Author: Nicola Sansom

Outreach Support Executive

Do you have three days a week from July 2010- early Jan 2011 that you would like to use to intern with Oxfam Campaigns in the North West? Then why not apply to become our Outreach Support Executive? (This is a voluntary position though lunch and travel expenses are provided). The Outreach Support Executive will do a wide variety of exciting tasks as they manage the Outreach network in the North of England.

What does the role entail?

This will include for example; Creating a regional Outreach strategy, Recruiting, training and supporting volunteer outreach co-ordinators, Securing Oxfam’s campaigning presence at some of the larger regional events, Helping to co-ordinate the regional campaigning for Oxjam (Oxfam’s music festival), Creatively thinking of ways to campaign to new audiences, Managing the regional administration, monitoring, evaluation and learning of this project, Using a range of on and offline tools to share good practice and create a sense of community/network throughout the region/nation.

This is a great chance for you to develop your skills and experience and to get more involved in Oxfam’s work to overcome poverty and suffering.

Check out the full job spec and complete an internship application form

For more questions/ information or to send in your application please contact Nicola = [email protected] or call 0161 234 2786

Application deadline: 21^st June by 12pm

Interview: 24^th June.

Start date: ASAP July

Here’s the latest newsletter  from Oxfam in North West England – packed full of exciting opportunities to get involved, up coming events and suggested actions you can take to really make a difference!

Also check out our latest video – Even people in Uganda are getting on board with UK election fever!

Women from the Caicaoan village, in Karimoja, have to walk for hours to find firewood they can use for cooking

So, this is the end…I am so so sad to say that this is my final post about my visit to Oxfam projects in Uganda. This week I visited  the Rwebiseng area, where Oxfam is working together with the Red Cross on climate change projects. My Oxfam colleagues and I had to leave the cool nearby mountains and cross parts of a national park under the vigilant eyes of baboons and Uganda cobs to reach the more pastoral lowlands. The landscape slowly changed; it became harsher, dryer; only a few trees and small herds of cattle roaming as far as the eye can see.

Green ideas

Believe it or not, this is the ideal place to promote some clever energy saving ideas.

In this dry area, people don’t have enough fuel to burn and struggle to cook their food; they will be spending hours walking vast distances to find a small piece of wood. So, the new energy saving stoves developed by Oxfam and their partner, the Red Cross, are a real revolution for these communities!

These new stoves allow people to cook using much less wood and the innovative design means that two pots can be cooked from one fire and will even remain warm much longer when the fire dies out. I was amazed at how simple they were. They use literally dug from the ground and they are set to wipe out the old method of cooking over an open fire.

Oxfam and the Red Cross have trained two people in each of 15 villages in the area. As soon as these ‘students’ learnt how to make the stoves, they immediately passed on the skills to their neighbours. Now 70% of people in those villages use the new stoves. The communities have also been planting hardy trees that can survive in the arid climate despite the lack of rain and can therefore be a permanent source of fuel.

Disaster Risk Reduction Committees

The climate is so variable in this valley that communities have been setting their own Disaster Risk Reduction Committees to be able to cope in emergencies and, if possible at all, to prevent them in the first place. I met three members of a nearby committee who explained how they tackled the climatic problems they face.

Flooding is one of the most serious problems here- it is often followed by long periods of drought. So the local committees keep an eye on the clouds to know when the heavy rains are coming. When they are approaching they gather people in the community to dig trenches to protect houses and trap water for the dryer seasons.

Oxfam has been working with communities here also work to improve hygiene and sanitation in the area, as outbreaks of cholera due to the stagnant water are frequent. Families have been trained in how to develop simple hand washing facilities involving soap, a small jerry can and a rope, and these ‘hygiene champions’ go on to teach the rest of their communities. It seems to be working- when I asked about the success rate of this initiative, people replied that, despite the floods, they hadn’t had a single cholera outbreak in the last year.

Visiting some of the Ugandan communities we work with has been a huge privilege for me.  What strikes me the most is that despite all the challenges (click here to find out about the Uganda Food Crisis and what we are doing about it), here no one is giving up.  Everyone is tackling the problems they are facing and finding solutions. What a start contrast with the apathy about climate change that sometimes I have experienced whilst talking with people in Manchester or Liverpool. In Uganda climate change is happening right now, it is affecting every aspect of people’s lives and it is constantly on everyone’s mind. Is it fair to leave the Rwebiseng communities alone to fight it?  I really don’t think so. The UK up-coming elections are an opportunity to convince the future new government to put climate change at the top of the UK agenda, take action and join the people of Rwebiseng in their fight. No time to waste!

Topista Neumbe carrying a 15-20kg bunch of bananas to sell at Kamu market, 10 km from her home in Gibuzale, on the slopes of Mount Elgon.

Olyotia again from Uganda, where I am lucky enough to witness how communities work with Oxfam to adapt to the ever-changing climate in one of the poorest western regions of this country. One of our local partners, AMA, showed me the work that they are doing with local community groups in Hurugale and Bundinyama.

 Hurugale farmers group

 Chatting with some of the members of this sixty-strong Hurugale farmers group for me really brought home the biting reality of climate change. These farmers live just beneath the western mountains and they have noticed a lot of changes in weather patterns- it rains too much or not enough. This year they found difficult to celebrate Christmas because of the heavy rains, “Rain at Christmas is definitely unheard of here”, they explain.

 Ever tried grasshoppers as an alternative snack? Well, here they are considered a real delicacy.  After the heavy October rains, in November, farmers in Hurugale used to enjoy catching and eating them.  This year there were no rains in October and for the first time as long as anyone can remember no grasshoppers came.

 The increase of diseases is a concrete worry for the farmers; malaria now reaches up to new altitudes where it used to be far too cold for mosquitoes to fester and local people are suffering.

 The Hurugale farmers had to adapt their farming techniques to combat the effects of climate change. Before showing me the work they were doing, they asked me about climate change and why it was affecting them so much. After hearing the answer they simply asked: “Why don’t you stop people from producing more emissions, if they are causing the global warming?”, I answered that we are trying our best!

 Bundinyama village banana project

 After talking to the Hurugale farmers’ group, I walked through the maze of crops belonging to various members of the local community and, as I approached the demonstration farm in the Bundinyama village, the buzzing voices and noises from the farm welcomed me into what was a real hive of activity. When I arrived, about 20 women from a women’s group were working on the farm, digging. They work together on the demonstration farm to practice new techniques like contour ditches and to grow new types of banana that won’t wilt because of the rising temperatures and erratic rainfall.

‘The rain here has changed. Before we had an easy calendar to know how to grow our food. It would rain between March and June and then again between September and November. But now it looks like it is raining in January. How should I know when to plant?’ Penenah Tibeyijuka

The women’s community group has made a huge difference in people’s lives here.  They work together to grow seedlings of stronger variety of plants like bananas and to learn new techniques like ditch digging. Within the group, members can get grants to start similar projects on their own gardens. With the profits from the sale of the demonstration farm crops, the women’s group has managed to send back to school the children of some of its poorest members. The group also enables them to discuss issues like domestic violence and how to be more aware of the risks of HIV/Aids, as infection rates are dangerously rising in the area.

‘We don’t expect miracles from without. We want to see what we can do as a community to face our problems.’ Penenah Tibeyijuka

So, no matter how big the common threat is- when a community is provided with skills and tools to get started, it can quickly take action and mobilise itself, even if the threat is as immediate and worrying as climate change. It shows just how important it is that we continue our campaigning work to have an international agreement about reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we pump out.  Africa has only contributed 4% of the world’s carbon pollution to date. It is hardly fair that they should be the ones suffering from the effects, don’t you think?

Hot red dust, roads that make you feel your bones might bounce out and children everywhere shouting ‘mzungu, mzungu how are you?’ A bit different to battling the ice of Manchester to get to work.

Rwenzori Region

I am so lucky to have been given the chance to go and visit some of the work Oxfam and its partners are doing in the Bundibugyo region in western Uganda. It is a stunningly beautiful mountainous area, but that comes at a cost. The area is already suffering hugely from climate change – The ice caps of the mountains has receded by almost 40 % from 1955. This results in flooding rivers at some times of the year and droughts at others. The area is also prone to land slides, increased cases of diseases like cholera and malaria, and crop failure due to the increasing temperatures.

Oxfam’s partner Norracol

Oxfam works with partner organisations in its programmes in its attempts to overcome poverty and suffering. Norracol is one of the partners working in the Bundibugyo region trying to help local communities adapt to the affects of climate change they are already facing.

Bulirehe (an old refugee camp from the recently ended civil conflict)

After a warm welcome I was amazed to see the effect that simple climate adaptation methods are having on this village already. Employing a system of model farmers the community is being given some more drought/disease resistant forms of crops to be able to grow since the more variable weather meant the old varieties could no longer feed them.

‘ The difference now is food security. We have food to eat and even some little to sell. Now I have more money for school fees for my children.’ Scholar Mughasoki

The village has even been able to use some of the profits from the better yielding crops to buy some community beehives. And friends and neighbours come to them for seedlings so that they too can grow the better variety of crops.

Kakuka 3 in the mountains

After a rather steep climb to the remote village of Kakuka 3 I was taught about the harsh day-to-day reality of living with climate change up a mountain. They fear land slides caused by too much rain that might sweep all their hard work and crops away. People here rely on subsistence farming to get food to eat and now fear whenever they hear the rain pounding on their roofs.

Working with Oxfam, model farmers in the community have been given materials and training in digging contour trenches to help stop the land slides and to trap water in the dry periods. They are hard work to dig (can take several days to create) and need to keep being dug out every few days when the rains come but they are worth it to protect the land. Many people locally have started to copy the techniques – a simple idea that can make a huge difference.

Sliding back down the steep mountain path where the nearest medical clinic is several hours walk away it brings it home to you just how important it is to promote this kind of work. Training people with new skills and giving them the tools and seeds needed to get started will naturally spread across the community and really change lives. Climate adaptation is necessary now for these community’s survival and I can’t wait to get back and to keep campaigning to get more funding to help to extend work like this into more vulnerable communities. Maybe if they have held the international climate talks in Bundibugyo instead of Copenhagen they would have realised the urgency of reaching a global deal that is commited to funding climate adaptation…