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Our partnership with Oxfam 365 helps to equip them with the resources and essentials to respond to emergencies as soon as they happen, such as the disasters in Haiti and Pakistan in 2010, as well as forgotten emergencies where Oxfam would otherwise be unable to respond.
Our support for Oxfam closely fits our core business purpose as an insurer.
We have seen natural disasters such as floods and earthquake at first hand, and responded to the challenges in the communities where we do business. In these communities and any others affected, we know the importance of immediate response, and direct our funding towards expert organisations which can provide rapid assistance on the ground.
Aviva’s contribution
Oxfam 365 emergency fund is a vital resource, enabling Oxfam to be there as soon as a disaster strikes. Our donation is allocated to this Fund, which runs at £3 to £4 million annually.
The Fund provides grants and loans to Oxfam humanitarian teams around the world, to enable them to respond to an emergency immediately before institutional or public funding is made available. If and when funding does become available, the money is repaid and the Fund is replenished.
Having immediately available funds enables Oxfam to respond quickly and effectively to some of the world’s most devastating emergencies.
Since September 2006, Aviva has donated £600,000 (inclusive of the 2010 donation) to Oxfam 365 emergency fund.
Oxfam’s responses in Pakistan and Haiti
In 2010, the Oxfam 365 emergency fund helped hundreds of thousands of people affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan. The scale of the disaster meant that Oxfam and its partners needed to scale up massively and rapidly. The Oxfam 365 fund supported this work, including recruiting people in Pakistan and bringing emergency support personnel on board. As a result, Oxfam’s logistics teams got vital equipment to people stranded by the floodwater.
One year after the Haiti earthquake, much has been done, but the scale of devastation in a densely populated urban environment continues to present enormous challenges. Oxfam is still working to provide sanitary living conditions and to prioritise assistance in communities where so many people lacked basic services, even before the earthquake struck. Oxfam is developing new ways to address these complex problems, including new types of latrines specially adapted to urban camps, as well as start-up grants to help people regain lost livelihoods.
Further examples of emergencies supported by the Oxfam 365 emergency fund:
- In May 2010, £100,000 was allocated to Oxfam’s emergency response in Kenya. Close to the Somalia border in North Kenya is the world’s largest refugee camp of 244,000 people. It was built for a much smaller capacity of only 90,000 people. Overcrowding has resulted in deterioration of basic services and increased the risk of disease. The £100,000 supported the relocation of refugees alongside establishing clean water and sanitation facilities.
- In 2010, the Fund supported 30 emergencies all around the world, from the Chilean earthquake in February to Cyclone Giri in Myanmar in November. 17 out of 30 emergencies were in Africa, seven in Latin America and the remainder in the Middle East, and Central and East Asia.