On Wednesday October 15th at 6:30 pm in NYU’s 5 Washington Place building, I was fortunate enough to attend an informative discussion given by Dr. Miriam Aschkenasy, an enthusiastic specialist in emergency medicine at Boston Medical Center as well as, if not even more impressive, Oxfam America’s Public Health Specialist, a vital and passionate driving force behind the formation of Oxfam’s innovative, and hopefully successful, initiative approach to disaster risk reduction, known as “early warning system.” This discussion, given to a rather small audience of what appeared to be most entirely made up of current participating donators or potential donators, aimed to prove to their supporters that the funds given to this non governmental organization were actually going towards the promised attempt of achieving the goals set forth by the Oxfam company. The evening started with drinks and appetizers to initiate the friendly ambience that was consistent throughout the entire experience even as the subject became more difficult to understand and much more saddening, to say the least (but thanks to their continued and hard efforts, a dark cloud with what appears to be, the hint of a silver lining).
Dr. Aschkenasy, who spoke to advocate the continued need for funding of the NGO Oxfam, an international relief and development organization whose mission is to create long term solutions to the devastating and ongoing global crises of “poverty, hunger, and injustice,” through its development of relationships in over 120 countries, combined with local partners, and most importantly through the incorporation and involvement of the actual crisis stricken community members.