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Our correspondent Kate Thwaites is on the ground in Padang, reporting on the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around the country will be able to learn more about their human rights as well as their rights as Indigenous peoples and how best to use them to help their communities, with the launch of a new practical guide.

The guide, “Free and Equal”, has been produced by Oxfam Australia and the Diplomacy Training Program.

The world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries now face an impossible choice — to accept an agreement that fails to reduce the life-or-death risks they face, or to hold out for a safe and fair deal but risk walking away from Copenhagen empty-handed, international aid agency Oxfam said today.

Just over a week after tsunami waves scoured the southern coast of Samoa, killing one per cent of the population and seriously affecting one out of every six people, the relief effort remains urgent, says international aid agency Oxfam.

Some survivors do not yet have clean drinking water and the threat of disease still hangs over the islands. Women and children are particularly at risk.

International aid agency Oxfam today began tankering clean water into Padang, as part of the relief effort for the many people affected by last Wednesday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
Oxfam’s Indonesia Emergency Response Manager David MacDonald said providing clean water was an immediate priority for the agency.

International aid agency Oxfam has activated an unprecedented region-wide humanitarian response following a week of devastation across Asia Pacific.

Oxfam staff and local partners are on the ground providing humanitarian aid to communities in the aftermath of the earthquake in Sumatra, the tsunami in Samoa and Typhoon Ketsana and Parma in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Natural disasters have wreaked havoc across our region this week. Typhoon Ketsana tore through the Philippines last weekend and has since devastated Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos with floods that have forced thousands to flee. On Wednesday morning a tsunami struck Samoa after an earthquake struck just off the coast, and that night a deadly 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.

International aid agency Oxfam’s emergency team is at work in Samoa today with their immediate focus to ensure survivors in remote rural areas have clean water and basic sanitation.

Without coordinated action, the public health situation is at risk of deteriorating if people become dehydrated and sickness spreads through an already traumatised population.

International aid agency Oxfam is sending emergency response staff to Padang, Indonesia, after a devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Sumatra last night.

International aid agency Oxfam is appealing for support from the Australian public after a devastating 24 hours across the Asia-Pacific region.