From Our Blog

How Bwiza Village Taught Us Food Security Is Job No. 1

By Karl Weyrauch, Founder, Pygmy Survival Alliance

View of Bwiza Hillside

Bwiza Hillside 2009. Photo: K. Weyrauch

To most people in Rwanda, Bwiza Village was a place unseen, and to the outside world, it was less than that.  It was both unseen, unheard of, and mostly unimaginable. Yet, the name “Bwiza” in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, translates as “something good” and a place named “Bwiza” would essentially mean “a good place”. Clinging to the eastern slope of an unnamed hillside in Gasabo District, in the eastern-most part of the city of Kigali, Bwiza in 2009, was home to about 30 Batwa families who lived in a couple dozen stick and thatch huts scattered like buckshot across two ravines splitting the ridge like cracks in a loaf of crusty peasant bread.

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Organization Profile

Oxfam – Helping Refugees Since its Inception

By Joel Meyers

Photo of line to get water

Ukraine Oxfam water points in Mykolaiv. Photo: Kieran Doherty / Oxfam

Hello, please introduce yourself, including your position(s) at Oxfam, and where you are stationed.

My name is Tara Gingerich. I am the Humanitarian Director at Oxfam America. Oxfam America is headquartered in Boston, though I live in Maine and work remotely. I have worked for Oxfam for over 15 years.

Tell us a bit about Oxfam and how Oxfam initiated programs to help refugees…

Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice. We work with local organizations to address urgent humanitarian needs and protect lives when disaster strikes, and at the same time, we tackle the root causes of poverty, for the long term. We advocate for economic justice, gender equality, climate action, and to transform the global humanitarian system. And we demand equal rights and equal treatment so that everyone can thrive, not just survive.

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Goalmaker

Empowering Resilience: Supporting Women and Children amid Ukraine’s Conflict

By Amber Cortes

Anastasiia Zhelezko

Anastasiia Zhelezko. Photo: Global Communities

Anastasiia Zhelezko had planned her humanitarian career since 3rd year of her Bachelor’s degree. She was finishing her degree at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2022, already with the intention to work in the humanitarian field, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and everything happened faster than she thought.

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