Latest Emergencies

Oxfam’s humanitarian team have reached the Nepal earthquake epicentre Gorkha and are working to meet the needs of earthquake survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.

A bottleneck of people and supplies at Nepal’s Kathmandu airport combined with nationwide fuel shortages, blocked roads and difficult terrain is hampering the efforts of aid agencies and emergency services to reach earthquake survivors, Oxfam warned today. Oxfam Chief Executive Helen Szoke said there were huge challenges in getting help to the tens of thousands […]

Oxfam teams are now in Kathmandu responding to Nepal’s most powerful earthquake in decades and are reporting struggling hospitals and morgues, widespread homelessness and a severe lack of clean water.

Oxfam disaster specialists are deploying to Nepal to assist in the aftermath of the earthquake that has devastated the country and killed more than 1000 people. Meanwhile, Oxfam’s team based in Nepal are rapidly assessing humanitarian need following the earthquake that struck an area between the capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara yesterday. The international aid agency […]

Oxfam stands ready to respond to a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake that has caused devastation in Nepal. The quake struck an area between the capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara, according to the US Geological Survey. It struck just after 4pm Australian EST. There have been reports of tremors across the region, as far afield […]

One month after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, water remains a high priority, with small islands dependent on rainwater most in need, Oxfam said today.

Australians continue to find innovative ways to raise donations to help the people of Vanuatu recover from the devastation of Cyclone Pam but one fundraising effort is currently creating a real buzz. Inventors of crowdfunding success story Flow™ Hive, are raffling off the very first of their revolutionary new beehives to come off the production […]

Despite an impassioned plea from the President of Vanuatu at the Disaster Risk Reduction world conference in Japan earlier this week, international governments  last night adopted a framework that is not up to the task of dealing with the increasing risk of disasters to the world’s poor. Among the agreement’s shortcomings is the failure to agree concrete […]

Aid should today begin to reach the hard hit southern Vanuatu islands of Tanna and Erromango, which both took the full force of the 250kmh Cyclone Pam, after rapid assessments of the islands showed absolute devastation with entire villages destroyed. The rapid assessments of Vanuatu’s outer islands carried out yesterday reported that many villages on […]

Two rapid assessment teams have arrived in the two small southern Vanuatu islands hit hardest by Cyclone Pam to rapidly assess exactly what survivors of the disaster need. Oxfam Country Director in Port Vila, Colin Collett van Rooyen, said one team was now in Tanna and another team was in Erromango with both due back to Port […]