Issue
45
Jan 2012
Food and Livelihoods in
Laos
Photos by: Christina Chan
More than two million people in Laos live in poverty. Oxfam Hong Kong is working in Huaphan and Phongsaly, two of the most impoverished provinces in the north of the country, assisting communities there to develop and sustain their livelihoods, and improve their food security.
Dear Oxfam Friend, Oxfam Hong Kong wishes you a happy and healthy year in 2012, and in the Year of the Dragon. The New Year holidays can be a time for us all to spend time with family and loved ones, to reflect a little on the year’s hard work, the past and the future. Festivals can be a time to count our good fortune, and at the same time spare a thought for the quality of life of others around the world. In many places, millions of women, farmers, workers and elderly people do not get enough food to eat, or can not provide properly for their children, even when they have worked very hard for a whole year – and the whole of their lives. There are many reasons why people still face poverty. These include unfair and unjust social systems, economic shocks and uncertainty, and natural or man-made disasters. The global social and economic environment is changing rapidly. This provides both opportunities and challenges for international organisations such as Oxfam Hong Kong working on the underlying causes of poverty. All too often, economic systems have produced more consumption of resources, more pollution, and a wider gap between rich and poor people. We live in a resource-constrained world where essential items for a better life, such as food and energy, are seeing large and unpredictable increases in cost.
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www.oxfam.org.hk |
with the impact of climate change on their lives and their farming. As usual, this work will include practical projects at the community level, working with grassroots partner organisations, combined with the essential tasks of policy advocacy, factual research and public education. To break the cycle of poverty requires a strategy that seeks positive change at many levels: in the individual and her family, in the village, in NGOs and businesses, and in the corridors of power where high-level decisions are made that can either help or harm entire communities. With your support, we can help bring fair opportunities to poor people so that their hard work to results in permanently improved lives. With your support, poor people can also look with hope and optimism to the years ahead.
In the year ahead, Oxfam will continue its work calling for secure food supplies for all people, and action to help poor people cope
3120 5000 2590 6880 www.oxfam.org.hk info@oxfam.org.hk Printed on100% recycled paper using soy oil-based ink
Oxfam’s Humanitarian Responses (August – November 2011)
East Africa Food Crisis
Oxfam
Thanks to people like you, as of December 2011, Oxfam Hong Kong has raised more than HK$10 million to help affected people through the crisis.
Project areas
Population
Phongsaly
Human Development Index
Huaphan
Population living below HK$10 per day Literacy (age 15+)
Vientiane
Laos
Somalia
About 6,835,000 122nd of 169 countries About 40%, among whom about 50% live in northern Laos 68.7% can read and write
Source: Human Development Report 2010, United Nations Development Programme
• Treatment for 100,000 acutely malnourished children; counselling for pregnant women, and immunisation services in Mogadishu
• Clean water, sanitation infrastructure, hygiene materials (soap and plastic buckets) and training with 980,518 people in South Central Somalia, Gedo, Middle Juba, Lower Juba, Afgooye, Mogadishu, and Hiran Oxfam has been working with local Somali organisations to implement projects for 40 years
Myanmar Thailand Cambodia
Vietnam
Huaphan is mountainous, with relatively little farmland. Residents face food shortages.
First Step to a Better Life
Kenya
• Emergency water supply, building and rebuilding of wells and ponds as well as latrines for more than 173,522 people in the driest and worst affected areas. Each person gets at least 5 litres of water per day – the bare minimum that people need
• Clean water, sanitation, hygiene activities, and cash support
• cash relief, animal health interventions, cash-for-work, and grain for 161,027 people
Oxfam supported two villages in Viengxay to build irrigation systems.
In 2010, Oxfam started working with the Huaphan Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office (FAFO) in eight impoverished villages in the province. Initiatives include mixed cropping (as opposed to a single crop) for more food and income, raising chickens and pigs, a grain bank, and two irrigation systems.
Oxfam targets to assist 700,000 people through the crisis in Ethiopia.
Somvong learned farming techniques and increased the yield from 700kg to 1,000kg.
A Secure Food Supply Poultry is the main source of income for Vounthy’s family. In 2011, they earned HK$200.
“In this area of Laos, mountains are everywhere and farmland is scarce,” said Somvong, a 26-year-old farmer in Nakhoun. “We used to farm in the traditional way, so our harvests were usually too small to feed us, and if any drought or flood came, our crops would be gone and we would suffer even more.” Somvong is the only income earner in the family, so he, his wife Pan, and their two children, age four and six, used to live from hand to mouth. Their house was rundown, and when it rained heavily, the family had to take shelter at a neighbour’s home. “We used to be short of food for two months out of the year, and we had very little meat. I always worried that if I got sick or if anything happened to me, my family would have no one to rely on. Last year, there was a serious landslide in the village after a heavy rain, and stones crashed down the mountain and almost hit our house.” When Somvong recalled the incident, his face still registered shock.
Vounthy says the family’s food supply is more secure now. “Before Oxfam’s project, we only had eight chickens. I learned a lot in the training, such as building chicken coops and preventing disease. I also learned not to let the chickens roam around in the mountains because they may die or disappear. Now we have 40 chickens!” Last year, they sold seven chickens, earning HK$200. With more food and income, the family envisions a better future. Vounthy says, “I am confident that we can further improve our lives.”
Ethiopia
• Hygiene kits and hygiene promotion for 188,564 people; public campaigns to help stop the spread of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea
Farmers in remote mountainous villages in Huaphan Province mainly grow rice and maize for a living. They face many challenges: a lack of food, income, and advanced skills in agriculture and livestock. Villagers have told Oxfam, “When we get ill, we have no money to see a doctor.”
First, Oxfam and FAFO assisted villagers to select five farmers with basic farming and livestock raising skills from each of the eight project villages. These ‘model farmers’ then joined training sessions, a study tour, and were provided pigs, chickens, and various fruit and vegetable seeds.
In Mogadishu, Oxfam works with SAACID which runs feeding centres for malnourished children. In Somali, SAACID means To Help. Here, a SAACID nurse assists a mother and two children. After two weeks of treatment, the children are recovering.
• Cash relief for people to purchase what their households need most; food and livelihoods support for 329,147 people in Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, Middle Juba, and Afgooye
This almost empty grain bank in Phong Nga means that villagers with a shortage of rice have borrowed grain for food or for planting during an emergency.
China
Vounthy and his wife turned part of a hillside near the village into farmland, and planted cassava, maize, peanuts and vegetables. “A new concept to us, mixed crop cultivation is more labour intensive and time consuming, but less risky than a single crop. After a year, we yielded 600kg of cassava, 50kg of vegetables and 30kg of peanuts. This is mainly for our meals, but we did sell some and earned HK$150.”
John Sayer Director General
W
Since last year, people in the region of East Africa are facing the worst drought in 60 years, with more than 13 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia at serious risk.
Fast Facts on Laos
One of these model farmers, Vounthy, 42, lives in the village of Phong Nga with his wife and daughter, age seven. In the past, the family was short of food for three months of the year. Vounthy said, “Before I joined Oxfam’s project at the end of 2010, my annual income was only HK$1,500 — we would spend HK$300 on my daughter’s education, and the rest on household items and food. So, life was hard for us.”
Editorial Committee: Kanie Siu, Karen Chung, Maranda Wong, Brenda Lee OXFAM HONG KONG: 17/F China United Centre, 28 Marble Road, North Point, Hong Kong Oxfam Hong Kong Interactive Education Centre: 9/F China United Centre, 28 Marble Road, North Point, Hong Kong The Oxfam Shop: LG 8, Jardine House, 1 Connaught Place, Central (Tel: 2522 1765)
To help address food insecurity during the planting and harvest seasons, Oxfam supported residents of Phong Nga to set up a grain bank, with an initial 2,000kg of rice: Oxfam provided 1,000kg while the second 1,000kg was contributed by the 64 families in the village. They formed their own committee to manage the bank, setting guidelines for loans and the interest rate: a maximum loan of 300kg of rice per family, at 20 per cent interest to be paid (in rice) at the next harvest, when families would have a supply to return to the bank.
Oxfam Hong Kong has been supporting local organisations in Laos since 1994, assisting programmes for better education, agriculture, and women’s reproductive health. In 2007, we opened an office in the capital Vientiane to expand the scope and increase the impact of our work. Currently, we focus on improving the livelihoods of ethnic minority communities in the provinces of Huaphan and Phongsaly through community-based natural resource management, agricultural diversification and community organising, so that farmers can access and control their markets.
2520 2525
Words from Director General
SE OR
Grain Bank
Introduction
As of 30 November, Oxfam has worked with local partners to provide assistance to more than 2.5 million people across the region.
India
Working with people against poverty
E TH D E L
The family all work in the mixed crop garden.
A better life has always been Somvong’s goal, so in 2010, when Oxfam began working in the village, he jumped at the opportunity.
• Oxfam continues to provide emergency assistance in Dadaab (the largest refugee camp in the world), assisting in the sections of Ifo II, Ifo III, and Kambioos, as well as the host community around the camps • Oxfam is also assisting in the counties of Turkana and Wajir Overall, Oxfam has supported over 1 million people through the crisis in Kenya since 1 July 2011.
Installing a new Oxfam water tank on the outskirts of the Dadaab refugee camp.
China Drought More than 26 million people in the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan were hit by a severe drought since 2010. In Guizhou, the drought affected more than 20 million people: 11 million people faced water shortages, and more than 3.3 million hectares of crops were lost. In Yunnan, the drought affected more than 6 million people, with 2.36 million people short of water. Somvong (right), Pan (back) and their two children with bags of rice – they are no longer short of food.
Somvong was selected as a model farmer and received new rice seeds for planting. “We took part in three trainings on new farming techniques and in a study tour to another province to learn from farmers there.” The new seeds that Oxfam and FAFO introduced grow faster than traditional ones, taking only four months to harvest; with 6kg of seeds, yields can be up to 800kg. Somvong said, “In 2010, we only yielded 700kg of rice, but through the new seeds of the project, the 2011 yield increased to 1,000kg. Adding in the 1,500kg of upland rice, we now have enough rice to eat!” Oxfam’s community development projects aim at assisting poor farmers to improve their lives in a sustainable way. Vounthy, Somvong and the other model farmers are passing on their skills and experience to other farmers so that everyone can have a better food supply. Change is happening as you read these words.
As of December 2011, Oxfam has allocated more than HK$8 million working alongside local partner organisations to assist affected people in some of the hardest-hit areas.
Guizhou • Puan County: food supply for 1 month for 4,000 people; food supply for 2 months for 500 very impoverished people; 14 litres of mineral water for 2,495 primary school students • Ceheng County: food supply for 2 months for 2,700 very impoverished villagers; channelling river water for a water distribution point in two townships; clean drinking water for 20 days for 5,556 people in 2 remote villages • Changshun County: food supply for 1 month for 6,600 people in two townships • Jiangko County: 15kg of rice each for 384 people; 30kg of rice each for 3,521 very impoverished people in three townships • Zhengan County: 100,000kg of rice for 5,333 people in three townships
Yunnan • 922,095kg of rice for 56,211affected people in 15 townships in these 10 locations: Chuxiong City, Shuangbo, Nanhua, Wenshan City, Yanshan, Funing, Luquan, Milei, Yimen and Ludian
People in Wenshan, Yunnan, receive an emergency rice supply from Oxfam.