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.
International aid agency Oxfam is ready to respond to the tsunami in Samoa – the latest disaster to hit the Asia-Pacific region this week.
International aid agency Oxfam is sending in teams to the flooded areas in the Philippines and gearing up its aid response. It has suspended its on-going long-term development programme work in the Philippines in order to mobilise its resources for the humanitarian operation.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other world leaders should use this G20 meeting to take urgent action to protect poor countries from the economic crisis that is forcing 100 people a minute into poverty, international aid and development agency Oxfam said today.
As Treasurer Wayne Swan attends the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in London this weekend, the Australian Government is preparing to follow through on a commitment it made at the last G 20 meeting.
The Government’s proposal of offering developing countries a more flexible way to meet emissions reductions is a step towards removing one of the obstacles in the lead-up to the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, but fails to address the key sticking point of financing for developing countries.