2020-21 Year in Review

Explore a world of impact in just 5 minutes

Background media: An illustration of Zaibunissa, a member of the District Council who works with women to promote their participation in the local political process with an Oxfam Canada supporter speaking into a megaphone at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Credit: Khaula Jamil / Oxfam, Caroline Leal / Oxfam

Around the globe, we’re united in the fight for equality

Background media: Zarina Charan (40) is a female farmer, social activist, clothes seller and mother of 4 children. She lives in Nihal Charan village and was born into a farming family. Because of this she owns a 12-acre piece of family land. Traditionally, a woman owning that amount of land is rare. But Zarina stood up for her right to inherit the land as she was taught by her family to be independent.
Credit: Khaula Jamil / Oxfam

And even though COVID-19 has made this harder

Background media: A photo collage of a woman and her child standing at a food distribution centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The collage contains vials of the COVID-19 vaccine and an aircraft which is used for global vaccine distribution.
Credit: Fabeha Monir / Oxfam

We continue to rise up together

Background media: A young boy flies a pink and orange kite in rural Afghanistan, with a village of houses on a hill behind him.
Credit: Oxfam

25,700,000

In 2020-21, our support changed the lives of 25.7 million people

Background media: B-roll video of women around the world being impacted by Oxfam Canada’s work.
Credit: Oxfam

At Oxfam, we believe The Future Is Equal

Background media: A photo collage of a Sexual Health and Empowerment program participant outside a workshop in the Philippines who is smiling at the camera and two cooperative members Sofereti and Mkulila, who are bottling and packaging peanut butter in the factory in Lilongwe, Malawi with big smiles on their faces.
Credit: D'Unienville / Oxfam, Caroline Leal / Oxfam

Despite the ongoing pandemic, we stayed committed to our important feminist work

Background media: A photo collage containing a laundry basket with blue lines coming out of it.
Credit: Oxfam

So what did the past year look like?

Background media: Nur, a woman wearing a bright red dress and headscarf with a blue mask, uses a blue Contactless Handwashing Device in a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh.
Credit: Fabeha Monir / Oxfam

This Year’s Big Wins

Background media: A photo collage of Rumi, a woman wearing a patterned headscarf, who is laughing behind her sewing machine in Mithapukur, Bangladesh. The collage also contains a woman with long black hair holding up her fist, and two signs from a campaign that read “End Child Marriage” and “Girl Defenders.”
Credit: Patricia Miranda / Oxfam, Syed Tasfiq Mahmood / Oxfam, Ons Abid / Oxfam

Girls Not Brides Act

Thanks to the tenacity of the Creating Spaces team and its allies, like the youth-led #GirlDefenders, the Girls Not Brides Act, outlawing marriage below the age of 19, has been approved by the Senate and the House in the Philippines. It will soon be presented to the President for final approval

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Background media: Campaigner Sittie Mohamad of the Al-Mujadilah Development Foundation, a women’s rights organization based in Lanao del Sur is campaigning to end child marriage in the Philippines. She is wearing a brown headscarf and wearing beige glasses, with a pin on her scarf that reads “I am a girl defender.” She is standing in a group of women and looking upwards in an optimistic stance.
Credit: Vina Salazar / Oxfam

Emergency Relief

In the face of worsening poverty, hunger, conflict and violence due to COVID-19, we provided pandemic-specific emergency relief to more than 14 million people in 68 hard-hit countries around the world

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Background media: A woman stands in front of a large sign describing COVID-19 relief measures.
Credit: Princess Taroza / Oxfam

Global Vaccine Access

We’ve kept the federal government’s feet to the fire on global vaccine access, ensuring that this important issue stayed in the news and on the minds of Canadians via 2,251 media stories

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Background media: Oxfam Canada Women’s Rights Specialist Dr. Siham Rayale speaks to CTV News.
Credit: CTV News

Beirut Blast Relief

Thanks to our generous donors, the Humanitarian Coalition and a matching fund from the Government of Canada, together we raised $19 million to provide cash grants, emergency housing, clean water, safe sanitation and essential hygiene products in the wake of the Beirut blast

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Background media: Lebanese volunteers with gloves and masks gather outside of buildings to clean streets and rebuild after the Port of Beirut explosion.
Credit: Hiba Al Kallas / Shutterstock

Securing Rights Project

Our Securing Rights project provided food to hundreds of domestic workers in Bangladesh whose families faced extreme poverty and hunger after losing their jobs due to COVID-19

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Background media: A domestic worker, wearing a patterned red and orange headscarf and a bright blue face mask, waits at a food distribution centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a lineup of women behind her.
Credit: Fabeha Monir / Oxfam

Learn about our reach around the world in 2020-21

Reach by regions

  • Infographic map of Latin America & The Caribbean
    Oxfam's reach in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020-2021 was 1.3 million people in 13 countries, and 59 per cent of them were women and girls. Oxfam worked with 662 partners in the region. This information is represented with a map of the world with 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted in green. The countries are: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay, Dominican Republic.
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Background media: A group of people standing in a circle hold out their hands as a blue pot pours water over them at a hygiene and sanitation workshop in Kamkalaga, Chad.
Credit: Pablo Tosco / Oxfam

Individual Donors

We couldn’t do this without supporters like Lori Hanson and Sasha Hanson Pastran, who raised more than $8,000 with family and friends to support the people of Nicaragua after two record-breaking back-to-back hurricanes hit the country in November 2020

Background media: A photo collage of two women, Lori and Sasha, standing in front of the remains of a house that's walls and roof have fallen after a hurricane.
Credit: Oxfam Canada

We want you to know exactly where your donor dollars go

Background media: A photo collage of a smiling woman holding a small baby in a harness around her neck. Her name is Jasmin, a survivor of Gender Based Violence and client of Family for Change who received urgent crisis support, with her daughter, Chaintiller. The photo is accompanied by a woman handing a bucket of emergency supplies to an Oxfam volunteer.
Credit: Khaula Jamil / Oxfam, Caroline Leal / Oxfam

How we use your donor dollars

Where we use your donor dollars

Ending poverty begins with women’s rights

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Background media: A photo of a woman sitting with a child on her lap.
Credit: Pablo Tosco / Oxfam