Oxfam Carolina
Bringing hunger home
BY SHIN YUN
Feeding a hungry person is only a temporary solution. That's why
Oxfam America works to empower poor people around the world to organize
and overcome economic and social inequities. And they don't want
government money to do it.
Oxfam America is a nonprofit, nonsectarian agency that relies on
contributions to fund 267 small scale projects in 28 countries. The name
Oxfam comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in
England in 1942. Oxfam projects are developed, implemented and managed by
local people.
An Oxfam grant is helping Tirso Moreno, founder of Farmworker
Association of Central Florida (FACF), continue his member-run labor
cooperative. Migrant farmworkers who have been exploited by labor
contractors in the past have the chance to secure their own job contracts,
and negotiate wages and benefits. The co-op members are covered under
workers' compensation and social security and make decisions as a group.
Oxfam grants also help women around the world to help themselves and
provide for their families. In India, Oxfam helps women artisans market
their work. In Ecuador, Oxfam supports indigenous women in becoming
leaders.
Nov. 16 is the national day of the Oxfam Hunger Fast. Thousands of
people around the country will be involved in a day of fasting, giving up
cigarettes and junk food, and they are encouraged to donate the money
saved thereby to Oxfam.
Stephen Harms, president of Oxfam Carolina, and an international
studies major at the University of South Carolina, is involved in
organizing a hunger banquet at the university.
Oxfam Carolina promotes mainly on campus because it's cheap and there
is a diverse group of people to engage.
"We're inviting everyone to an interfaith service on Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
at St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel, 1610 Greene Street," Harms said. "The
service will be the kick-off for the day of fasting. The next night there
will be a Hunger Banquet at 6 p.m. at Baptist Student Union, 700 Pickens
Street. Everyone's invited. We don't discriminate."
The interfaith service is a time of prayer and of sharing concerns
about poverty with people of different faiths.
Fasting is an ancient discipline that liberates the spirit and
encourages humanity and sacrifice. Rev. Tom H.B. Walls of the United
Methodist Campus Ministries regards fasting as a religious tradition and,
as the advisor of Oxfam Carolina, he recognizes the importance of fasting
for people who are not familiar with the hunger problem.
"Fasting makes us feel the emptiness that one-fifth of the population
feels every day. Sometimes people get overwhelmed by the gravity of the
issue but we want to give people hope and empowerment," Wall said.
After the fast, participants will be able to eat at the banquet, but
they might not get a good meal. The Hunger Banquet is a dramatization of
the unequal distribution of food. A large meal is prepared and divided
among guests in proportions that represent the earnings of people who live
in the world's (15 percent) high-, (25 percent) middle-, and (60 percent)
low-income countries. By random drawing, guests end up eating rice, rice
and beans, or a full-course meal.
Activities are planned for that night. Low-income people sit on the
floor away from the high-income people. The meals and the service get
better as the income rises.
Wall said, "People are surprised at their reactions, how they feel.
Some people who get good meals feel guilty."
An activity called "Move Up/Move Down" may allow some low-income
guests to move to a higher income status and receive the benefits, or
vice versa.
Different scenario are read to challenge guests' perception of their
security and expectations. In the middle of the meal a scenario might be
read for a high-income guest who worked as a machinist but lost his job
due to the plant shutting down. The guest doesn't have any savings so he
has to move down to the low-income group.
"I think walks are popular," Wall said, referring to the various
marches to support awareness of hunger issues, "but the hunger banquet is
a different experience. It asks you to identify with people's experience
more than walking. This banquet isn't the answer but we can give money and
try to understand and feel with people whose fate we don't understand.
"There are lots of good causes and the demands are endless, but food
is a basic human right. If you give people sustenance, nourishment, then
they can fulfill their lives," Wall said.
This is the third year of the fast and banquet. Tickets for the
banquet are $3 for students and $5 for faculty and the public. All the
money raised goes to Oxfam. For details on the banquet or about Oxfam
Carolina, call 799-7363.
Shin Yun is a free-lance writer and activist who lives in
Columbia.
"Fasting makes us feel the emptiness that one-fifth of the population feels every day. Sometimes people get overwhelmed by the gravity of the issue, but we want to give people hope and empowerment."
Rev. Tom H.B. Walls
