Last Friday, Oxfam honored three women for taking action on climate change.  Honorees included Senator Barbara Boxer, California EPA Secretary Linda Adams and other government officials.

(above, Darren Santos/Oxfam America, Sisters on the Planet Ambassadors (l-r) Mary Wilson, Sharon Hanshaw, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Elizabeth Becker, Rev. Dr. Miriam Burnett, Rachel Larson.)

Oxfam International coordinates the efforts of fourteen organizations.  Local Oxfams specialize in the regional needs of their community.  Currently, Oxfam Mexico is working on projects to support local agriculture.  Oxfam Australia is tackling indigenous poverty and worker’s rights.  Across the globe Oxfam organizations are organizing a “tck tck tck” campaign to combat climate change.

The program sponsoring Friday’s event, called “Sisters on the Planet” looks to connect women from all over the world interested in mitigating climate change. Sisters include Sahena Begum from Bangladesh, Martina Longom from Uganda and Sharon Hanshaw from Missouri.

By honoring these women, Oxfam tries to remind us that communities across the globe are affected by climate change in different ways.  Martina Longom’s small village in Uganda contributes astronomically little to the carbon that is warming our atmosphere, and yet the community feels it perhaps more than most – warming increases the spread of disease and worsens drought.  Sharon Hanshaw is trying to help her community recover and prepare for future storms like Hurricaine Katrina that are worsened by the warming winds in the Gulf of Mexico.  To watch their stories visit oxfamamerica.org/