Oxfam Canada marks World Humanitarian Day

When Hurricane Stan hit Guatemala and El Salvador, women organized emergency evacuations and set up feeding stations. As Hurricane Mitch pummeled Nicaragua and Honduras, triggering flash floods and mudslides, women began counting the missing.

More recently, amid deadly and unpredictable violence in Mogadishu, women are setting up tiny health clinics. They`re also staging water collection sites in the Somali capital and choosing places for other women to pick up food rations.

Women are often the face of the world`s worst emergencies, their quiet anguish beamed around the world as they mourn lost children, recount violent rapes or speak of stretching their family`s meager food supply to impossible lengths.

But they are also the frontline of response.

On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, Oxfam Canada salutes those whose everyday acts of quiet compassion ensure the survival of others.

They are often women, and they`re often motivated by an overwhelming sense of urgency. In places like Somalia and Zimbabwe, humanitarian workers are committed to changing their countries.

Frustrated by the failures of their politicians and unwilling or unable to join military movements, they push for change by helping those who need it most.

As climate change raises temperatures, it`s predicted their work will become all the more important.

According to a recent Oxfam study, `The Right to Survive,` the number of people affected by climatic crises is projected to rise by 54 per cent to 375 million in less than a decade.

Climate change has already aggravated conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East. In Darfur, long-standing local conflict was certainly made worse by increasing scarcity of water and pasture.

Crises caused by floods, droughts, tropical storms, rising temperatures and landslides threaten to overwhelm the humanitarian aid system.

It is already under siege. Last year was the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers, particularly for local staff, whose work in the community made them most vulnerable.

Humanitarian aid provides the bare minimum required to save a human life: the food, shelter and water that people need to survive.

In the best scenarios, these short-term fixes transform into long-term development projects aimed at improving lives and livelihoods.

But the world barely copes with the current level of disasters. Humanitarian responses are often fickle and gender-biased - too little, too late and too often ignoring women`s needs.

Humanitarian aid must be delivered so it builds on the affected country`s ability to prepare and withstand future shocks. National governments, with the help of the international community, need to invest more in reducing the risk of disasters.

Oxfam Canada is urging governments to act now, by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, putting money into prevention strategies like dams and erosion barriers and funding solutions to help poor women and men adapt to already unavoidable climate change.

Humanitarian aid should be apolitical. When help is needed, it shouldn`t matter whether the affected country is considered `good` or `bad,` whether it`s a trading partner or `friend.` When disaster strikes, what matters most is humanitarian need.

In a time of crisis, women are more likely to be affected, and to respond. Climate change means there are more crises coming.

We must be willing to help.

By responding quickly to crises and ensuring disaster relief funds reach the organizations that deliver humanitarian aid on the ground, the Canadian government can help maintain our country`s long-standing reputation as a helping hand in a time of crisis.

For more information on Oxfam`s work in emergencies, click here: www.oxfam.ca.

Mia Vukojevic is the Humanitarian Coordinator for Oxfam Canada.