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Horn of Africa famine appeal

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Children like Kuranga Akai receive the same amount of food as adults.
Children like five year old Kuranga Akai receive the same amount of food as adults. The food is supplied by the world food programme but distributed by Oxfam. Per day this equates to 345g of maize per person – or a handful.

If you cup your hands together, could you hold all the food you'll eat today?

I hope not. I hope your breakfast alone would overflow from your fingers. As you can see in the photo on the right, however, five-year-old Kuranga Akai can hold his entire day's food in his little hands without spilling a bean.

This is because Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. It wiped out the harvest and food prices have skyrocketed, triggering famine across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.

It's the worst food crisis of the 21st Century and our worst fears have been realised, with the crisis being officially declared a famine by the UN.

More than 13 million people are in a fight for their survival.

Images of malnourished children and parched African landscapes are reminding aid workers of the great Ethiopian famine of 1984. In 1984, the world left it too late and tragically a million people died. Today we have a chance to stop this happening again. After all, no child should be able to hold a day’s food in their tiny palms.

Human trafficking appeal

"Everyday I was strictly watched. No chance to escape..."

This is a story you don't want to hear. Yet if it's never heard, it'll keep happening.

Saraswati's story

'My name is Saraswati*. I'm 23 years of age. I was born in a town in East Java, Indonesia. I worked with my parents selling things every day, but we earned merely enough for our daily food and basic needs. There was not enough money to send my younger siblings to school.

'One day I met an old friend named Wahid. He promised me a good job as a waitress in a beach tourist resort on the island of Lombok. The salary he offered was good.

'Wahid asked me to contact the boss, Pak J. He made many promises and a seemingly generous invitation to work for him, so I made the long journey to Lombok by bus and ferry in just one day.

'When I arrived, I was picked up and taken to a place that looked like a boarding house. The place was packed with girls and very young women. No one said a word to each other.

'Then one night I was given some sexy dresses and was ordered to meet someone. A male customer.

'That was when I first realised my fate, my real fate...'

Sadly, Saraswati was the ideal victim for human traffickers. She was poor and she wanted to help her family. That’s what is so upsetting – these criminals prey on girls' love for their families and trick them with false offers of employment into leaving their homes, and safety, behind.

You can rescue women like Saraswati from an unthinkable fate. Please give $45 today to help Oxfam stop the horror of sex-trafficking.

*We have changed Saraswati’s name to protect her identity.

Safe water for life appeal

Imagine surviving a bitter nine year civil war, but being afraid every time your child takes a sip of water. Parents like Sylvia Morira of Donsiro village, Bougainville, feel this fear everyday.

Sylvia knows that the water she works so hard to collect for her son, Georgefree, is not safe. Georgefree is often sick with diarrhoea and stomach infections. But it’s dirty water, or no water.

Yet you can do something. With your gift of $55 you can help bring safe water to families like Sylvia and Georgefree’s.

Disaster response appeal

Children are often the most vulnerable to natural disasters
Children are often the most vulnerable in an emergency. You can protect precious lives by making sure our disaster response team are ready to go when the next disaster strikes.
Photo: Abir Abdullah/Oxfam

In September last year, four major disasters wreaked havoc on six countries in the space of six days. Two typhoons swept through Southeast Asia, an earthquake struck Indonesia and a tsunami flattened the south coast of Samoa. Oxfam was there.

Every year families have their lives devastated by natural disasters. Right now, Oxfam is providing clean water, sanitation kits and hygiene supplies in flood devastated Pakistan.

To be there each time a disaster hits, we rely on you.

We do not know when the next disaster will strike. The only certainty is that there will be one – and it will be the world’s poorest communities who are hardest hit. We must be ready to help.

You can save a life before the next disaster strikes