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SUSTAINABILITY: SUSTAINABILITY AND ROBIN HOODS, HEAVEN IN LAOS, JAPAN: THREE MONTHS AFTER, TREASURE HUNT, OXFAM PIX, 18 NEW PARTNERS
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JUNE 2O11
SUSTAINABILITY AND ROBIN HOODS Oxfam Hong Kong’s Sustainable Livelihoods Adviser Johan Rock says the more Robin Hoods in Hong Kong, the better.
HEAVEN IN LAOS It’s Fair Trade, certified organic, made with solar power, and scented naturally. It’s silk and tea from Mai Savanh Laos.
JAPAN: THREE MONTHS AFTER The Oxfam priority in the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis is to assist women, children, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, writes O.N.E editor, Madeleine Marie Slavick.
TREASURE HUNT An old man and a child search for love. Sandy Wong, Education Officer with Oxfam Hong Kong, introduces the newest workshop at our Interactive Education Centre.
OXFAM PIX Around the world, people are trying to make their lives stable in the face of the huge changes due to the climate change crisis.
18 NEW PARTNERS With a highlight on Live and Learn for Environment and Community.
Woman with a bird of Fair Trade silk / Photo: Courtesy of www.maisavanhlao.org
SUSTAINABILITY
O.N.E will move to our main page at www.oxfam.org.hk. See you there.
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 2
O.N.E: Would you say that sustainable
development is about having a strong
economy and a good environment?
JOHAN: That’s definitely part of it, yes.
Economic growth is important, at least
in developing countries. And the growth
has to be green. It has to respect the
environment. Which is why we are
promoting agro-ecological practices.
O.N.E: Tell us about these practices and
why they’re so important.
JOHAN: It’s a kind of farming that imitates
nature and helps protect our natural
resources such as soil, water and air. In
Vietnam for example, many farmers follow
the ‘vuong-ao-chuong’ practice, which can
be translated as ‘garden-fishpond-pigsty’.
Farmers use leftovers from vegetable
gardens to feed pigs. The manure is then
taken to a pond, where it makes plankton
grow that the fish will feed on. And pond
water is used to irrigate and fertilise the
garden. The cycle is closed. Nothing is
lost. Some farmers go even further and
let their fish swim freely in their rice fields
to eat insects, so that less pesticide is
needed.
As you know, the world is facing a severe
food crisis. We need to produce much
more food, and we have to do this in ways
that protect the world’s natural resources.
Agro-ecological practices, in combination
with some (safe) industrial fertiliser and
maybe pesticide, can do that. Green
practices can also help farmers adapt
better to the climate change crisis, for
instance by conserving water or growing
drought-resistent crops.
O . N . E : W h a t e l s e i s n e e d e d f o r
sustainable development?
JOHAN: Social and cultural aspects are
at least as important. Economic growth
alone, even if it is green, does not give
you sustainable development. The wealth
created by that growth has to be shared
fairly. China’s economy may be growing at
an incredibly fast pace, but so is the gap
between the rich and poor. The same is
true for Hong Kong. Just the other day, I
met this old man. I had seen him before,
searching the garbage bins for some
Sustainability and Robin Hoods in Hong KongJOHAN ROCK is Sustainable Livelihoods Adviser with Oxfam Hong Kong, working on livelihood programmes in Africa and Asia. O.N.E asked him to help us explore the many faces of sustainable development.
ONE PERSON
Johan’s son at a climate change action in Hong Kong
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
recyclable plastic or a cigarette butt. But
this time he approached me, asking, “Son,
can you spare me a smoke?” Which I did.
He then started telling me about his life.
He had worked in factories, had swept the
streets, taken care of gardens, and so on.
For very little pay. Now retired, he has to
supplement his meagre welfare benefits
by whatever money he can make from
collecting waste paper and plastics. Sad,
isn’t it? On one side, we have those who
drive around in Ferraris. On the other side,
so many folks struggle to survive, even
after a lifetime of hard and honest work.
That’s dead wrong. And not sustainable.
O.N.E: Is Oxfam Hong Kong working on
these social issues?
JOHAN: Oh yes. And I regard these
projects as some of our best work! In
Hong Kong, we have been campaigning
for the minimum wage and social security.
With good results. The large majority of
the population now supports minimum
wage legislation and social security.
But a lot remains to be done. Foreign
domestic workers are still excluded from
the minimum wage. Both the minimum
wage and the social security benefits have
been set too low. And we see how some
employers look for loopholes and cut
down on paid rest days and meal breaks.
O.N.E: How would you rate Hong Kong in
terms of sustainable development?
JOHAN: Not too well, I’m afraid .
To be fair, Hong Kong is one of the few
cities in the world that has kept so many
green areas. All you have to do is get
on a bus and in no time you’re in the
countryside. That’s great. I love it. But
how ‘developed’ and ‘sustainable’ a city
is does not depend on how many nature
parks it has. And it definitely doesn’t
depend on how tall its buildings are or how
many shopping malls it has .
To me, it depends first of all on how it
treats the poorest among its residents –
elderly people, the sick, the unemployed,
blue-collar workers, and so forth. In this
regard, Hong Kong does not do well. We
have one of the largest gaps between rich
and poor people in the world.
You also have to look at how we treat the
rest of the world. For instance, part of the
pollution in the Pearl River Delta is caused
by Hong Kong employers who moved
their factories to the mainland, where they
keep wages low and working conditions
substandard, simply to make more profit.
Hong Kong’s f inancial sector too is
creating problems in developing countries.
Plus, our carbon emissions (per capita)
are too high.
So, in short, Hong Kong still has a long
way to go before it can call itself a truly
‘developed’ and ‘sustainable’ city.
O.N.E: Is there hope?
JOHAN: Oh yes, absolutely! I look around
me and I see a lot of potential for change.
I see it in the eyes of those elderly folks
who search the garbage bins for paper or
plastic, anything they can get some money
for. Discontent over the extreme gap
between the rich and poor is growing. More
and more people are speaking out against
it. For example, there was a newspaper
article recently about Father Law Kwok-fai,
who invoked the anger of some of Hong
Kong’s richest people by condemning their
behaviour and speaking out for poor folks.
So, clearly Hong Kong has its own Robin
Hoods . And that’s good. Where there
are Robin Hoods, there is hope.
The youth of Hong Kong too give me hope.
Just look at the popularity of our Interactive
Education Centre. So many teachers
and students come to our interactive
workshops here. For me, taking the
elevator up with a bunch of kids on their
way to the Centre has always been quite
a thrill. A lot of young Robin Hoods in the
making ! We need to invest even more in
these kids. Every day they are confronted
with commercials and TV shows that incite
them to “buy this, buy that” and “get rich”.
We need to make them immune to all that
brainwashing and convince them that the
true heroes of this world are those who
stand up for poor people and the planet.
O.N.E: What else can we do for a more
sustainable Hong Kong?
JOHAN: Continue promoting agro-
e c o l o g i c a l p r a c t i c e s . C o n t i n u e
campaigning for labour rights and social
security. Continue educating Hong Kong’s
younger generation. And speak out on
other urgent issues too. Take nuclear
energy for instance. In the wake of what
happened in Japan, people are worried
over plans to increase Hong Kong’s
reliance on nuclear energy from the
current 23 to 50 per cent in ten years time.
I read that the Hong Kong authorities want
to consult the people, later this year. That’s
good. We have to seize this opportunity
and promote green sources of energy
such as wind and solar.
O.N.E: One more question. You will leave
Oxfam Hong Hong soon, right? What will
you do next?
JOHAN: Yes, we leave Hong Kong in
July. No concrete plans yet, but with more
than 20 years working in sustainable
development, I guess I’ll remain in the
same sector. But we’ll see. Life’s a box of
chocolates, right? Never know what you’re
gonna get . I’d love to stay in touch with
Oxfam. Contribute in one way or the other.
Even long-distance.
O.N.E: We count on it!
JOHAN: Please do.
TOP: Johan Rock with colleagues in Nepal
BOTTOM: Johan’s daughter (centre) playing with children in Beijing
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
From the start, this silk and tea farm in
southern Laos made the decision not to
use any chemicals. “Our farm is located
on the wonderful and pristine Boloven
Plateau and we want to keep it as it is for
the future,” say the Schmidts, Philippe
and El isabeth, a husband-and-wife
team who in 2005 started this Fair Trade
HEAVEN IN LAOS - SILK AND TEA, NATURALLY
cocoons
business called Mai Savanh Lao, or Silk
Heaven Laos.
Solar power brings them the huge quantity
of hot water needed for silk production,
minus the carbon emissions and the cost.
Fertiliser is made naturally, with cow dung,
ash, cabbage and left-over vegetables.
They scent their mulberry and green tea
with their home-grown basil, lemongrass
and ginger.
Apart from their 25-hectare certified
organic farm, they run a silk weaving and
dyeing training centre in northern Laos,
and tea operations in Vientiane. They
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
and
tea for sale!
silkworms
washing lemon basil mulberry and basil
drying lemon basil
employ 35 people full-time, all of whom
had once been poor, and have trained
hundreds of others in farming, weaving,
dyeing and marketing.
In April 2011, Oxfam Hong Kong invited Mai Savanh Lao to present their Fair Trade products to international buyers at HOFEX, a biannual regional food and hospitality tradeshow held in Hong Kong. “It’s a good opportunity to see the market trends and to plan for the future.” For more: www.maisavanhlao.org
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
It is almost three months since the three disasters that hit Japan – earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis. Evacuation centres remain full. Some people are living in their cars. Others are living in a state of ‘jishuku’, a kind of seclusion. They tend not to socialize; if they are working, they tend to return home right afterwards – they fear being stranded anywhere. Of the 13,000 dead who have been identified, more than half were over the age of 65.
Oxfam is assisting at-risk women (especially mothers), children (especially infants and babies), ethnic minorities (especially people who do not speak Japanese) and people with disabilities (especially women). We have planned to work for at least one year and mostly in these five prefectures: Aomori, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Iwate and Miyagi.
Why women?
I n J a p a n , t h e r e a r e o n l y a f e w
organisations that specifically address
the needs of women and gender has not
been mainstreamed in disaster relief work
either. We will focus on single mothers,
pregnant and lactating women, women
who have survived sexual or domestic
v io lence, women wi th d isabi l i t ies ,
ethnic minority women and low-income
women. In the initial phase, we provided
counsel l ing for women, pr ivacy for
breastfeeding, sanitary napkins and other
personal care products. A 24-hour hotline
is now active.
Why children?
Psycho-social support is as necessary
as the material, especially for children
who can be easily traumatised. Oxfam
has prov ided counsel ing and a lso
clothing for infants, diapers, wipes, and
more. Child support has been offered for
single parents. In Japan, April marks the
beginning of a new school year, and many
school-buildings had been functioning as
evacuation centres.
Why minorities?
Approximately 40,000 non-Japanese
speakers were affected by the earthquake
and tsunami. Primarily migrant workers,
women married to Japanese men, and
students, they tend to be marginalised
in Japanese society and support has
been limited from the embassies of their
own countries. Oxfam has arranged for
translation services, and for multi-lingual
information in print, on DVD, through
websites and radio broadcasting – we
also supplied solar-powered radios.
OXFAM IN JAPANBy Madeleine Marie Slavick
Why people with disabilities?
Access to urgent supplies may prove
difficult for people with limited mobility.
Oxfam has arranged for goods and
services to be delivered for people with
disabilities. Health care is a priority aspect
of this response.
What about the nuclear crisis?
What happened at the Fukushima nuclear
plant underlines the multiple challenges
that the world faces in redesigning its
energy systems. Oxfam believes that the
production and the delivery of energy
need to be as safe, as clean, as green,
and as reliable as possible. It also needs
to be accessible to all.
Madeleine Marie Slavick is editor of O.N.E. For updates, keep an eye on Oxfam Japan’s website http://oxfam.jp/en and on Oxfam’s blog, where Akiko Mera, Executive Director of Oxfam Japan, blogs here from time to time: http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blog/. Oxfam’s partners include Japan International Cooperation on Family Planning: (http://joicfp.or.jp/eng/), Japan Women’s Shelter Network and Single Mother’s Forum.
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
TOP: Mother and daughter searching for a book to read / Photo: Oxfam Japan
LEFT: Safe water and other supplies for survivors / Photo: Miki Tokairin, JOICFP
BOTTOM: FM 80.1 reaches out to ethnic minorities in different languages / Photo: Oxfam Japan
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 8
UNCLE HUNG / TEASURE HUNT
Uncle Hung leads children on a hunt for love and other treasures at the Oxfam Interactive Education Centre, located right in Oxfam Hong Kong’s office in North Point / Photos: (left) Brenda Lee and (top) Cara Lin, Oxfam Hong Kong
Buddies On A Treasure Hunt By Sandy Wong
Every day, the old man went to the hill near his home. He took along a shovel, with which he dug up the soil at the foot of the hill, bit by bit. One day, a sad-faced child came to the hill. Seeing the old man patiently digging, the child asked out of curiosity, “What are you doing?”
“I am searching for treasure,” said the old man.
“What kind of treasure are you looking for?” the boy asked.
“I am looking for my son. How about you, why have you come here?” the old man asked.
“I lost my father.”
Uncle Hung tells the tale of the old man
and the child who explore love as they
embark on a treasure hunt together. The
workshop reminds us of the importance
of touching and connecting with people,
community and nature, lifelong.
Would you like to accompany Uncle Hung
on a journey to search for your own inner
treasure? Please visit http://www.cyber
school.oxfam.org.hk/iec.php?cat=1&id=155
Sandy Wong, Education Officer of Oxfam Hong Kong, works with different educators and artist-teachers in developing workshops for the Oxfam Interactive Education Centre.
This is a story about searching and love,
nature and sustainability.
These days, many things remind us
that life can be fragile. A person, a tree,
a village, a city, our quality of life and
social relations, all fade out and gradually
deteriorate, even disappear. We may be
left feeling anxious and uneasy. Maybe we
need love to fill in the cracks in our lives.
But what is love? Is love what we see in
the media – good people performing good
deeds? How do we explain love to our
children? Do we really know what love is?
At Oxfam Hong Kong, we always say we
are “helping people to help themselves”.
But before helping others, sometimes we
may need to know how to help ourselves
first. When we are vulnerable, do we
really know what love is? Understanding
is the process of searching.
Oxfam Hong Kong’s Interactive Education
Centre is offering a new workshop,
“Buddies On A Treasure Hunt”. The
workshop is led in Cantonese by Uncle
Hung the storyteller (Yuen Che-hung),
who is also an actor and an author of
several books. “We need to build our
lives on the basis of love,” he says. “The
only way to develop your own values is to
explore and understand your own feelings
and emotions.”
O.N.E JUNE 2O11 �
Finding Sustainable Ways to Cope with Climate Change
BLOOD COCKLE:
Temperatures in Ben Tre, Vietnam, are increasing, and this dark sheeting helps keep the water of the tidal river cool – the way the blood cockle like it. / Photo: Bui Thi Minh Hue, Oxfam
RICE:
Farmers experiment with different varieties that can withstand the changes in the climate in the Philippines, such as long periods of sustained rain. / Photo: Rice Watch and Action Network (www.r2phils.org)
SHEEP:
This breed of sheep called ‘Tan’ is suited for the very dry climate of Gansu Province, in northwest China, where desertification is on the rise / Photo: Xiao Sha, Oxfam Hong Kong
18
Working with people against poverty
www.oxfam.org.hk | 2�20 2�2�
CHINA VOICES Speak Out Against Poverty in Mainland China
Oxfam Hong Kong has launched a book of
stories and photographs that features the
views and accounts of people whom Oxfam
has met in 23 years of anti-poverty work in
Mainland China. The publication depicts the
lives of farmers, women, migrant workers,
ethnic minorities and community workers in
China’s impoverished rural areas.
Available at Swindon Books, Kubrick Book
Stores, Relay, Dymocks, CUHK Press,
Times Publishing, Hong Kong Readers,
MCCM Creations, Xiyao Book Store and
Oxfam’s online shop at www.oxfam.org.hk
O.N.E (Oxfam News E-magaz ine) i s
published by Oxfam Hong Kong, 17th Floor,
China United Centre, 28 Marble Road,
North Point, Hong Kong. The publisher does
not necessarily endorse views expressed
by contributors. For permission to reprint
articles, please contact us; normally, we
grant permission provided the source is
clearly acknowledged. O.N.E is available
f ree to al l , in both an HTML and PDF
version, and in Chinese and English.
O.N.E will move to our main page at www.oxfam.org.hk. See you there.
N E W PartnerOrganisations
CHINA
Beijing • Beijing Migrant Workers Community Social Service Investigation and
Preparation Programme Team
• Beijing N-friends Information Consulting
• Technology & Education: Connecting Cultures (Beijing Chapter)
Guangxi • Prata-cultural Development Centre, Ethnic Minority Affairs Bureau
• Fishery and Veterinary Bureau, Douan Yao Autonomous County
• Fishery and Veterinary Bureau, Tiandeng County, Chongzuo City
Guizhou • Education Department, Jiangkou County
• Education Bureau, Songtao County
• Education Bureau, Congjiang County
• Service Centre, Shangji Town, Zunyi County
Shandong • Jicheng Social Work Service Organisation
Yunnan • College of Economics and Management, Yunnan Agricultural University
• Tengchong People’s Hospital
PHILIPPINES • Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia,
Asia DHRRA, Manila
VIETNAM • Live and Learn for Environment and Community, Ha Tinh
• Daknong Department of Planning and Investment
• Daknong Women’s Union
• Daknong Department of Finance and Planning
Every day, Oxfam Hong Kong works alongside hundreds of
groups around the world, from small NGOs to international
bodies, from government departments of developing
countries to community groups based in Hong Kong.
Here are 18 ‘partner organisations’ that we are supporting
for the first time.
In this edition of O.N.E, we highlight
Live & Learn for Environment and
Community, in Vietnam.
Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable
countries to climate change, and disaster
r isk reduct ion and c l imate change
adaptation with poor people is an Oxfam
priority in the country. As part of this work,
we have awarded a US$20,000 grant
to Live & Learn for Environment and
Community, a youth organisation based in
Ha Tinh.
L i v e & L e a r n c r e a t e d t h e G r e e n
Generation Network (The He Xanh),
which empowers youth and environmental
voluntary groups to become ‘green
change agents’ through training, coaching
and many youth-led initiatives. These
agents then inspire climate awareness
and action among other youth nationwide
– they have a l ready worked in 15
provinces.
Oxfam Hong Kong’s support will enable
the Network to expand to 20 provinces
and 3 cities. The project expects that in
one year at least 150 more young people
will have become agents; at least 3,000
youth will have participated in at least 10
youth-led initiatives on disaster risks and
climate change; and the Network will have
developed new collaborations with many
organisations (government and non-
government), business groups, and media
communities.