Food, shelter and clean water are needed urgently by people in southern Haiti following the destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew last week. Oxfam fears that the current death toll of at least 800 will increase further. The international community must act immediately to mitigate the loss of entire harvests and to counter any possible spikes […]
Oxfam teams are distributing aid in some of the worst-affected areas of Haiti as the scale of destruction left in the trail of Hurricane Matthew emerges. Oxfam Australia humanitarian response coordinator Richard Simpson said there was an urgent need for an international response in Haiti, where at at least 350,000 people had been left in […]
As the scale of devastation wrought by Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean becomes apparent today, Oxfam staff in Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic are preparing to do needs assessments and to respond if requested. Oxfam’s spokesman in the Haitian capital Port au Prince, Jean Claude Fignole, reported heavy rain, very strong winds and flooding. […]
Oxfam stands ready to respond to Category 4 Hurricane Matthew, should it be requested, as it bears down on the Caribbean. The hurricane is moving north very slowly at just 9 km/h and is predicted to pass just east of Jamaica before hitting both Haiti and Cuba. Oxfam Australia’s Humanitarian Manager Meg Quartermaine said Hurricane […]
Hurricane Matthew has now been declared a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. With winds over 225 km per hour, Matthew has already produced heavy rainfall on the Caribbean coasts of Colombia and Venezuela, where a tropical storm warning has been released. It is expected that the hurricane will strengthen as it maintains its northern trajectory through the centre […]
Ongoing attempts to undermine native title in Australia’s Kimberley region have been highlighted in a new Oxfam global report pushing for the land rights of Indigenous peoples across the world. The Custodians of the land, Defenders of our future report highlights a global land rush that is forcing millions of Indigenous people from their homelands. According […]
The ongoing conflict with Boko Haram in West Africa has pushed the number of people facing the threat of severe hunger to more than 6 million according to the latest assessments, say 15 humanitarian organisations. The warning comes as governments and donors meet to talk about the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin region […]
In the past 20 years, the number of people living in extreme poverty has more than halved, but the vast majority of Australians and people around the world think the opposite is true. A new global survey published by Dutch research firm Motivaction reveals that 89 per cent of Australians, and 87 per cent of […]
Oxfam has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement in New York of further funding for refugees globally, but is concerned the increase to Australia’s humanitarian intake has not risen. Oxfam’s Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke is disappointed there is no actual increase to Australia’s humanitarian intake. “Tony Abbott announced this increase from 13,750 to 18,750 refugees […]
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has persisted in spruiking a migration program at the United Nations summit in New York that traumatises and harms vulnerable asylum seekers and migrants, is extremely costly and is increasingly unpopular with the Australian public. Oxfam’s Chief Executive Helen Szoke said rather than wasting time and grandstanding about the benefits of […]