Download Oxfam-Diamond Valley Newsletter December 2015

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December 2015 Web: www.oxfamdv.wordpress.com
Email: [email protected]
Oxfam-Diamond Valley
Friday December 18 from 6pm
End of Year BBQ for Members and
Friends of Oxfam-D.V.
Home of Cathie Roby and Reg Elder,
64 York Street Eltham. Tel. 94399527 (No
need to RSVP.) As is our tradition, the last
event for the year is a BBQ. Please bring
meat/chicken/vegie burgers to cook, a
dessert/salad to share, plate, cutlery, wine
and glass, fold up chairs (in cars unless
needed). As Cathie and Reg are moving in
February, it will be the last event here.
Planning is well underway for the 2016
Oxfam-D.V. program, so come along and
help us remember our achievements of this
year and hear about the exciting activities
planned for next year.
'Frame by Frame': The film showing on 20
October was a spectacular success, 126
people attending and over $2300 collected
in ticket and merchandise sales, plus
donations, to go directly to the projects
supported by the Support Association for the
Women of Afghanistan.
My heartfelt thanks to my fellow Oxfam-D.V.
members for their generous support, as well
as to Saint Margaret's church for providing
their excellent facility and additional support.
Heather's marathon baking session paid off
with a great array of terrific cakes.
Don Stokes
Platter from Book Fair: Heather Lewin has
it. The name underneath is Jacquie Smith.
New Matilda https://newmatilda.com/
A reader suggests Oxfam supporters may
be interested in the online independent
Australian media outlet covering politics,
Aboriginal affairs, asylum seeker issues,
environment and media since 2004.
Oxfam News in brief
www.oxfam.org.au/media/
11/10: Perth walkers complete 100km
Trailwalker challenge
Teams had to rest regularly in the heat. The
fastest time was 20 hours 16 min. Of 1196
participants, 71% finished; over $900,000 is
expected. Sadly, one person died.
16/10: Labor promise to reverse aid cut
trend welcome first step
The Opposition’s announcement that it will
start to reverse damaging cuts to our aid
program if elected is a welcome first step,
but recent cuts mean greater action would
be required. Shadow Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Tanya Plibersek, committed to an
additional $30 million to Australian
international development NGOs annually.
Helen Szoke called on both the Government
and the opposition to commit to a path to
increase Australia’s aid levels to 0.5 per
cent gross national income.
18/10: Typhoon Koppu hits the
Philippines: Oxfam ready to respond
Typhoon Koppu is expected to sit semistationary above the country for up to three
days, creating intense rainfall and potentially
causing devastating flooding and tsunami
like storm surges in coastal areas.
19/10: Slow-moving Typhoon Koppu
heightens Philippines flood risk
In N.E. Aurora, with over 200,000 people,
wind gusts of 195km/h ripped the roofs off
houses and a local hospital, bringing down
trees and power poles, cutting off power and
communications. Flood waters are 1m deep
in places, with some town centres and farm
land inundated. The disaster-prone country
has experienced over 15 typhoons this year.
Oxfam has vehicles on standby and stocks
including bladder tanks to provide clean
water.
Oxfam – Diamond Valley Newsletter – December 2015
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December 2015 Web: www.oxfamdv.wordpress.com
Email: [email protected]
19/10: Farming, Pacific and Indigenous
community leaders bring climate realities
to Canberra
A NSW farmer, community leaders from
Indigenous Australia and Kiribati, and
Oxfam’s Dr Helen Szoke joined more than
20 Australians at Parliament House to urge
substantially stronger action on climate
change. Torres Strait communities are
losing land to the sea. Prolonged drought,
rising temperatures, and increasing bushfire
risk are disproportionately impacting on
indigenous communities.
Kiribati Health Retreat Association president
Tinaai Teaua said: “I call upon the world to
… keep the temperature rise below 1.5
degrees.” Dr Helen Szoke and Tinaai
Teaua will be in Paris for the UN climate
change negotiations.
24/10: Silence after the storm: World
waits for news of Hurricane Patricia
damage in Mexico
Strong winds, intense rains and waves up to
8 metres high were predicted to hit the coast
in the most powerful storm the region has
ever seen. While cars have been moved
across roads and trees torn down with gusts
of up to 325kph, the full extent of the
damage is yet to be known. Over 500,000
people may have been affected by the
hurricane.
25/10: Hurricane Patricia: No major
damage reports but flooding and
landslide threat remains
Oxfam’s rapid assessment teams are today
travelling to affected communities to survey
damage, particularly in poor and
marginalised communities. It is working with
the Government of Mexico, ready to assist if
required.
25/10: Nepal earthquake 6 months on:
delays in policy and fuel crisis hamper
recovery efforts
Over 8,600 people were killed and an
850,000 homes destroyed or badly
damaged, tens of thousands still in shelters
of bamboo and corrugated metal. Relief for
8 million is disrupted by delays in reinstating
the Nepal Government’s National
Reconstruction Agency. Protests at the
border with India have held up fuel
deliveries for over a month, preventing aid
agencies from reaching 81,000 families.
Thanks to generosity from around the world,
Oxfam has reached over 445,000 people in
7 of the worst-hit districts, with blankets,
mattresses, warm clothing, 55,000 shelter
kits, 50,000 hygiene kits and installed
almost 8,000 toilets. It has assisted almost
10,000 households with food and 30,000
farmers with rice seeds for the planting
season.
26/10: 7.7 earthquake rocks Afghanistan
Ready to respond to the earthquake in
remote Badakhshan province, Oxfam has
worked in Afghanistan, one of the world’s
least developed countries, for over 30 years
in areas such as disaster response,
governance, livelihoods and women’s rights.
27/10: Oxfam assessing damage after
South Asia Quake
Over 150 are believed dead, mostly in
Pakistan, after the earthquake in
Afghanistan, where security issues will
inhibit access and telecommunications are
mostly down. People likely to be sleeping in
the open will need protection from the
elements, food, clean water and hygiene
essentials such as soap. It will soon be
winter and people will need shelters in subzero temperatures.
Oxfam – Diamond Valley Newsletter – December 2015
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December 2015 Web: www.oxfamdv.wordpress.com
Email: [email protected]
To donate to Oxfam’s emergency work
around the world, call 1800 034 034, or go
to oxfam.org.au/icf
30/10: Global report shows world headed
for dangerous climate change
A report by the UN’s climate change body
shows that current country pledges to
reduce emissions will not be enough to
avoid dangerous climate change. While the
UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change’s verdict shows that the world is
making progress, this round of pledges still
leads to 2.7 degrees of warming, which
would prove catastrophic for countries
around the world, especially the poorest
already struggling with the impacts of
climate change.
Australia’s current commitment to reduce
emissions by 26-28% per cent below 2005
levels by 2030 would leave it as one of the
highest per capita emitters and one of the
most carbon intensive economies amongst
developed countries by 2030.
For example, Brazil will reduce its emissions
by 43% below 2005 levels and the Marshall
Islands by 45% below 2010 levels by 2030.
Rich countries especially need to do more to
pull their weight. Already, at less than one
degree of warming, Australia’s Pacific
neighbours are being hit hard. Rising seas
are swallowing land and homes and climate
change is increasing the destructive power
of tropical cyclones.
Shifting weather patterns are causing havoc
with food production. The region now faces
the compounding impact of a ‘Super’ El Nino
event, including drought in parts of Papua
New Guinea.
Countries must make much steeper
emissions cuts to keep the average
temperature rise below 2 degrees.
Remaining below 1.5 degrees, the level that
many vulnerable countries are demanding
for their very survival, will require even
stronger action.
To do its fair share, Australia needs to
reduce its domestic emissions by at least
45% below 2005 levels by 2025, 65% below
2005 levels by 2030, and achieve zero
emissions well before mid-century.
1/12: Australia fails to provide real
increase in support for poorer countries
to tackle climate change
The announcement by Prime Minister
Turnbull that Australia will contribute at least
$1bn over the next 5years to support
vulnerable countries to adapt to climate
change and its impacts represents no
increase, being drawn from an already
diminished aid budget. It is far less than
what comparable countries including
Canada, UK, Germany and France have
committed.
As a leading international agency working
with poor people around the world, Oxfam is
seeing the world’s most vulnerable facing
greater droughts, floods, hunger and
disease due to climate change.
OXFAM – DIAMOND VALLEY MEETINGS
7.30pm 3rd Friday of each month
Nillumbik Living and Learning Centre
739 Main Rd Eltham, Melway Ref 21 J7
OFFICE BEARERS
Meeting Chairman - Stephen Lavender
Meeting Organizers – Cathie Roby
Marguerite Marshall
Carole Wigg
Treasurer & Membership - Louise Currie
Minutes Secretary - Elizabeth Stewart
Book Fair Committee – Stephen or Ruth
Louise Currie
Oxfam – Diamond Valley Newsletter – December 2015
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