A British charity based in Oxford, dedicated to alleviating poverty and distress throughout the world; an abbreviated form of Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. Founded in 1942, most of its funds are now used to provide long-term development aid to Third World countries. Oxfam International now works in over 80 countries.
The 13 Oxfam organizations are based in: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Quebec, Spain and the United States. A small Oxfam International secretariat is based in Oxford, UK, and the secretariat runs advocacy offices in Washington, D.C, New York, Brussels and Geneva. Oxfam Great Britain is based in Oxford, UK. The first overseas branch of Oxfam was founded in Canada in 1963.
Shops
Oxfam opened the first charity shop in Britain in Broad Street, Oxford in 1948. Over 70 of the organization's shops in the UK are specialist Oxfam bookshops, making them the largest retailer of second-hand books in the United Kingdom.
Oxfam shops also sell fair trade products from developing communities around the world.
Funding
Oxfam has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John D.
Fundraising
Oxfam has a number of successful fundraising channels in addition to its shops. Many London Marathon competitors run to raise money for Oxfam, and Oxfam also receives funds in return for providing and organizing volunteer stewards at festivals such as Glastonbury. In conjunction with the Gurkha Welfare Trust, Oxfam also runs several Trailwalker events in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Oxfam's work
Though Oxfam's initial concern was the provision of food to relieve famine the charity has, over the years, developed strategies against the causes of famine. In addition to food and medicine Oxfam also provides tools to enable people to become self-supporting and opens markets of international trade where crafts and produce from poorer regions of the world can be sold at a fair price to benefit the producer.
Oxfam's program has three main points of focus: development work, which tries to lift communities out of poverty with long-term, sustainable solutions;
Oxfam today works on these issues:
International trade Education Debt and aid Livelihoods Health HIV/AIDS Gender equality Conflict and natural disasters Democracy and human rights Climate changeCriticism
On 26 October 2006, Oxfam accused Starbucks of asking the National Coffee Association to block a trademark application from Ethiopia for two of the country's coffee beans, Sidamo and Harar.
Facing over 60,000 letters of concern, Starbucks placed pamphlets in its stores accusing Oxfam of "misleading behavior" and insisting that its "campaign need[s] to stop." On 7 November, The Economist derided Oxfam's "simplistic" stance and Ethiopia's "economically illiterate" government, arguing that Starbucks' (and Illy's) standards-based approach would ultimately benefit farmers more.
User Comments Add a comment…