an UNJUST climate

Amelia Siki, 18 months old and severely malnourished

ONE Malnutrition and Climate Change – Indonesia

ONE Fourteen Years after a Factory Fire – China

ONE Life in Civil War – Nepal

ONE The Making of a School – China

ONE Rights and Ability – Hong Kong

ONE Better Banking – Vietnam

Injustice runs deep in climate

change.

It is primarily people in rich countries

who have caused the problem with many

decades of greenhouse gas emissions,

but it is people in poor countries who

bear the brunt of the impact, with more

poverty, hunger and disease.

In Indonesia, the third most populous

country in Asia, more and more people

are suffering from malnutrition due to

climate change. Millions of farmers and

fishers are at risk.

Rainfall patterns are unpredictable,

and crops have failed. The sea is rising,

and coastal land is disappearing. For

centuries, the wet and dry seasons have

been distinct: everyone could count

on the rainy season from November to

March, and then the dry from April to

October. In 2006-2007, the rainy season

was so short that drought occurred in

parts of country.

Now is the time to spotlight the crisis,

as Indonesia is hosting the December

2007 conference of the United Nations

Convention on Climate Change.

The conference is being held in

the middle of what is known as the

‘hunger gap months’. "We are very

concerned during this period, from

October onwards," says Yanne Tamonob,

Oxfam's malnutrition project manager.

"The harvest was bad this year.”

ALMOST ONE-FOURTH: MALNOURISHED

In the remote village of Tes, official

figures indicate that of the 60 children

under five, 23 were underweight in July

2007, and 13 had severe malnutrition.

Tes is located in one of the poorest

districts of West Timor, which is one of

the poorest parts of Indonesia.

Aureliana Siki is worried about her

18-month-old daughter, Amelia, who

flagship event has since been ‘exported’

to England (South Downs) , Japan

(around Mount Fuji), New Zealand (Lake

Taupo) and to Melbourne and Sydney.

And in summer 2008, to Belgium.

The sound of 1,000 teams at the

starting point is indescribable. Can I say

it is the sound of joy in one’s body, in a

connection with nature as 1,000 trees

surround you, and in the joy of an innate

sense that many things in life are in fact

possible.

Yes, in Nepal, the 10-year civil war

is ending. In Hong Kong, there is a

beginning, in 1981, the 100km MacLehose

Trail had just recently opened; before

this time, much of the border zone with

mainland China was closed to non-military

personnel. People in Hong Kong could

now enjoy stunning scenery and very fresh

air in what can be a very polluted city.

In the past, Trailwalker was for men

only. Soldiers only. When Oxfam Hong

Kong was asked to get involved, in 1986,

we helped open the event to women and

civilians. There were about 50 teams.

Now there are more than 1,000

teams. And this is only in Hong Kong. Our

new alliance of 20 disability groups.

Some serious action on climate change

might just happen in Indonesia. And in

Chongqing, China, a factory worker who

lost 75 per cent of her skin to a fire has

opened a pioneering centre for migrant

workers and for people with disabilities.

We all have a disability of some kind.

We all have ability. And possibility.

Madeleine Marie Slavick

Editor, Oxfam News E-magazine

Oxfam Hong Kong

emagazine@oxfam.org.hk

Autumn in Hong Kong, 8 November,

to be precise.

Tomorrow, four people with a

‘disability’ will prove their ability.

They begin an arduous 100km trail

through some very beautiful Hong

Kong countryside: hill after hill, sandy

coastline, bamboo woods, and the 1,000

metre Tai Mo Shan or Foggy Mountain.

Cancer, paralysis, amputation – this

might mean the end to many things to

many people, but these four individuals

have met their life challenges and are all

athletes, three of them at an international

level as competitors in the 2008 Paralym-

pic Games in Beijing and Hong Kong.

They take to the trail in the name of

possibility, in the belief in change.

They and 1,000 other teams are

joining Oxfam Trailwalker, a 48-hour

hike, our biggest fundraiser of the year.

The event it self has changed

dramatically and democratically. In the

November 2007

Fifteen years ago, Siu Ying left

her hometown in Zhong County of

Chongqing, in the southwest of China,

to the modern city of Shenzhen, which

borders Hong Kong. She was just 15

years old. Eventually, she found a job at

a toy factory that runs on Hong Kong

capital. One November afternoon in

1993 remains a nightmare: the factory

and dormitory caught on fire, killed 87

workers – mostly migrant workers, mostly

women – and burned 75 per cent of Siu

Ying’s skin. Three fingers and part of

her right leg would be amputated. After

dozens of operations that cost more

than USD 30,000, she returned to Zhong.

Recovery took a long time, emotionally,

psychologically and physically.

When I finally had the chance to

meet Siu Ying, she gave me a warm

welcome, smiled mildly, and talked with

enthusiasm and passion. If I did not see

her crutch, I would not have noticed any

disability. In a way, Siuying is a wife and

mother just like most Chinese women of

her age, yet what is so remarkable is that

after all of her trauma and pain from

the fire, Siu Ying found the courage and

the means to set up a pioneering service

centre named Zi Qiang – which means

self-empowerment.

weighs just seven kilos and is one of

the 13 children who has been officially

classified as severely malnourished. "She

just won't eat, she's always getting sick

and having diarrhea. I am so worried

Amelia is going to die."

"The problem is that we had a

bad harvest in Tes this year. Instead of

harvesting the normal four sacks of rice

this year, we only had two. And instead

of 20 bunches of maize, we only had 10. I

am giving my children three meals a day,

but I have had to reduce the quantity in

the portions."

Aureliana's kitchen at the back of

her wooden house is virtually bare. She

is reluctant to show it, but all you can

see are a few bunches of maize hanging

from the roof and some rice stacked in

one corner.

Josefina Lake, another farmer in Tes,

says, "last year, we lost a lot of our crop.

The rain did arrive in November, but it

was dry again by December."

Villagers are unfamiliar with the

vocabulary of climate change. They do

not know how to explain the drought,

and say God alone is responsible for

the weather. Experts see the year as a

"moderate El Nino year".

Whatever one’s intellectual or

spiritual understanding, the daily reality

for families in West Timor is that with

the minimal harvests, many children

are losing weight. Every week, children

in Tes are weighed and measured at

the government health post in the

village, and every week, what is feared

is confirmed: malnutrition.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, HUMANITARIAN PROJECTS

A study released in June 2007 by the

World Bank and the Department for

International Development in England

concluded that as "an archipelago,

Indonesia is very vulnerable to the

impacts of climate change". Food security

is "perhaps the largest concern".

Another report by Care International

in March 2007 warned that the

combination of failed crops and limited

water access caused by El Nino has

triggered a "humanitarian crisis" in the

area. El Nino, a warming of the central

and eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean,

generally occurs every four to seven

years. It is considered responsible for

disruptive weather patterns around

the globe, such as the 2007 drought in

Australia, the worst in a century.

Officials at the Indonesian environ-

ment ministry are clearly worried that

in the future the climate could become

even more unpredictable and cause

even more extreme effects.

"One of our urgent priorities," says

Sulistyowati, assistant deputy minister

for climate change impact control, "is

better equipment for our weather

stations to give accurate forecasts." This,

she said, would help farmers to know

when to plant.

Farmers in Tes agree. Many people

Because of Siu Ying’s own ex-

perience, she is very sensitive to the

needs of migrant workers, people with

disabilities, and people who suffer from

an occupational disease. They feel lonely

and self-contemptuous, she says, receive

little support from the community, and

have no courage to contact people

outside of their everyday world. Siu Ying

also says that people with disabilities

face worse conditions in rural areas than

in the cities, because many government

They work on a wide range of issues,

including disability, rights for migrant

workers, and occupational health, and

give out useful information, such as a

Q & A handbook written by Siu Ying,

for migrant workers before they leave

Zhong.

I joined Siu Ying when she met with

an ill family in the countryside: a bumpy

hour-long bus ride away, then an uphill

walk. It was almost 40° Centigrade, and

the ground was so hot and dry that it

rural towns. There are hundreds of

sufferers in Zhong, most of whom

contracted the disease at factories

making tatami mats. Because there is no

cure, many people afflicted become very

depressed. Zi Qiang has been helping

them to learn exercises and information

on controlling the disease. They are also

sharing their difficult emotions with

each other. “They have more confidence

now and have become more optimistic,”

says Siu Ying.

others for their self-empowerment, I

should always empower myself,” is what

she believes.

Oxfam Hong Kong has been working

alongside Siu Ying for many years now.

In the 1990s, we and other NGOs in Hong

Kong assisted workers from Siu Ying’s

factory to claim compensation. In 2003,

we started assisting Zi Qiang with both

funding and capacity building support,

such as a trip to Bangkok to learn from

NGOs which had lobbied for the rights

of the survivors of another fire, also

in 1993, at the Kader Toy Factory, also

a Hong Kong enterprise. After many

advocacy efforts, the compensation

paid to affected families well exceeded

that required by law.

In 2005, Siu Ying inaugurated the

Oxfam Hong Kong Interactive Education

Centre. She had given us some of the

letters she wrote to her family from

the factory, her diary from those days,

and old photographs from Shenzhen,

and we adapted her life story into an

educational and experiential drama.

At one end of our youth centre: a very

hot factory and dormitory, continuous

noise from sewing machines, and only

one fire exit (a mock one), locked. At

the other end is a comfortable bedroom

of a typical Hong Kong teenager: air

conditioning, pop music on the stereo,

and a range of electronic gadgets made

in developing countries. The drama

makes a strong impression on students

and teachers alike. Everyone likes a story

of a person who can fight – and win

– against so many injustices.

Xu Yi works on Urban Livelihoods issues with Oxfam Hong Kong. She is based in Beijing. Photos of Siu Ying are courtesy of Zi Qiang.

Empowerment, after the Fire

interviewed say that “nothing happen-

ed as it was supposed to happen.”

Essentially, not knowing when to plant

is the beginning of hunger.

Several projects are underway to

assist people in West Timor to adjust

to changes in the climate, and to

improve people’s nutrition, especially

children’s. Aureliana is one of 500

farmers receiving training from Oxfam

in growing vegetables such as tomatoes

and water spinach to diversify her

family's food intake and income.

Oxfam has also supported research

on three different islands in Indonesia

to identify how climate change is

affecting food production, how farmers

and fishers can act and find solutions,

and how mitigation and adaptation

projects are being implemented by the

government.

Oxfam Hong Kong is also collabo-

rating to run climate forecast application

projects across Southeast Asia. We

will focus on developing alternative

energy sources, rebuilding community

infrastructure (such as water storage

facilities) , setting up community-

based farmers’ schools, and running

various livelihood-based projects with

farmers and herders. This project is in

coordination with the Asian Disaster

Preparedness Center in Bangkok, which

also trains meteorologists, community-

based workers and farmers in climate

forecasting so that communities can

adjust the planting and harvesting

cycles of their crops.

Oxfam Hong Kong positions Climate Change as an ‘Economic Justice’ issue.For more: http://www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/category?cid=53988&lang=iso-8859-1 This article was adapted from an article by James Painter for BBC News. Photos by James Painter.

By Xu Yi

policies and measures are not properly

executed in rural areas. When she

learned that there were 50,000 people

in her county with access to only a few

services, she said to herself, “Why wait?

Let’s set up something ourselves.” That

was in 2002.

At the beginning, Siu Ying ran a

hotline right from her home. Gradually,

her advice was more and more sought

after, and she officially registered her

service as a non-profit organisation.

Zi Qiang now has a small office, three

full-time staff, and dozens of volunteers.

cracked. Siu Ying moved quickly with her

crutch and wore long sleeves because

the sun is too strong for her burns. Some

of the villagers here have a disease that

ruins eyesight, and they have difficulty

finding work. The family gave us a warm

welcome, and Siu Ying listened carefully

to their situation, saying that there

must be some kind of work that can

sustain their livelihood. She promised to

arrange a project that could assist them,

and empower them.

Zi Qiang also works with silicosis

patients, and runs activities in three

The people whom Siu Ying enc-

ourages and supports would not know

how much frustration and pain she

herself has endured in the past, and I

value Siu Ying’s positive attitude and

warm heart towards other disadvantaged

people. Siu Ying remains level-headed

and modest, “I hope Zi Qiang can serve

our target groups better. We need

to learn more from other NGOs. We

should not act blindly.” She energetically

attends various capacity building

workshops and shares what she learns

with her colleagues. “To better assist

20% of young children in Tes, West Timor, are malnourished

an UNJUST climate

Amelia’s mother, Aureliana

in China

A decade of war has taken its

toll. Roughly 12,000 Nepalese have

died, thousands of families have been

displaced, and whole communities

uprooted. With all the violence of the

Maoist insurgency and the government’s

counter-insurgency, most all of the

country’s political, economic and social

structures are at best unstable, if not

broken down. People live in terror,

insecurity and poverty, and tourists are

staying away.

War has also affected the work of

NGOs, too. Some projects have had to

be suspended, due to insecurity. Some

roads are unsafe or have been destroyed,

so access can be difficult or impossible.

All projects work for peace.

Yet, daily work can remain the same

in a village, even in wartime. The cattle

need their fodder, the household needs

its water, and a stove needs fuel; there

is no time to think about anything else.

Women traditionally do all of these

tasks, and the war has made their work

harder: distances to get that food, fuel

and water have become longer, farther,

sweatier. There is no time to think about

anything else: work is survival.

Given the civil war and the poverty –

85 per cent of the population is rural, and

82 per cent live on less than 2 USD a day

– Oxfam Hong Kong has been supporting

community initiatives in remote rural

areas, often in the mountains. A priority

is livelihood activities with the poorest

of the poor people – women, ethnic

minority people, and Dalits – three

groups which who are perennially

discriminated against and have little

control over natural resources. For

too long, they have gained little from

Making a School in Western China

It took 18 months and 120 horses to

build a new school in the mountains of

Guizhou, in western China.

Before 2006, there was no secondary

school in Taojiang Township, and only

about 300 of the 500 children attended

school at all.

The project was launched in April

2005 by the Leishan County Political

Consultative Conference, undertaken

by the Education Bureau and supported

by Oxfam Hong Kong which allocated

HK$2.3 million towards building

materials, books, and teacher training.

Here is the story of the renovated

school, for both primary and secondary

students, through photographs. The

story is documented in the book, West

Hope – Children of the Mountains,

available through Oxfam Hong Kong

(in simplified Chinese).

1 The old school, built in the 1960’s / Yang Lan

2 The old girls’ dormitory / Yang Long He

3 In the past, the students had to return home every weekend, collect food for the coming week, and then walk back to school – a six-hour return trip / Yang Long He

4 Children used to cook their own meals with their own food / Du Yu Qi

5 Villagers transported materials by a 1,700 metre-long ropeway they made / Du Yu Qi

6 In May 2005, 120 horses started carrying 760 tonnes of building materials up the mountain / Zhao Zhi Gang

7 Finished in October 2006! The school is the first concrete building in the area / Du Yu Qi

8 The Education Bureau provided a school cook, so smiles all around / Yang Lan

9 Books provided by Oxfam arrive at the school library / Yang Lan

10 A student in the new dormitory / Yang Lan

1

Nepal: Life in Civil War

development projects across the country.

A major reason has been that they

have not been involved with project

design, and the people implementing

the projects have little awareness of

their needs. So, the status of women

and other disadvantaged groups is not

improving, while the gap between rich

and poor people increases day by day.

And war has continued.

Each Oxfam project is designed and

managed by the people themselves and

is specific to the needs of the locality,

but whether the project be individual

or group-based, for raising pigs or

bees, growing banana or ginger or

orange, with small community groups

or district government departments,

each project promotes harmony and

equal participation, two elements that

are known to bring peace.

With the multi-party system recently

restored and peace-building underway,

changes are happening in the country.

Efforts by NGOs and voluntary groups

can surely expedite the process of

development and equity sidetracked by

war for far too long.

Rakesh Mohan leads Oxfam Hong Kong’s work in South Asia.

2

3

5

6

4

8 9 10

7

Agricultural training project in Mukandpur / Rakesh Mohan

by Rakesh Mohan

Back in May 2007, Oxfam supported a two-

day workshop on rights-based development

for people working on disability issues. We

wanted to build up their sense of entitlement

and empowerment, as well as their capacity

to undertake rights-based advocacy work

on social policy. Thirty-three people from 13

self-help groups participated.

An alliance has since been formed with

a total of 20 groups. From November, they

will run a nine-month project of awareness

raising, surveying, media advocacy and public

education – all to push for medical reform

and for more rights for chronically ill people,

who are often marginalised in Hong Kong

society.

In the same month, three of the four

officiating guests of our main annual event,

Oxfam Trailwalker (www.oxfamtrailwalker.

org.hk), are internationally successful people

with a disability, while the fourth is an award-

winning cancer survivor.

HONG KONG: Right and Able

“For friendship and dialogue, learn some

words of the local language.”

That is a tip from Oxfam’s recently

published travelogue, written for youth, and

with youths’ personal perspectives. Every

year since 1997, 30 teenagers have travelled

to poor communities across Asia with Oxfam

Club and then returned home to Hong Kong to

communicate what they learned and to voice

out their call against poverty and injustice.

For more, visit:(in English) http://cyberschool.oxfam.org.hk/eng/minisites/oxfamclub/eng/index.htm(in Chinese) http://oxfamclub.mysinablog.com/index.php

Children in Ky Son, VietnamEsther Chan / Oxfam Hong Kong

OXFAM HONG KONG WEBSITEwww.oxfam.org.hk

OXFAM BOOKSOxfam Hong Kong has created more

than 30 books, some in Hong Kong, some

in Taiwan, some on the Mainland, some in

Chinese, some in English, some bilingual,

and some mostly with images, which cross

all languages. Through publishing the

voices of poor people around the world,

we want to change the way people think about poverty. We want justice.

Oxfam’s most recently supported supported the publication of 西部．希望　

大山里的孩子們 (a book on education in western China, in Simplified Chinese).

To order books: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/bookstore/list?lang=iso-8859-1

E-NEWSIssued every month in English and Chinese, this e-bulletin provides the latest

from Oxfam Hong Kong, with bite-sized news on emergencies, campaigns,

community projects, public education and fundraising. Oxfam e-News is emailed

to more than 80,000 volunteers, campaigners, donors, Oxfam Trailwalkers, council

members and subscribers. The Editor is Echo Chow.

To subscribe: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/16830 (English version)

www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/7263 (Traditional Chinese)

www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/7265 (Simplified Chinese)

MOKUNGOxfam Hong Kong publishes this

quarterly magazine in Traditional Chinese.

Mokung, which means both “no poverty”

and “infinity”, highlights a different

aspect of development in each issue. The

Editors are Tung Tsz-kwan and Fiona Shek.

The focus of the September 2007 edition

was on Hunger. (The words above the

rice bowl all say ‘food’). The December

edition will focus on Migration.

To subscribe: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/

bookstore/?lang=big5

Mokung is online at www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/category?cid=1017&lang=big5

ONE O.N.E – Oxfam News E-magazine – is

uploaded every month, in the middle of

the month, at www.oxfam.org.hk/one.

Subscription is free.

ONELINKs

What can people do about Climate Change and Poverty?

Please tell us at:

http://forum.oxfam.org.hk/?c_lang=eng

ONEquestIoN

CO

VER

: Est

her

Yiu

17th Floor, 28 Marble Road, Northpoint, Hong KongO.N.E, published in the middle of each month, is also online:

www.oxfam.org.hk/one//

Hong Kong

BETTER BANKING

People in Ky Son, near the Laos

border, are among the poorest in all

of Vietnam. Nine out of ten people live

below the poverty line and do not have

enough food for about five months

of the year. Banks charge a monthly

interest rate beyond what most people

can afford, so there is little chance of

making any change.

Oxfam offers cash loans at 0.35 per

cent through a micro-credit project

managed by the villagers. The interest

rate was agreed on by the villagers, who

also selected the ten poorest families

to receive two livestock, complete with

basic veterinary training. Now, with

raising animals such as chickens and

cows, people’s income has increased

five-fold, and the repayment rate is

high. The future looks different now

in Ky Son.

Illustration: Sue

Artwork from the 2-day workshop, on expressing personal needs