o.n.e - august 2007
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The August edition of O.N.E is full of people who are changing their lives for the better- some very realistic dreams are coming true, adult women who had never picked up a pencil are now writing and reading, people who never had the courage and confidence to speak up for themselves are now creating better jobs, transportation and safer homes...TRANSCRIPT
project. Oxfam’s approach is to learn to
read, write and count in an everyday
context – participants make their own
reading materials based on their own
experiences and with their own words.
We promote a literate environment,
group participation, and women’s
empowerment. Family members and
participants who can read help those
who cannot, and the group as a whole is
encouraged to learn by themselves when
Oxfam facilitators are not present.
It all happens through making simple
books, with the first book for each
group usually being A Ka’u Gala – or
My Name Is – with a photograph and
sentence about each member. Gradually,
as the project progresses, everybody
Many men and women, in any
country, feel ashamed if they can not
read and write or do simple mathematics,
and their children often feel ashamed of
them as parents. In Timor-Leste, Oxfam
Hong Kong is running a literacy and
numeracy programme with the whole
family in mind.
Timor-Leste is one the world’s
newest nations, founded in 2002 after
a brave fight for independence from
Indonesia. It is also one of the poorest
countries, with about 42 per cent of its
people living below the poverty line,
and only about 50 per cent of adults
literate. In the past, Bahasa Indonesia
was used in schools and for official
purposes; now the indigenous Tetun
language has become one of the official
languages, and people want to learn it
properly. Good mathematics and basic
bookkeeping skills are also desired in an
economy that revolves around buying
and selling in the informal sector, and
where street markets in villages and
towns act as centres of the community.
The project began with a pilot in Dili
District in 2005, extended to Liquica in
2006, and will next be implemented in
Manatuto. The project works with both
children and adults, but women are the
focal point, as poverty and illiteracy
rates are high among women and
their status often very low, both in the
community, and within the family.
The way of learning is integral to the
Reading the everyday
Summer in Hong Kong – a season
of fullness. The sun seems larger. Trees
wider. People’s minds more open.
Somehow, there is a sense that more
is possible.
Well, this edition of O.N.E is full of
people who are changing their lives for
the better. Some very realistic dreams
are coming true.
Adult women who had never
picked up a pencil are now writing and
reading. People who never had the
courage and confidence to speak up for
themselves are now creating better jobs,
transportation and safer homes. Women
and children who had been bought and
traded are returning home safely. The
government is directing departments
to put the needs of impoverished rural
people as a top concern, so children
are going to school. Peace might finally
seem achievable. Teenagers are traveling
and opening their minds, hearts, and
worlds.
Of course, summer can be too hot
and sweaty, just as change can be
dignity. She seems to enjoy her new
skills, smiling as she learns, as if she is
so happy to finally know things that had
been denied to her for more than forty
years. She sits with her back so straight
and tall as if she knows she deserves to
be as aware, and as alive, as possible.
Yes to fullness. Yes to summer.
Madeleine Marie Slavick
Editor, Oxfam News E-magazine
Oxfam Hong Kong
exasperating and demanding. Some
of the newly literate women in Timor-
Leste struggled and struggled along
the way: learning how to hold a pencil
was just the first of many difficult steps
to literacy. Yet they persevered and
persevered. Cesarina (pictured below)
is one of the women who had never
stepped inside a classroom but who
can now read, write and do simple
bookkeeping.
When I see Cesarina in the photo-
graphs, I see happiness and pride and
ONE Family literacy in Timor-LesteONE Space for peace in the PhilippinesONE After the tsunami in IndiaONE Journeys to CambodiaONE Education policy in ChinaONE Trafficking in the Mekong
from Timor-Leste
August 2007
unwritten local language, should be
represented, and then how it could
be translated into Tetun. For the Nana
pasta Homan pasta, they also had to
agree on the precise steps of basketry.
When content is approved by everyone,
a black and white version is made, a last
check is done, and then the final colour
one is printed up.
For numeracy, the principle of
the everyday is also followed. The
participants learn to recognise numerals,
how to write figures , do simple
bookkeeping and record everyday
business transactions. Dice, card games,
and counting games are useful tools.
It has not been easy for everyone.
Some people forget easily. Others still
struggle with how to hold the pencil.
Adults who had never been to school or
to any kind of adult education class tend
to have the most difficulty – if they had
been to school, even for only a year of
lessons, they quickly remember things
they had learned. Starting to read and
write late in life can be especially hard,
and some of the older people struggle
so much and try so hard that there can
be nothing but admiration for the way
they persevere. At the beginning, many
of them only wanted to know how to
sign their name, but the books have
been such an incentive that they want
to do more.
It has been very exciting to watch
the whole process evolve and to see
the pride that participants have taken
in their efforts. Many women say that
learning to read and write is beneficial
for themselves as well as for their
children; for with their new skills,
they can be better teachers in the
home. Several other organisations have
become interested in the project, and
Oxfam Hong Kong has been offering
advice, training, and support for the
teaching and learning methods to be
replicated in other places.
Oxfam Hong Kong has been supporting projects in East Timor/Timor-Leste since 1999.
learns to write their name and a few
simple sentences about themselves.
Other books so far include family photo
albums and Nana pasta Homan pasta,
a book on the step-by-step process of
making a woven bag, all the way from
growing the plant, dyeing, and weaving,
to getting the product to the market.
Photographs are taken for the books,
and captions written in both the local
and national language. Oxfam Hong
Kong’s team sits with the group, writes
the participants’ words as the text, and
talks about things like pronunciation,
word formation, and grammar. The
team also models the writing. It is a lively
process, as the participants discuss how
a word in Tokedede, their previously
Creating space for peace in MindanaoGenela C. Buhia writes from Davao City in the Philippines
Hau nia naran Cesarina.A ka’u gala Cesarina.
Hau nia naran
A ka’u gala
In her late 40s, Cesarina has just learned how to write her name. Her family was so proud of her achievement that they worked with her to help her learn how to read too, and she can now read independently. The first time she used her signature was when she gave a handicrafts training in another town. Here she is, on the cover photograph, signing the form for her per diem payment. Photos by Francisco Fernandes and Nico Ximenes of Oxfam Hong Kong.
ONEstory
Peace-building in the Mindanao
context faces immense challenges,
as the problems go back to Spanish
and American colonial times which
involved discrimination of Moros’
and ethnic people’s rights to self-
determination. Some parts of Mindanao
have been mired in deep poverty for
generations, and the ARMM is an area
characterised by the intertwining and
mutually reinforcing issues of poverty
and conflict.
The Mindanao history reveals that
peace-building is always more than
the signing of an agreement and
outpouring of aid for roads and houses.
Forging sustainable peace also means
working together to create space to heal
physical, historical, social-economic and
psychological wounds. Trust must be
restored. Political and social gaps must
be bridged.
In the summer of 2006, people in
Mindanao were hopeful. There had
been no full-blown war for 2 years,
and some peace advocates were saying,
“We have broken the 3-year cycle of
war!” Fighting in 1997, 2000 and 2003
had killed about 120,000 people and
displaced about 2 million, and it seemed
as if the ceasefire agreement signed in
2001 between the Government and the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
was finally holding. But then, sporadic
gunfire between government military
and MILF soldiers in the Autonomous
Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
dampened the optimism. In the first
half of 2007 alone, fighting returned
in January and March between the
military and MILF, mostly triggered
by clan feuds as well as land disputes
between and among some settlers and
Moro groups.
in the Philippines
Yet, a movement for peace in
Mindanao continues. Some conflict-
prone villages in Central Mindanao have
declared themselves as peace zones, as
spaces to create peace while people
rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Oxfam
Hong Kong has supported this effort,
and several other conflict mitigation
projects, development initiatives, and
peace dialogues.
One particularly recognised local
group is the Bantay Ceasefire of the
Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) which
has about 500 volunteers in key hotspots
for monitoring, peacekeeping, conflict
prevention, mediation and investigative
missions. The MPC engages directly with
the peace panels of the government
and with the MILF, bringing in the
perspectives of Moro people, Lumad
(non-Muslim indigenous people) and
Christians. Their work is locally and
Mindanao
from Timor-Leste
internationally regarded. One woman
who volunteers says, “We cross rivers by
boat, we ride horses or carabaos just to
talk to the elusive commanders of the
MILF. We climb the hills and jungles to
reach AFP (military) camps, forgetting
the risks and fears.”
In March, President Macapagal-
Arroyo declared to step up all measures
for peace and stability and to advance
the talks between the government and
the MILF, and a peace agreement is said
to be in the offing. A recent GRP-MILF
Courtesy of Community Organizing Multiversity Centre and right photographs courtesy of Initiatives for International Dialogue/ Mindanao Peoples Caucus
“We crossed rivers by boat, we rode horses or carabaos just to talk to the elusive commanders of the MILF. We climbed the hills and jungles to reach the AFP (military) camps, forgetting the risks and fears”, relates Baileng Mantawil, a woman Bantay Ceasefire Volunteer.
statement indicates some progress
towards reaching a consensus on the
contentious ancestral domain issue. This
would pave the way for discussions on
other core parts of a comprehensive
peace agreement. Even as another war
is imminent as I write this article, the
people in Mindanao continue to hope
that a genuine peace process will truly
be upheld.
Genela C. Buhia leads Oxfam Hong Kong’s work in the Philippines. The agency has been supporting projects in the country since 1986, with a con-centration in Mindanao since 2004.
in India
As I reflect on my recent trip to
southern India to assess post-tsunami
projects, I particularly remember a
woman named Konduru Mangamma, a
woman who has been instrumental in
making her village a better place after
the tsunami.
Konduru, 30, sells fish and works as a
farmhand in a small 19-family village in
Andra Pradesh for a living; she supports
her four children through this work.
Even before the tsunami of December
2004, fishing was becoming harder and
harder in Andra Pradesh: the supply of
fish was dwindling, and the cost of diesel
was rising. The catch was often so small
that Konduru did not have any fish to
sell at the market.
When the tsunami struck, Konduru
lost her boat. She told me that to cope,
she frequently made porridge, which
stretched the little rice that they could
afford. She used less curry, which was an
unnecessary expense. Her family often
ate only one meal a day.
A nearby community group, Rural
Reconstruction Society (RRS), happened
to have visited Konduru’s village
just before the tsunami, and they
immediately raised funds for emergency
relief in the area. With support from
Oxfam Hong Kong, RRS distributed
fishing nets and cash for everyone to
repair or build their boats. To ensure
good quality construction, villagers used
some of the funding to hire a carpenter
to design boats with no engines: this
allowed for fishing in both deep and
shallow water.
At the end of 2006, Konduru joined
the women’s credit cooperative set up
by the village as part of the RRS-Oxfam
project. She applied for a loan of 2,000
Rupees to be able to buy more fish for
resale. All applications were screened
by all members, who appointed a
guarantor, and set the interest at 2
Rupees a month for every 100 Rupees
borrowed. Konduru told me that the
terms are much better than conditions of
normal creditors, who require repayment
in full and that fish be sold to them at a
price they quote. The plan gives Konduru
enough time to earn money and repay
without these pressures.
Some women also decided to try
other income projects, such as making
incense for a nearby manufacturer. They
attended training by the company while
RRS provided the capital for the initial
production expenses. It takes about
seven hours to prepare one kilogram
– work that the women do right in the
village – and payment is 250 Rupees per
kilogram. Their first batch of incense is
now ready to be sold to suppliers.
In a discussion I had with Konduru,
14 other women and 5 men, I was told
that other than the concrete assistance
of boats and loans and jobs, one of
the real gains people in the village
have achieved from the RRS projects
has been with their negotiation skills
with authorities and people who hold
power and make decisions. In the past,
they had not been as confident and
as clear with stating their needs, and
rights. Now, they exude a confidence.
They told me that their new sense of
strength is mainly due to the fact the
committee formed to implement various
rehabilitation projects has really evolved
into something functioning more as
a community collective. People have
been empowered by the strength of
collective action.
The changes in Konduru’s village
are evident. The community collective
petitioned the government to allocate
land that would be safer when cyclones
come or if another tsunami should
strike again: the village has since been
relocated to that selected site. They
convinced the bus company to resume
regular service in the area (it had
stopped with the tsunami); buses now
go right to the village. They urged the
electricity company to accept the fact
that people’s hardship has been so
severe that cash payments have just not
been possible: fees still owed by families
from around the time of the tsunami
have finally been waived.
There is still a lot of work to do to
recover from the impact of the tsunami
and to address the roots of poverty.
Yet, with the new collective, a new
community bank, new boats, and jobs
that supplement fishing and farming,
the future in Konduru’s village looks
different from the past.
Lourdes Lasap works with the Oxfam Hong Kong Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Management team. Based in Hong Kong, she has previously worked in Darfur, Sudan, and The Philippines.
JourneysWe ask, “Chum Ku-ium dei?” Do you
remember me?
Tian answers, “Chum!” I remember!
Tian is a boy we taught last year in
Cambodia. Somehow, seeing his smile,
his hope, his health, was what we had
been yearning for as we returned to his
village of Thnger, this time together with
a group of youth from Hong Kong.
Our first journey, in 2006, had been
so enlightening. When the six of us
returned to Hong Kong one month
later, we had changed. We realized how
much we could offer to society that we
– all of us students at the University
of Hong Kong which sponsored the
opportunity to visit Cambodia – set up an
organisation named Humanity in Focus
(HIF). With our mission, “By the youth,
through the youth, to the youth of the
world”, we strive to serve children and
youth in developing countries. We also
run education activities to inspire Hong
Kong youth to care about humanity,
accept their responsibilities in this global
world, and believe that they can make a
difference. This second trip to Cambodia
was exactly that: inspiration.
There were about 200 youth who
wanted to come, but the limit was 12.
This time, HIF had to plan the journey,
and it took months and months to
prepare everything. A thanks goes to
Village Focus International and Oxfam
Hong Kong.
On 13 June 2007, we finally arrived.
The youth could finally see another side
of life. For five days, they could feel the
‘simple’ yet ‘difficult’ life of a farmer,
and every night when we sat together
to talk, we could sense that they were
maturing, observation by observation.
They put so much effort in designing
the lessons for the children in Thnger.
They taught with all their soul. We knew
that the bonds formed in just five days
were strong; we knew that like us one
year before, their minds were already
changing.
Next stop was a city slum, another
world never seen by the youth.
Frustration and powerlessness seemed
to be everywhere – in the residents
and the participants, too. As we made
in Cambodia
After the Tsunami: New Community, New Boats, New Bank, New JobsLourdes Lasap writes from Andra Pradesh
Konduru (far right) with credit cooperative members and their incense. Photos by Julia Kalmirah / Oxfam Hong Kong
home visits, the youth tried to untangle
the social problems that created this
poverty. We could almost hear their
hearts crying. Humanity in Focus truly
believes that it is this compassion that
will keep them fighting for equality and
social justice in the world.
One participant, Tao Meng, said,
“Through cloud and rain, we survived.
We learned more about the world,
we learned more about ourselves, we
learned more about people just beside
us. I feel so lucky to have met you all. I
loved those days we stayed together,
I simply LOVED it! You are my friends
forever…”
Text and photographs contributed by Humanity in Focus: www.humanityfocus.org/ygcp07/Main/index1.0.htm
Batik training in at-risk
communities
is so full of snacks. One night, Tak-wah
feels so sick from all the junk food that
he throws up a chocolate monster who
brings him to the land of chocolate: he
sees the real life of cacao farmers. By the
end of A Wonderful Journey, Tak-wah
is asking a lot of questions. Where do
my snacks come from? Who grows my
food? To borrow this 10-minute cartoon
(in Chinese), go to http://cyberschool.
oxfam.org.hk/eng/resources.php
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 recently 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 June 2007 issue focuses on
social enterprises.
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
CANOxfam Hong Kong is supporting this
new photo-based magazine in China.
CAN means both “look” and “do” in
Chinese, and each 150-page edition (in
Simplified Chinese) examines a different
topic. The next edition, in October, will
focus on workers and their products.
The Chief Editor of the quarterly is the
writer-photographer, Liu Wai Tong. CAN
is available on the mainland and at select
bookshops in Hong Kong.
ONELINKs
What can people do about Climate Change and Poverty?
Please tell us at:
http://forum.oxfam.org.hk/?c_lang=eng
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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
When the central government
of China instituted a policy in 2000 to
close many rural schools and improve
the ones closer to towns, Oxfam
supported research to assess the
impact: young children simply could
Tak-wah is called ‘King of
Snacks’ by his classmates. He especially
loves chocolate. At every recess, he is
nibbling on something and throws half-
full wrappers in the trash. At dinnertime,
he can almost never finish the good,
homemade food, because his stomach
not walk such long distances to school,
and the drop-out rate was increasing.
Oxfam made policy recommendations,
and in 2006, the Ministry of Education
issued a directive to local governments
to implement the policy according to
students’ needs. In one impoverished
county of Guizhou, 10 schools due for
closure have remained open, yet over
35 remain closed. Oxfam continues to
monitor the situation.
Yang Lan / Oxfam Hong Kong
Human Trafficking Program is working
against this injustice. We are supporting
the safe return of people who have been
trafficked, as well as vocational training,
social services, emergency aid, research,
advocacy, and awareness-raising among
at-risk groups.
Somewhere between
200,000 and 450,000 people are being
sold or traded in the Mekong region
each year – mostly women, children and
ethnic minority people being forced or
lured into sex work, debt bondage, and
unpaid labour, usually in urban areas.
This trend in human trafficking is
part of the rural to urban migration
trends across the Mekong: villagers are
being drawn to cities by the growing
demand for cheap labour in both the
formal and informal workforce.
The Oxfam International Anti-