One of the purposes of this blog is to share personal experiences and stories of Oxfam Action Corps volunteers. I found this post written by Christine to be a fitting follow-up to the previous post on the collective power of the people.
International Women’s Day
I joined Oxfam in the belief that any person, including empowered women, can create change in this world. Oxfam Boston’s International Women’s Day celebration is always an inspiring event, but this year, it was especially wonderful. First of all, I had the honor of introducing Emiliana Aligaesha, an Oxfam “Female Food Hero” who had founded a successful farmer’s cooperative in Northwest Tanzania. She taught herself to farm and helped found Kaderes Peasant Development, a cooperative that supports hundreds of small-holder farmers. It was an honor to meet her, to speak with her and to present her with the Boston Oxfam Action Corps’ “International Women’s Day Women’s Leadership Award”.
As part of the celebration, a Hunger Banquet was held. If you’re unfamiliar with a Hunger Banquet, it works this way: everyone present is arbitrarily separated into 3 groups. There is a High-Income Group, a Middle-Income Group and a Low-Income Group. Food is divvied up according to your income group. The High-Income Group is served at a neatly set table with fancy, fabulous food on good dishware. The Middle-Income Group sits in chairs without tables; they serve themselves fairly good food, like beans, rice and drinks. The Low-Income Group is served only plain rice and some water that’s been colored with food coloring to make it look dirty.
I have always harbored a secret wish that someone would turn the Hunger Banquet upside down, but as an organizer, I had always felt like this couldn’t be me. As an organizer, I ensure that people follow the rules.
As someone who wasn’t raised with great means, this always made me feel uncomfortable and conflicted. Here I was – one of the Hunger Banquet event organizers – and I always wanted to subvert the process. The point of the exercise is that people grow to understand that it’s arbitrary where you ended up in this world, and staying within your assigned “Income Group” gives you the experience of understanding the situation of “less fortunate” people. I had always wanted to stand up and say, “We’re not going to take this. Let’s just share.” But I felt that I couldn’t.
But this day was different. This was the day that I had been waiting for, after being involved in many, many Oxfam Hunger Banquets. After the rules were explained by one of the organizers, something happened that I will think about for a long time.
A woman stood up, voice shaking just a little: “We don’t have to follow those rules. We can all join together and share with one another. Let’s vote on it. Raise your hand if you think we should all share.”
Some people didn’t raise their hands, but the majority did. This was unprecedented; perhaps people were startled. This brave woman, whose name I never learned, taught me a lesson and inspired me. She was expressing what Oxfam America and the Boston Oxfam Action Corps truly stand for: equality and justice. And so we all ate, together, except for some of the people at the High-Income table, who had the really good stuff. But, isn’t that always the way?
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