Women power IN THE PACIFIC
Rural communities across the Pacific are facing huge challenges to their traditional ways of life due to the increasingly chaotic effects of climate breakdown. With support from Oxfam and the New Zealand public, resilient rural women in Vanuatu are finding new cultivation techniques to cope with crop failure from hotter, drier and more extreme weather. The world over, it’s been found that supporting the economic empowerment of women ultimately benefits everybody. Here are seven stories of hope and inspiration.
In the eye of the storm
Extreme weather events pose relentless challenges for 36-year-old Liliany Buktan and her family. The last tropical cyclone destroyed her chook-house and killed her chickens, wiping out her main source of income. It was a serious blow to Buktan, who relies on money from her poultry and vegetables to sustain her family.
The family have vivid memories of the last devastating storm. “The cyclone was very strong. Me and my kids were inside the house and the kids were crying. The wind blew off the thatch roof from the house and everything inside was wet, so we had to move and live with some [other] families. My husband lives in Vila so it was just us at the time.
