ANNUAL REPORT 2021

We at Oxfam Pilipinas dream of and work towards a future free from poverty and injustice. We strive to keep women’s rights at the heart of everything we do.
Thank you to our partners, supporters, and donors who make this possible.

Joan Pacis is a community organizer and a member of DEPRIVE, a people’s organization that implements locallyled initiatives informed by community consultations. At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, Oxfam worked with DEPRIVE to distribute safe water and food and pamphlets providing health information in the local language in Quezon City, Metro Manila. (Photo: Vina Salazar/Oxfam)

Features

Juanday Esmael, (Maguindanao Alliance of Youth Advocates) MAYA president, fixes the Child Early and Forced Marriage info material before the session in Guindulungan, Maguindanao. MAYA is supported by the The Creating Spaces Project, which is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Oxfam Pilipinas, United Youth of the Philippines-Women (UnYPhil-Women), Al-Mujadilah Women’s Association (AMWA) and other partner organizations. (Photo: Princess Taroza/Oxfam)

The Future of BARMM: Students stand up against child marriage

Juanday and Farhana are childhood best friends who grew up in Guindulungan, Maguindanao. They were classmates from elementary until college, and both were student leaders. Since grade school, Juanday and Farhana witnessed early child and forced marriages and violence against women in their...

A woman pushes a wooden cart used to carry water containers in Salcedo, Eastern Samar (Photo: Jed Regala/Oxfam)

Financing for Development in the Philippines

As the Philippines approaches upper-middle-income status, it continues to face the challenge of fighting poverty and economic and gender inequalities, while also confronting COVID-19.

A portrait of Asma Lumenda, an active member of the “Girl Defenders” Alliance working to end child marriage in the Philippines, in Muti, Guindulungan, Maguindanao. The Girl Defenders Alliance is part of the Creating Spaces Project, which provides livelihood for young mothers. It is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Oxfam Pilipinas, United Youth of the Philippines-Women (UnYPhil-Women), Al-Mujadilah Women’s Association (AMWA) and other partner organizations.

Lifelong lessons of early marriage

Asma chose to be married at the age of 15, but her mother did not allow her. According to her, she decided to marry her current husband because of love.  "Early marriage is legal to us Muslims. However, I realized that it is difficult to marry and become a mother at an early age, especially if my...