Oxfam Canada Blogs

Bill Hynd, Oxfam Canada's Atlantic Outreach Officer, writes, "It is absolutely shocking to think every second, poor countries lose an area of land the size of a soccer field to banks and private investors. The result is many small-scale farmers, women and men, along with their families are being forcibly evicted from their farmland, without proper compensation. It is equally shocking that the majority of land acquisitions take place in poor countries that have their own serious hunger problems."  

Lauren Ravon, Oxfam Canada's Policy Advisor, writes "The issues surrounding land acquisitions, land grabs and the global land rush are complex. But one thing is simple: the rights of local communities should always be respected, and investments should never lead to more hunger and poverty."

Land grabs are making poor people poorer by taking their homes, their livelihoods and their heritage. This is why Oxfam’s GROW campaign is launching a new action to put the brakes on the global land rush.  

Toronto teen Mona Sharari swam the English Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, in 13 hours and eight minutes on Saturday, Sept. 8th. James Bremner, software engineer and sailor, tracked her amazing swim of over 40 kilometres and wrote this blog post. Mona has dedicated her swim to raising funds for children through her wishlist on Oxfam Canada’s Unwrapped gift program. She has already raised over $2,250. 

What do bars of soap, a mosquito net, a jerry can and a cooking pot have to do with World Humanitarian Day?  

Every one of us on this planet is descended from shared but distant ancestors. Whether from those who stayed, or from those who made those tentative steps out of the continent millennia ago, we are all African. Together we can make an African future where ‘charity will have become unnecessary’. 

Ishmael Beah was a young boy when the war reached him. At the time, it was evident that he had no other choice but to take part in the fighting because that guaranteed living for a few more hours, another day, or even weeks. Around the world, children grow up watching movies that present a false depiction of violence, but when Ishmael found himself living in a violent situation, actually seeing the suffering these weapons cause, he lost any fascination he might have had about weapons and war. In his words, "It’s time to make the world a safer place by forging a treaty to regulate the global arms trade."   

The third week of the Diplomatic Conference was a very busy one with many bits of new text released by the Chair. Sadly, these seem to be strongly influenced by the skeptics, although it is clear that many States won’t have it. A strong statement delivered by Malawi on behalf of 74 States emphasized that “…an ATT will be judged by the strength of its criteria (and also its scope)". 

Your food choices can make a difference. Oxfam’s GROW campaign is working to help repair the broken food system. To do so, we need to involve everyone. Every time we open our fridge and food cupboards, we step into the global food system. We each play a part through the food we purchase, cook and put on our tables.