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A mother and a daughter. We can’t use their real names. We can’t show their faces. That’s because “Maria” was fleeing danger. Not just something—someone.
Make a difference in the lives of refugees seeking safety in the US and for people fighting poverty in 90 countries around the world. Sign your name now to show that you stand with refugees and make a gift that will help refugees and other families trying to build a secure future out of poverty.
Sign the petition DonateAlmost 70.8 million people like Maria have fled their homes worldwide. It’s the highest number since World War II, and the root causes are stark: conflict, violence, persecution, poverty, and food insecurity. According to the UN, a person is forced to leave home every two seconds—a crisis made worse by public policies that put families in harm’s way.
With few guarantees, Maria is searching for safety and opportunity—for the chance to live a life of dignity, free from want and fear, like generations of people that have come before her.
"We fled Honduras because our son and nephew were being pressured to join a gang to sell drugs in high school,” Maria said. Back home, she and her husband sold clothes and shoes for their small business. Narco-traffickers took a third of their income each week. If the couple didn’t pay up, they threatened to kidnap and ransom the children. “Some people imagine the people in the caravans are criminals. The reality is that we are fleeing the criminals."
War and civil unrest in countries have displaced millions of people from their homes. According to the UN, more than 44,000 people leave their homes because of conflict and persecution every day.
Many families from Central America tell Oxfam they left their home countries because they did not have access to economic opportunity. In Honduras, for example, nearly 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.
For the last three years, the number of hungry people in the world is on the rise because of conflict and climate change. Almost 500 million of the world’s hungry live in countries affected by conflict.
Welcoming those in need of refuge is a fundamental part of our national story. Turning our back on the oppressed means forsaking what it means to be American.
In countries around the world, Oxfam tackles the root causes of forced migration. But when people like Maria have no choice but to flee, we work to make sure that those on the move have help to survive, can exercise their legal rights under US and international law, and have the best possible shot at a life of dignity.
Oxfam partners with local organizations to address the reasons people are forced to leave their homes. These community-based solutions and campaigns tackle sexual and gender-based violence, invest in sustainable development, fight corruption and impunity, increase access to justice, and call for peace. When we are successful, families are able to stay in their homes and communities.
Millions of people on the move struggle to find clean water, shelter, food, and work. When families left in search of safety in 2018, we provided lifesaving assistance at camps and shelters along their journey and supported employment opportunities. In Central America, this assistance included hygiene kits, food, clean water, portable toilets, and showers for families arriving at migrant shelters on their way to the US.
Oxfam advocates for policies that protect the world’s most vulnerable. The scale of this crisis has prompted calls for action in the US, but a broken immigration system and the introduction of anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies have increased human rights violations and confusion.
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Today’s struggles on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis—advocating for safe working conditions and defending the undocumented—echo generations of calls for worker justice and equality.
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Is it possible to practice good hygiene without clean water?