On Friday, we had a visit by Rose’s Mum Tamara, who works for an organisation called OXFAM. OXFAM are a humanitarian organisation that help people in difficult situations, such as living in war zones and natural disasters. OXFAM go into these situations and try and help!OXFAM is a big part of the world achieving the UN Global Goals and they believe we all need to do something today to achieve these goals.
Tamara showed us a VR video that is set in a refugee camp in Lebanon. At this camp there are more children than adults, so it shows how the children try to get an education and how they play together.
OXFAM helps out this camp by distributing food. It is a VERY minimal amount, with basics. Fresh fruit and vegetables are missing from the ration pack. Tamara asked us how we would make the meal different in a refugee camp? The answer – people try and grow their own herbs and veggies to put in the meals.
It’s very difficult to grow things, with very minimal water too. People have to get creative and create little green houses for their plants to grow. With 500,000 people living in just one refugee camp in Lebanon, the worry is where the plastic and tins go from their ration packs. They are encouraged to reuse it – use the plastic bags to grow seeds for the market garden and crush the cans and sell them back to other countries for the metal. The bags from the rice and flour can be used to reinforce peoples tents.
OXFAM also looks at other global goals such as gender equality and inequality – when we have problems like war, its often because of inequality – some people have little and some people who have a lot. People are also driven from their countries because of what they believe in.
Question from Tamara:
- How do they cook their food? – There is no fuel, no electricity, no coal, no sticks.
Some Ideas we came up with:
- dry it with the sun (josh),
- rubbing rocks together (tom),
- cook them in the sun (aliye);
Solution: – solar lighting and solar cooking; use rocks to make a cook stove that doesn’t emit any smoke (because it is in the tent)
Questions from the Students:
Xena asked does any of the food harm animals, or tested on animals? OXFAM try to find fish that is sustainably sourced but it is really hard – they are trying to get as much food out as possible but also not put pressure on the environment. It is a challenge/choice – do we find food that is cheap or care about the environment?
Allegra wanted to know how did Oxfam started? There were four people who were living in Oxford, and they had seen a story and knew a lot of people in Greece after WW2 that weren’t getting enough food. In 1942, these people started it. Now it is in many countries and we have many supported.
Luke wanted to know how do you get to Bekaa Valley . Bekaa Valley is in Lebanon, so you need to go there first, then get special permission, it is a dusty long 4wd trip, then more special permission, you need security training, it is very close to the Syrian border.