Getting to Know International Organizations: Part 1

“The power of people against poverty”

The Oxfam organization (https://www.oxfamamerica.org/) is a global organization working to end the injustice of poverty. They help people build better futures for themselves, hold the powerful accountable, and save lives in disasters. Their mission is to tackle the root causes of poverty and create lasting solutions:

• Saving lives: assists the poorest communities when disaster strikes
• Programs to overcome poverty and injustice: invests in programs to help people assert their rights so that they can improve their lives.
• Campaigning for social justice: works to change the laws and practices that keep people trapped in poverty.
• Public education: works to change the way people think about poverty and its causes.

With more than 70 years of experience, working in more than 90 countries, each year they reach tens of millions of people directly.

In their efforts to overcome poverty and injustice in their 2017-Oxfam America Annual Report they have stood with the refugees of Syria, launched the poultry worker justice campaign in 2015, empowering citizens from El Salvador to Puerto Rico through their emergency relief funds, ensuring women’s inclusion and leadership “Any organization that has worked for decades on the root causes of poverty understands its direct connection to the rights of women”, and the fight against poor countries and the access to oil, (https://www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/2017-Oxfam-America-Annual-Report-web.pdf).

This website gives their viewers and their supporters access to explore, volunteer, donate, help save lives, financial information, and much more.

Through researching and retrieving information about poverty through our group discussions, course readings, and blog updates, there are many organizations and initiatives helping reduce poverty on a globally and locally level.   Poverty has reduced by a 50% but there are still 800 million people affected by poverty.

What can we do to help reduce the footprints of poverty?