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OXFAM AMERICA
Oxfam stands for the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. It was started ∈Oxford, England ∈1942∈ response to the European famine-related issues resulting from the Second World War. Ten other countries worldwide, including the United States and Australia, have started chapters of Oxfam. They make up what is known as Oxfam International.
Oxfam America is dedicated to creating lasting solutions to hunger, poverty, and social injustice through long-term partnerships with poor communities around the world. As a privately funded organization, we can speak with conviction and integrity as we challenge the structural barriers that foster conflict and human suffering and limit people from gaining the skills, resources, and power to become self-sufficient.
Oxfam implements various global projects that target areas particularly affected by hunger. The projects focus on developing self-sufficiency of the communities ∈ which they are based, as opposed to merely providing relief ∈ the form of food aid. Oxfam’s projects operate on the communal level, and are developed by evaluating issues causing poverty and hunger ∈ the community and subsequently the possible infrastructure that could end hunger and foster the attainment of self-sufficiency. Examples of projects ∈ which Oxfam America has been or is involved range from a women’s literacy program ∈India to providing microloans and agriculture education programs for small-scale organic farmers ∈California.
Adapted from http://students.brown.edu/HourglassCafe/Pages/about.htm
In the sentences “...barriers that foster conflict and human suffering...” (paragraph 2) and “...end hunger and foster the attainment of self-sufficiency.” (paragraph 3), the word foster means
