Kate Lee
Kate joined Oxfam Hong Kong in 2013 as humanitarian and disaster risk management programme officer. Her work has put her in touch with a lot of disasters and emergencies. What has impressed her most is the power of people, and the fact that those in disasters are able to say: “We are homeless, but not helpless.”
Humanitarian, Africa27 FEB 2015
Oxfam Community Support Workers teach children in West Point, Monrovia (Liberia) how important it is to wash their hands to prevent the contraction of Ebola. | Abbie Trayler-Smith / Oxfam
When I brought my niece to drawing class last Saturday, I was requested to pay HK$2 to buy a face mask for her because we forgot to bring one. Upon arriving at the centre, she, like the other children, had her temperature taken and had to wash her hands before entering the classroom. With the government’s Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic setting its response level at ‘serious’, it’s unsurprising that these measures are in place. In fact, they show how important changing people’s behaviours is in reducing transmissions.
These kinds of simple preventative measures have also been used in Guinea to minimise the risk of Ebola transmissions when more than 1.3 million children returned to school in January this year. Due to the Ebola outbreak, schools in the three most affected countries (Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone) did not reopen after the end of the July-August holidays, depriving five million children of months of education. Putting these measures in place has allowed Guinea to reopen its schools on 19 January, Liberia on 16 February and Sierra Leone at the end of March.
Development Programmes, Humanitarian18 APR 2014
By Kate Lee – Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Management Programme Officer
A boy reaches for water in Dargalar, Azerbaijan, in this photo from 2011. The village of 400 people did not have potable water for two years before Oxfam reconstructed an artesian well there. (Oxfam/David Levene)
This past week, people across several countries in Asia got soaked from head to toe in one of the most joyful festivals on their calendars: New Year’s.
Humanitarian, Middle East15 MAR 2014
Kate Lee – Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Management Programme Officer
As a member of the International Programme Unit, my work has put me in touch with a lot of disasters and emergencies – the devastation following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, flooding and cyclones in India and Vietnam, a hurricane in Mexico, and violence in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, for example. But the Syria conflict has got to be one of the most heart-wrenching to see.
Though we are far removed geographically from Syria, the plight of its people remains close to our hearts here in Hong Kong. And today, the third anniversary of the conflict, our thoughts are with Syrians more than ever.