amelia’s mother, Aureliana
in China
A decade of war has taken its
toll. Roughly 12,000 Nepalese have
died, thousands of families have been
displaced, and whole communities
uprooted. With all the violence of the
Maoist insurgency and the government’s
counter-insurgency, most all of the
country’s political, economic and social
structures are at best unstable, if not
broken down. People live in terror,
insecurity and poverty, and tourists are
staying away.
War has also affected the work of
NGOs, too. Some projects have had to
be suspended, due to insecurity. Some
roads are unsafe or have been destroyed,
so access can be difficult or impossible.
All projects work for peace.
Yet, daily work can remain the same
in a village, even in wartime. The cattle
need their fodder, the household needs
its water, and a stove needs fuel; there
is no time to think about anything else.
Women traditionally do all of these
tasks, and the war has made their work
harder: distances to get that food, fuel
and water have become longer, farther,
sweatier. There is no time to think about
anything else: work is survival.
Given the civil war and the poverty –
85 per cent of the population is rural, and
82 per cent live on less than 2 USD a day
– Oxfam Hong Kong has been supporting
community initiatives in remote rural
areas, often in the mountains. A priority
is livelihood activities with the poorest
of the poor people – women, ethnic
minority people, and Dalits – three
groups which who are perennially
discriminated against and have little
control over natural resources. For
too long, they have gained little from
Making a School in Western China
It took 18 months and 120 horses to
build a new school in the mountains of
Guizhou, in western China.
Before 2006, there was no secondary
school in Taojiang Township, and only
about 300 of the 500 children attended
school at all.
The project was launched in April
2005 by the Leishan County Political
Consultative Conference, undertaken
by the Education Bureau and supported
by Oxfam Hong Kong which allocated
HK$2.3 million towards building
materials, books, and teacher training.
Here is the story of the renovated
school, for both primary and secondary
students, through photographs. The
story is documented in the book, West
Hope – Children of the Mountains,
available through Oxfam Hong Kong
(in simplified Chinese).
1 The old school, built in the 1960’s / Yang Lan
2 The old girls’ dormitory / Yang Long He
3 In the past, the students had to return home every weekend, collect food for the coming week, and then walk back to school – a six-hour return trip / Yang Long He
4 Children used to cook their own meals with their own food / Du Yu Qi
5 Villagers transported materials by a 1,700 metre-long ropeway they made / Du Yu Qi
6 In May 2005, 120 horses started carrying 760 tonnes of building materials up the mountain / Zhao Zhi Gang
7 Finished in October 2006! The school is the first concrete building in the area / Du Yu Qi
8 The Education Bureau provided a school cook, so smiles all around / Yang Lan
9 Books provided by Oxfam arrive at the school library / Yang Lan
10 A student in the new dormitory / Yang Lan
1
Nepal: Life in Civil War
development projects across the country.
A major reason has been that they
have not been involved with project
design, and the people implementing
the projects have little awareness of
their needs. So, the status of women
and other disadvantaged groups is not
improving, while the gap between rich
and poor people increases day by day.
And war has continued.
Each Oxfam project is designed and
managed by the people themselves and
is specific to the needs of the locality,
but whether the project be individual
or group-based, for raising pigs or
bees, growing banana or ginger or
orange, with small community groups
or district government departments,
each project promotes harmony and
equal participation, two elements that
are known to bring peace.
With the multi-party system recently
restored and peace-building underway,
changes are happening in the country.
Efforts by NGOs and voluntary groups
can surely expedite the process of
development and equity sidetracked by
war for far too long.
Rakesh Mohan leads Oxfam Hong Kong’s work in South Asia.
2
3
5
6
4
8 9 10
7
Agricultural training project in Mukandpur / Rakesh Mohan
by Rakesh Mohan
Back in May 2007, Oxfam supported a two-
day workshop on rights-based development
for people working on disability issues. We
wanted to build up their sense of entitlement
and empowerment, as well as their capacity
to undertake rights-based advocacy work
on social policy. Thirty-three people from 13
self-help groups participated.
An alliance has since been formed with
a total of 20 groups. From November, they
will run a nine-month project of awareness
raising, surveying, media advocacy and public
education – all to push for medical reform
and for more rights for chronically ill people,
who are often marginalised in Hong Kong
society.
In the same month, three of the four
officiating guests of our main annual event,
Oxfam Trailwalker (www.oxfamtrailwalker.
org.hk), are internationally successful people
with a disability, while the fourth is an award-
winning cancer survivor.
HONG KONG: Right and Able
“For friendship and dialogue, learn some
words of the local language.”
That is a tip from Oxfam’s recently
published travelogue, written for youth, and
with youths’ personal perspectives. Every
year since 1997, 30 teenagers have travelled
to poor communities across Asia with Oxfam
Club and then returned home to Hong Kong to
communicate what they learned and to voice
out their call against poverty and injustice.
For more, visit:(in English) http://cyberschool.oxfam.org.hk/eng/minisites/oxfamclub/eng/index.htm(in Chinese) http://oxfamclub.mysinablog.com/index.php
Children in Ky Son, VietnamEsther Chan / Oxfam Hong Kong
OXFAM HONG KONG WEBSITEwww.oxfam.org.hk
OXFAM BOOKSOxfam Hong Kong has created more
than 30 books, some in Hong Kong, some
in Taiwan, some on the Mainland, some in
Chinese, some in English, some bilingual,
and some mostly with images, which cross
all languages. Through publishing the
voices of poor people around the world,
we want to change the way people think about poverty. We want justice.
Oxfam’s most recently supported supported the publication of 西部.希望
大山里的孩子們 (a book on education in western China, in Simplified Chinese).
To order books: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/bookstore/list?lang=iso-8859-1
E-NEWSIssued every month in English and Chinese, this e-bulletin provides the latest
from Oxfam Hong Kong, with bite-sized news on emergencies, campaigns,
community projects, public education and fundraising. Oxfam e-News is emailed
to more than 80,000 volunteers, campaigners, donors, Oxfam Trailwalkers, council
members and subscribers. The Editor is Echo Chow.
To subscribe: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/16830 (English version)