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RF_NGO_6_SUDHA
Oxfam
Campaigner
Newsletter of the Oxfam Campaigning Network
No. 15 Summer’95
Copenhagen summit:
fine words, shame
about the action
O
XFAM threatened a walk-out
at the opening of the UN
World Summit for Social
Development at Copenhagen in
March. "It is unacceptable that in the
midst of global prosperity, 1.3 billion
people now live in debilitating
poverty. Governments should be
doing something about poverty, not
just talking about it," said Patricia
Feeney, Oxfam Policy Adviser.
The Social Summit had aimed "to do
for poverty what Rio did for the
environment" and put economic and
social rights on the world agenda.
In the event the summit came up
with few actual commitments to
improving the lives of the world's
poor. But governments did admit that
better ways must be found to target
what aid there is.
As part of this, the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) agreed to take more account of
social needs when drawing up
structural adjustment programmes
for the Third World.
Oxfam believes that governments
must put peoplept the centre of
development. To meet the needs of
the poor, greater economic efficiency
must be balanced with a greater sense
of social justice.
As part of its new Campaign, Oxfam
will be pressing for real action to
match the fine words and sentiments
of governments and international
bodies on aid and development.
Social Summit, Copenhagen. NGO Forum watching a giant Hilary Clinton on multiple TV screens.
NGO's weren’t allowed into the official press conference.
June launch for new Oxfam campaign
XFAM is set to launch its major
new campaign on 20 June, we
can reveal to Campaigners.
The special graphic and slogan for
the Campaign are being kept under
strict embargo, but details of some of
the Campaign's major themes and
targets have been released.
"The key message is very simple,"
says Simon Collings of the Oxfam
Campaign steering group. "What we
are saying is poverty is wrong, and
that everyone has the responsibility to
eradicate it.
"Everybody has basic rights, such as
the right to enough food, water, a
livelihood, and an education. These
basic rights have been recognised by
O
governments around the world. We
will be campaigning to ensure they
are respected and upheld."
The new Campaign will be about
supporting poor people in their
efforts to secure these rights and
bring an end to their poverty. It will
also demand that the body of rights
developed and agreed through the
UN over the last 50 years should be
upheld by all governments for their
people.
"Over the next five years," says
Simon, "we want to make poverty as
morally offensive as other human
rights atrocities are today."
For more on the new Oxfam Campaign,
turn to page two.
INSIDE • The Oxfam Campaign • Rwanda Remembered
Spotlight on Uganda • Fair Trade
The new
Oxfam Campaign
he Oxfam Campaign, to be
launched in June, marks a
new start for campaigning
work in the UK and Ireland.
Behind the Campaign lies a very
simple message: that poverty is wrong,
and everyone has a moral duty to
eradicate it.
The Campaign proposes that it is the
denial of people's basic rights which is
the prime cause of poverty, and that
these rights are essential if poor people
are to work their way out of poverty.
The Campaign, which is set to run for
five years, goes right to the heart of all
Oxfam's work, and will involve people
all over the world.
Advocacy and campaigning work in
the South will be linked closely with
similar work in the North, so in a very
real way Oxfam will be able to gauge
opinions and influence actions from
village councils to the United Nations.
Campaigners, naturally, will be central
to the movement in the UK and Ireland,
taking the message on to the streets and
engaging the public. They will be key to
achieving the Campaign's three long
term aims:
T
• to gain international support for the
idea that people's basic rights must
be respected if poverty is to be
eradicated;
• to secure specific changes in policies
and practices of national
governments and international
bodies;
• to increase levels of concern and
action among the public.
Obviously, these aims can only be
achieved through a lot of hard work.
But more specifically it will mean:
• securing commitment from leaders
and decision makers to the broad
vision of the Campaign;
• lobbying and campaigning on
achievable policy objectives;
• generating greater public awareness
of the issues, in order to add weight
of numbers to the Campaign.
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page 2
The focus on basic rights is closely tied
to the 50th Anniversary of the United
Nations, and the UN Declaration and
Charter on Human Rights. Half a
century on, these human rights have
been violated on a massive scale - as
we have seen in Rwanda. Across the
developing world, Oxfam works with
people who are among the 25 per cent
of people who exist on the margins of
survival, too poor to get decent food,
work, shelter, or healthcare, let alone
education. At the same time, a vision of
a world without poverty is more
attainable than ever. What is missing is
the moral purpose and political will to
act.
The Campaign will put world poverty
back on to the moral and political
agenda and reaffirm faith in
fundamental human rights, as stated in
the UN's charter.
The Campaign will put world
poverty back on to the
moral and political agenda
Over the next five years, the
Campaign will have various key
activities which build on the sort of
campaigning work already in motion.
As well as issue-focused campaigns on
Trade and Reconstruction after
Conflict, there will be national,
regional, and local Basic Rights
Hearings, in which the need for basic
rights will be addressed by MPs,
campaigners, Oxfam staff, and partners
from overseas - and after which a
special poverty report will be presented
to Parliament.
From the start, campaigners will be
especially active in the Charter for Basic
Rights, a global petition which will call
on governments and the people of the
world to secure basic rights for all.
The September issue of Campaigner
will include details of how you can
help.
Basic
Rights
The Oxfam Basic Rights
Charter states that all
people have the right to:
• enough to eat
® clean water
• a livelihood
• a home
• an education
• healthcare
• a safe
environment
• freedom from
violence
• equality of
opportunity
• a say in their
future
Action:
Contact your local
Campaigns office for
further information on
and materials for the
launch of the new
Campaign in your area.
fl
Landmines
in
Manchester
pril 1. The word went round
that there would be landmines
in the middle of Manchester. A
macabre Fool's Day stunt, surely?
It wasn't. Lou McGrath from the Mines
Advisory Group (MAG) carried out a
mock mine-clearance operation to make
sure the Manchester conference on
landmines went off with a bang, as it were.
Besides bringing Manchester an idea of
what it is like to live with the threat of
landmines, the conference gave voice to
the growing call for a ban on the
production, sale, possession, and use of
these weapons.
LApur MEP Tony Cunningham said that
a i^nrt being presented to the European
Parliament supports such a
comprehensive ban. Adoption of this
report as the basis of future European
Parliament policy would represent a major
advance for the anti-mine campaign.
The Catholic aid agency CAFOD has
joined other agencies in calling for the ban,
and has produced a board game for
schools to heighten awareness among
younger people.
And as part of the continuing campaign
to press for action on landmines at the
highest levels, a petition is now
circulating, calling on the UK government
to ban the use, production, stockpiling,
and sale, transfer or export of all anti
personnel mines. It also calls for an
incase in funding to assist countries with
mJBtlearance, and to rehabilitate the
A
victims of mines.
The petition will be presented to the
House early next year, so please get as
many people to sign it as you can. Copies
can be obtained from your local
Campaigns office.
As John Sargent of the Manchester office
says: "The lethal impact of these weapons
on civilians continues to be an issue that
mobilises public support and attention.
This is a campaign we can win."
Action;
Organise a public meeting
on landmines.
N 6 APRIL 1994, the plane carrying
the presidents of Rwanda and
Burundi came down at Kigali airport,
killing all on board. It was the spark for
genocide.
One year to the day in London, the
steps of the church of St Martin in the
Fields were covered with 10,000 palm
leaf crosses in an act of remembrance for
all the victims of Rwanda's violence.
It was the largest inter-agency vigil for
years, and attracted a lot of media
O
coverage. Oxfam's Anne Macintosh,
Rwanda Country Representative at the
time of the outbreak of genocide, and
Overseas Director Stewart Wallis (photo
above) were both interviewed by
television news.
The day was also commemorated
around the UK and Ireland by Oxfam
Campaigners calling for reform of the
UN to ensure that the world never
witnesses genocide again.
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page 3
Spot ight on
A terrible burden ...Uganda still struggles under $2.6 bn foreign debt
The money-go-round
HEN HER HUSBAND DIED,
Florence joined a project for
women with disabilities, and borrowed
money to start a small shop. It was the
only way she could support her family:
there is no social security for people to
fall back on in Uganda. The shop was
her future.
Florence's business flourished and, in
due course, she was able to send her
children to school for the first time. Then
Uganda raised its taxation level to help
pay the national debt. Florence could
not afford to pay the taxes, and so her
business folded. Her children no longer
go to school. Even worse, she still owes
the money that she borrowed to set up
the business in the first place. Florence
now has a personal debt to add to her
problems. If she knew the truth about
the state of her country's debt, she might
feel angry, as well as distressed. Look at
the facts.
Uganda struggles under a growing
foreign debt of $2.6 billion, which
amounts to a staggering 92 per cent of
its Gross National Product (GNP). And
yet Uganda is a model debtor: it is upto-date on its repayments, and has cut
its social services to meet the
requirements of its creditors.
The good news is that Uganda is one of
the first countries to gain a two-thirds
reduction of eligible bilateral debt to
major creditors, agreed by the Paris
Club, the forum in which creditor
nations meet debtor countries. This
follows months of campaigning by
Oxfam and its Campaigning Network.
But bilateral debt owed to governments
W
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page 4
is only part of the story. The bad news is
that a massive 60-70 per cent of
Uganda's total debt is owed to
international financial institutions (IFIs),
such as the World Bank and the IMF.
Under their rules, countries are not
allowed to cancel or reschedule their
multilateral debt.
IFIs must acknowledge the scale of the
multilateral debt burden, and the effect
of debt repayments on the health and
education of Uganda's people.
As part of a lobbying initiative, Oxfam
in Ireland is now pressing the Irish
government to request constitutional
changes to the IFIs, enabling the IFIs to
write off multilateral debt. For this to
happen, the World Bank in Uganda will
have to recognise that economic growth
does not by itself address the needs of
the poor, and that a fairer distribution of
resources should be on the agenda.
Following pressure from Oxfam UK/1
and other agencies, the British
government has launched its own
initiative on multilateral debt. Oxfam
campaigners have been urging
governments to put pressure on the the
IMF to sell gold stocks to write off
Uganda's debt. To this end, the UK
government put its own proposal on the
agenda of the April meeting of the World
Bank/IMF, and will put a similar motion
to the June meeting of the seven richest
economies (the G7) in Halifax, Canada.
Through its newly-opened advocacy
office in Washington DC, Oxfam will be
monitoring developments at the
meeting, and keeping up the pressure on
behalf of people like Florence.
Campaigner readers will be no
strangers to the issue of
Ugandan debt. Members of
the Network have written
to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Kenneth
Clarke MP, urging for the
debt to be written off - with
great success. Here, we
report on what’s been happening, and
what Oxfam will be doing next.
Uganda’s economic performance since
1986 has been held as a model of good
practice by its creditors. The economy has
grown at a rate of around five per cent a year
since 1986. Inflation plunged from over 60 per cent in 1991-2 to
less than five per cent in 1993.
Yet, according to a 1993 World Bank report, more than half of
Uganda’s population lives in poverty. In 1992, the country spent
approximately five times more on debt-servicing than on the
health of its citizens.
Only 20 per cent of the population have access to clean water.
Infant mortality rates are 118 per thousand live births, which is
about 70 per cent above the average for low-income countries.
Preventable diseases are responsible for 53 per cent of the
deaths reported in 20 hos^^als.
Uganda: facts and
figures
Population: 18,442,000
Size: 235,880 sq km
Major
export
product: coffee
Staple bananas, cassava,
foods: rice
Life
expectancy: 52
Literacy: 35% female,
62% male
Source: World Bank: Growing Out of Poverty,
1993, Third World Institute: Third World Guide
AIDS robs children of
parents - and childhoods
IDS-orphans are often taken in by
grandparents, uncles, aunts,
cousins - but in Matete district, Masaka,
AIDS has taken a whole generation of
adults, with one consequence being an
increase in child-headed households.
Fulgensio Ssemiyu (above) is 13 and has
to look after his brothers Kanakulya
David (12) and Leonard Ssenono (7).
Although their parents died of AIDS,
none of the children yet shows any signs
of HIV infection.
Children in such situations sometimes
plunge deeper and deeper into poverty,
but this child-headed family is, perhaps,
more fortunate. Although they possess
only a blanket and a hoe between them,
A
Fulgensio is resourceful and
enterprising. He knows how to grow
food like maize, bananas, onions,
passion fruit, and beans. "I sometimes
try to sell bananas, but because I am a
child I can only get a low price," he says.
Fulgensio has had to give up
education, unable to cope with the
double pressure of going to school and
being responsible for the household.
He tries hard, but even Fulgensio's
skills do not extend to growing coffee, a
good cash-earning crop for many, which
can buy salt, paraffin and sugar for a
family. But, ever the entrepreneur, he
brews beer instead.
Seifcg beans to go to school
■RICHARD MAGERIA (right in
LlXkplioto) is not where he should be
- in school - but kicking his heels at
home, where he lives with his
grandmother, Mary Nakkazi. She's 83.
In a country where women's life
expectancy is usually 50, Mary could
expect her days as a carer to be over but her son and daughter-in-law have
both died of AIDS, and now she has
two new dependants: Richard and his
sister Sylvia.
Life is tough, money is short, and
Richard, who came top of his class last
year, finds it especially hard that he
does not have the 18,000 Ugandan
shillings he needs to return to school.
The Ugandan government does not
have enough money to fund schools
and teachers' salaries, and so the
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) has
to charge fees in order to pay the
teacher's wages. Richard's hopes rest
in some beans he plans to harvest and
sell in September. If the crop succeeds,
it will raise the money to pay his
school fees. I
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page S
Getting poverty on to the agenda
ACH YEAR, the annual conferences
of the political parties are splashed
across our TV screens. Statements from
leaders and sound-bites from the
conference floor head up the news.
Oxfam has had a regular presence at the
conferences, with stands publicising our
work, and speakers at fringe meetings.
Now, as part of the new Campaign, we
want to move up a gear by ensuring that
development gets a hearing on the
conference floor.
Local party members debate issues of
concern at all the conferences in
England, Scotland, and Wales. This
autumn, as part of a broad strategy to
build links with local parties, Oxfam
will encourage supporters active in local
E
parties to promote a resolution about
development.
The resolution uses the 50th
anniversary of tire UN to call for a
renewal of its vision of a world free
from deprivation, oppression, and war.
It urges governments and international
institutions to promote policies which
will eliminate global poverty. It presses
for real government commitment to the
UN target of 0.7 per cent of Gross
National Product (GNP) spent on
overseas development, and a reduction
in trade-tied aid. The resolution urges
action to reduce the debt burden owed
by the poorest countries, and an
assessment of the impact of structural
adjustment policies.
Action:
If you are already a
member of any of the
political parties at local
level try to persuade it
to debate and adopt the
model resolution at its
annual conference.
Contact your local
Campaigns office for
help.
Oxfam Week
N AMAZING 25,136 people
took to the streets for Oxfam
Week in October last year and
collected just under one million
pounds for Oxfam's work
overseas.
Thank you to all the Campaigners
who took part and helped make
the event a success.
This year, Oxfam Week will run
between 30 September and 8
October, and, as usual, we will
need local co-ordinators and
house-to-house collectors. So
.
please, look out for details of how "
you can help, which will be
appearing on walls and windows
near you soon.
A
Giastoobury
HIS JUNE sees the year's biggest
and best pop jamboree, the annual
Glastonbury Festival. Oxfam is once
again providing the three-day feast of
fun with voluntary stewards, and will
receive £60,000 for doing so.
But it's not all mud and music. This
year Oxfam's presence will be highly
visible on the campaigning side too. The
weekend will provide an important
T
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page 6
opportunity to launch the posters and
materials that will be used for the new
Campaign.
One aim is to get hundreds of
signatures for the Global Charter for
Basic Rights, which calls on the
governments and people of the world to
secure basic rights for all.
If you’d like to be a
steward at
Glastonbury, please
call Oxfam on
0117 923 7883
for details
FAIR
TRADE
WORKS
This spring sees another breakthrough for Fair Trade: its own dedicated page in
Campaigner. Bob Crampton talks to Justino Peck, Chair of the Toledo Cacao
Growers' Association, and one of the farmers behind Maya Gold chocolate
Sweet success
HE MAN in the jeans and jumper
comes in and sits quietly. He takes
milk in his tea, but no sugar. He is, as
the old joke goes, sweet enough. He is
Justino Peck. And that hand you've just
shaken grows the cocoa that makes
Maya Gold chocolate.
^fcstino, 31, lives in a village in Belize
vwuch has yet to be reached by the
electricity mains. Now he's in the UK on
a whirlwind tour of press calls,
campaigns meetings, and supermarket
sweeps: what does he make of it all?
"Life here," he says sipping his tea
carefully, "is so fast. I can't wait to get
back to my fields."
It is from those fields that Maya Gold
chocolate is bom. Launched in March
last year, the chocolate was the first
commercial product to be awarded the
Fairtrade Mark: a people-friendly stamp
of approval from the independent
Fairtrade Foundation, which guarantees
that the cocoa producers receive a fair
deal from the buyers, London-based
chocolate lovers, Green & Black's.
The chocolate, 70 per cent cocoa solids,
was an instant hit. It can now be found
T
in most main supermarkets, and is
selling around 35,000 bars a month. A
mini-bar retailing at 39p has now also
been launched.
For Justino and his fellow workers,
such success has been a long time
coming.
"It was in the '80s and early '90s that
cocoa became a cash crop for us," says
Justino. "Before, we Mayan people used
it only in celebrations, but then an
American company called Hershey
came and introduced a hybrid cocoa
plant which could improve cocoa yields
"All was well for a time. The price per
pound of beans held up and we made a
comfortable living, but as soon as the
price dropped, Hershey left. The price
for cocoa was so low, it wasn't even
worth harvesting."
One thing the big company proved,
however, was that, given the right price,
there was a living to be made from
cocoa. Undaunted by the hardship
brought on by the price crash, the
growers set up a co-operative to
transport and market their cocoa. A
brave step in difficult times.
Then, out of the blue, they were
approached by Green & Black's, who
were looking for a Fair Trade chocolate
to launch. A favourable deal was struck,
in which the company offered the co
operative a rate well above the market
price, and a three-year guarantee to buy
all Justino and his co-workers could
produce.
So what has Maya Gold meant to
Justino? "For me it has meant better
financial support for my family. I can
now send my daughter to school.
"It is very important to see the work
going on here in the UK," he comments,
looking at the Fair Trade Works posters
on the wall. "For me, to see different
groups and people promoting and
campaigning for Fair Trade sales is
incredible: people are doing a great job."
Action:
Keep buying Fair Trade
products!
Oxfam Campaigner no. 15 page 7
Sophia Tickell, of
Oxfam's Policy
Department, sees
advocacy as a
good example of
how the new
Oxfam Campaign
can go from
village council to
the LIN
Speaking Out
Sophia, "and now, as an international
organisation, we're going to learn from
that and move forward. We - Oxfam,
the eight International Oxfams, and our
counter-parts in the South - are going to
get much more systematic about it all."
So is the future a global campaigning
network?
"Advocacy works best in an alliance:
when a broad coalition of groups can
come together with all their different
angles on an issue, but move forward
and follow a consensus on what needs
to be done."
In Brazil, Sophia explains, Oxfam is
supporting many national organisations
in the biggest campaigning mass
movement that the country has seen in
■ decades; "The Campaign against
.Hunger, Misery, and for Life". But
advocacy isn't just working on a
national or international level. It works
locally, too.
"In Peru, a shanty town group run by
local women prganised a soup kitchen
to feed all the local children. This work
has been extended, beyond just fulfilling
the basic need, to involving the women
in discussions with the local church on
food aid, and looking at how food is
produced locally. Now, if they can
change those policies ...!
"You see, advocacy is about helping
poor people to call to account those who
implement policies. It's that basic right
of having a say in your future that we're
driving at.
"What Oxfam and the new Campaign
can try to do is help build a critical mass
of people who want to alter things... in
their community or their country."
Or - it flashes across Sophia's face but
she doesn't say it - maybe even the
world.
Oxfam Campaigner is the quarterly newsletter of the Oxfam Campaigning Network. All campaigning carried out by
Oxfam is based on overseas experience. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of Oxfam. All
correspondence should be addressed to your local campaigns office.
?XVAM
DVOCACY is not about
jlQjB elites talking to elites/'
says Sophia Tickell,
adamantly. "True, on one level it might
be about well-informed people swaying
decision makers, but for Oxfam it is also
campaigning on.a local level, using the
media, and tackling issues through
public education."
Advocacy, defined in the dictionary as
pleading for the cause of another, is the
new development buzz word. OK, so it
has been around for years, but, talking to
Sophia, you feel it is a concept about to
come of age.
"Advocacy is important for the new
Campaign, because it's a way of looking
beyond local development issues
towards the wider, macro, issues that
affect people's lives. Like health, trade,
and education."
The ten basic rights which underpin
the new Campaign will be the marker
for all future advocacy work, but who
will decide what should be done? Who,
exactly, does advocacy?
"A lot of governments in the South are
fed up with being told what to do by the
North. What Oxfam-is trying to do is to
work with people's initiatives on the
ground. There's been an enormous
amount of advocacy work going on in
the South, with varied success," says
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Action
1
Stations:
A round-up of actions we
are asking you to take in
this issue.
•Contact your local
office for information
on the new Campaign
•Organise a public
meeting on landmines
•Promote the resolution
on development
•Keep buying Fair Trade
products!
THE BIG IDEA
All governments have an obligation to protect not only the political and cultural, rights of
their citizens, but also their rights to things like clean water, shelter, education and health
care, (i.e. social and economic rights). These obligations, which can be traced to the UN
Charter, are codified in over ninety international human rights instruments. Yet as we
approach the end of the 20th century, the shocking reality is that individual governments and
the international community as a whole continue to tolerate, and, indeed, to perpetrate,
comprehensive and systematic social and economic rights violations.
Were these violations repeated in relation to civil and political rights, they would result in
expressions of horror and appeals to the UN system. But the fact that one-fifth of the
world’s population is afflicted by poverty, hunger and disease; that conflict deprives millions
of people of their homes, livelihoods and their lives; and that women suffer deep-rooted
forms of discrimination in all societies, barely registers on the Richter scale of international
human rights concerns. Instead of provoking outrage, denials of the most basic social and
economic rights affecting hundreds of millions of people are tolerated as unfortunate facts of
life for which governments are not responsible - and for which they are not answerable to
the UN system.
Such an approach to human rights is inhumane and morally indefensible. It is also
incompatible with the legally binding obligations accepted by governments under the UN’s
human rights framework. That framework makes no distinction between social and economic
rights on the one side, and civil and political rights on the other. As the final declaration of
the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights put it: "All human rights are universal,
indivisible and interdependent and interrelated." The declaration went on to reject in
categorical terms the notion that governments have no obligations to protect the social and
economic rights of their citizens. Calling on the international community to remove obstacles
to the realisation of all human rights, it added: "Human rights and fundamental freedoms
are the birthright of all human beings;
their protection and promotion is the first
responsibility of governments."
The rbig idea’ of the Campaign is this: to persuade an increasing number of decision
makers and members of the public to view material poverty with the same moral
revulsion as they do torture and other human rights violations, and to channel the
energy arising from this way of seeing to help people in the South claim their rights and
end their poverty.
This is not to say that we see a legal framework of rights constituting an anti-poverty
strategy, rather that rights can be used as one means of empowering communities of poor
people through giving them a recognised claim.
Poverty is not inevitable. Time and again our experience has shown that human rather than
natural forces are at the heart of the problem and that most poverty is the result of social
injustice. People create poverty and suffering, and people can put an end to it. It is not ideas
on a way forward that are lacking, but political will.
V
In what year, and in response to what crisis, did
Oxfam start? <Ring.>
1940, in response to German bombing raids on
London.
1942, to assist starving Greeks caught between
opposing armies in Greece.
1948, to help refugees from the first ArabIsraeli War.
1950, in response to the Korean War.
1953, to help victims of flooding in the East
of England.
1956, to support refugees from the Hungarian
x
Uprising against the Russians.
xj/
1957, to provide for refugees from the Algerian
War of Independence.
<Tick others which Oxfam may also have responded to.>
KULa:
ft
>3
2.
In what year and for what purpose was the first Oxfam
grant made in India? cRing.s
1943, to help people caught up in the Bengal
famine <£?
>.
1951, to assist in the relief efforts of the
Bihar floods <£10,000>.
1968, to fund the OXFAM GRAMDAN ACTION
PROGRAMME in 4 backward blocks in Bihar
<£125,000>.
1971, to provide relief for refugees from the
Bangladesh War of Independence <c £2m>.
1976, for relief and rehabilitation in the
Andra Pradesh cyclone <£500,000>.
click others which Oxfam may have responded to->
3.
In 1971-72 Oxfam's total income - globally - was £4
million (compared to £98 million in 1994/95) of which
- because of the Bangladesh War of Independence roughly how much was spent in the Indian Sub
continent? <Ring.>
5%
. 10%
20%
In what year and where did Oxfam open its
office in India? <Ring.>
Lrst field
Delhi in 1968/69
Bangalore in 1963/64
Ahmedabad in 1977/78
Nagpur in 1974/75
Ranchi in 1970/71
Calcutta in 1980/81
Bhubaneswar in 1983/84
<Tick the ones which have correct dates beside them.>
KU-:
1^^
5.
What is the name of the scheme by which Oxfam Trading
imports craft goods from producers in countries of
the South into UK? <Ring.>
Good Neighbours
Equal Exchange
Twin Trading
Traidcraft
Bridge
Tearfund
Fairtrade Foundation
<Tick other Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs) in the
list which promote “fair trading" in Britain.>
6.
How does Oxfam Trading sell most of its. products?
<Ring.>
Through Oxfam Shops.
Through its mail order catalogue.
Through other “fair trading" Alternative
Trading companies.
Through commercial outlets.
<Tick others in the list which provide OT sales outlets.
7.
Oxfam runs a textile recycling plant in Huddersfield,
called Wastesaver. Last year (1994/95) Wastesaver
made a turnover of £2.8 million, which makes it the
biggest textile recycling operation in UKI. Where do
you think most of its textiles come from? <Ring.>
From textiles/clothes which people give to it
directly.
From textiles/clothes which Oxfam shops can't
sell.
\/
From textiles/clothes which commercial shops
y.
can't sell.
—\
From local authority refuse collections.
From clothing factories "seconds".
vY
From Oxfam staff and volunteers' "cast-offs".
TICK OTHERS IN THE LIST WHICH MIGHT ALSO BE SOURCES FOR
WASTESAVER.
few
8.
In the period 1986 - 91 what proportion of Oxfam
funds went into its Overseas Programme and its
Education and Campaigning Programme (in OKI)? <Ring.>
70%
80%
83%
9.
The Trustees, who are ultimately legally responsible
for Oxfam, ask of the organisation that it should
spend no more than how much on administration,
fundraising etc.? <Ring.>
40%
30%
25%
In 1991 Oxfam was reprimanded by the Charity
Commissioners - the charity watchdog in UK - for
exceeding the "limitations" placed upon it by its
trusts and the restrictions of charity law.
Which of the following was Oxfam specifically
criticised for? <Tick>.
Holding a popular "referendum* to persuade .the
UK Government to change its policy with respect
to Cambodia.
Joining the Southern Africa Co-alition of 90
concerned organisations to press Commonwealth
Governments to take action to end apartheid.
Urging the British Government through its
Frontline Africa Campaign to "maintain, rather
than relax, pressure on the South African
Government" (ie through sanctions) .
Which of the following do you think it would be
“uncharitable" for Oxfam to make grants to? <Tick.>
Core expenditure of an Indian trades union of
highly exploited leather workers.
A newspaper produced by a human rights group
working on bonded labour.
A women's pressure group campaigning for equal
pay for equal work.
The purchase of property for a project partner,
the income from which would provide core
finances for the group.
A training programme for Indian journalists
with an interest in development issues.
f
There are independent "Oxfams"
belonging to the Oxfam "family" [though
not ncessarily known by the name "Oxfam"]
in the following places: <Tick>
v^ustralia
'^Belgium
jZanada
j^Hidia •'
^zffewf Zealand
Qpebec
UK and Ireland
Germany
sJffong Kong
Italy
Norway
-.^Netherlands
U1SA
■ Greece
Information from Oxfam
Organisation of Oxfam
Oxfam is a charity whose Trustees are legally responsible for all of the organisation’s
activities under the Charities Act, in the first instance to the Charity Commissioners and,
through them, to Parliament and the Chancery Division of the High Court.
Oxfam is also incorporated as a registered limited company whose Trustees must comply
with the requirements of the Companies Act 1948.
Oxfam’s structure
The Council
Oxfam’s Trustees form the Council,
which is the governing body of the
Association of Oxfam. Council meets
approximately eight times a year.
Trustees, who are all unpaid
volunteers, are responsible in law for
everything Oxfam does. These
responsibilities include:
• To ensure that Oxfam abides by its
charitable aims and constitution and
operates within the law.
• To be ultimately accountable for the
overall management of Oxfam.
o To ensure that income and assets
are applied for Oxfam's beneficiaries
and that its finances are properly and
effectively managed and monitored.
( )
• To set policy and objectives, and to
ensure the monitoring of their
implementation and evaluation of the
results.
• To preserve Oxfam’s good name
and reputation.
There are between 15 and 25
members of Council at any one time.
Trustees serve on Council for three
years with the possibility of a second
consecutive three-year term of office,
extendable up to nine years in the
case of Honorary Officers.
Oxfam’s Association
The Association can have up to 55
members. It is made up of all the
current Trustees, plus at least as
many other members, of whom
approximately half will be ex-Trustees.
The Association has the duty to hold
an Annual General Meeting at which it
receives the annual reports of the
Chair and of the Honorary Treasurer,
approves the audited accounts,
appoints the auditors for the following
year, and appoints any new Trustees.
The Association has powers to
remove Trustees, according to certain
established criteria, and would
manage the organisation in the event
of a major failure or default on the
part of Council.
The Assembly
The Assembly is a body of Oxfam
people which exists to facilitate
informed debate and exchange of
views between the various interests
and voices within Oxfam.
At the annual meetings of the
Assembly, debates take place on
issues of strategic or corporate
importance; meetings are structured
to allow a wide range of views to be
heard.
The Assembly actively encourages a
growing involvement in Oxfam
debates by volunteers, staff,
partners, advisers, and Friends of
Oxfam. It has about 250 members,
including all Association members
and therefore all Trustees. Being a
non-constitutional body, the Assembly
has no decision-making powers, but it
is intended that it should have a
powerful influence on decision
makers by enabling them to hear a
wide range of views on policy issues.
Staff and volunteers
There are approximately 27,000
Oxfam volunteers, working in about
836 shops, and in regional offices
throughout the UK and Ireland.
About one thousand staff are
employed by Oxfam in the UK and
Ireland (including UK staff on
contracts overseas). Of this number,
about 600 staff are based at Oxfam
House in Summertown, Oxford. There
are approximately 910 locally-recruit
ed staff working overseas.
The Director of Oxfam is responsible
to Trustees for the management of
Oxfam. Reporting to him are the four
Deputy Directors, who are each
responsible for one of the four
Divisions; Marketing; Overseas;
Trading; Management Services.
Marketing Division:
Fundraising; Communications;
Campaigns/public advocacy; and
Education work.
This Division includes staff in the
Oxfam Regions of the United
Kingdom and Ireland: Scotland; The
North; Midlands; South-west;
South-east; Wales; Ireland.
Overseas Division:
Implementation of Oxfam’s Overseas
Programme, including liaison between
Field Offices and Oxfam House by
Regional Managers and Regional
Administrators; Emergencies
Department; Programme Services
Department (overseas personnel/
development, overseas finance,
information systems etc); Policy
Department.
Trading Division:
Shops; Oxfam Trading (including the
Bridge Programme); Wastesaver.
Management Services Division:
Finance; Administration; Central
Human Resource Services;
Computing; Printing; Design.
Each Division has its own Human
Resource team whom you should
contact regarding personnel matters.
The Central Human Resource
Services Team deals with
organisation-wide HR matters, such
as insurance, pensions, and HR
policy.
Headline news
In 1979, Oxfam hit the headlines
for its work in Cambodia, where
Pol Pot’s brutal regime had laid
waste the country, and left over a
million people dead. Oxfam led a
group of agencies which mounted
the largest voluntary relief effort
ever, getting supplies of rice,
seeds, tools, water pumps and
fertilisers to cities and rural
areas alike.
In the early 1980s, Oxfam
again took part in a joint agency
venture - the Disasters
Emergency Committee - respond
ing to reports of suffering in the
Hom of Africa by raising £2 million
for relief work in Ethiopia, Sudan,
1979 Julie Christie helped Oxfam's campaign to bring the plight of the people
of Cambodia into the public eye.
Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. But
till the end of the 1980s, bringing
States, Canada, Quebec,
locust attacks on crops, rain
failure, and war led to famine,
together many thousands of
people to call for a better deal
Australia, Belgium and Hong
which struck in 1984. The world
for the world’s poor. Today, such
Ireland has an income of around
was slow to respond, but Michael
Buerk’s dramatic television
campaigning work is continued
£80 million, which funds
through Oxfam’s Campaigning
development and relief work in
reports finally revealed the scale
of the crisis. In just one year,
Network, which links people who
want to be part of a global
over 70 countries in the South,
Oxfam’s income more than
challenge to poverty.
professional staff and a wide
Kong. Oxfam' in the UK and
doubled to £51 million, and it
was able to give £21.7 million for
and is run by both paid
network of volunteers. For the
Oxfam today
most part, Oxfam funds and
emergency relief in the Hom of
Africa.
Since 1942, Oxfam has come a
Michael Buerk was one of
thousands of Oxfam supporters
ty and support of ordinary people
who joined a mass lobby of
in the UK and Ireland. Oxfam is
long way, thanks to the generosi
supports small projects overseas
run by local people, whose
knowledge and contacts ensure
that money and effort are used
as efficiently as possible.
parliament, as part of Oxfam's
now one of the best known
new Hungry for Change campaign
charities in the world, with sister
in 1985. Hungry for Change ran
organisations in the United
Oxfam’s programme today, in
both the North and the South,
aims to help poor people claim
their basic rights to employment,
shelter, food, health, and
education; to recognise women’s
special needs and capabilities;
to help people win a say in
decisions which affect their lives;
and to support their efforts to
live in ways that won’t destroy
the environment.
Information from Oxfam leaflets, on a
range of topics are available free of
charge from: Oxfam Supporter Services,
274 Banbury Road. Oxford 0X2 7DZ
Tel: (0865) 312603
Recent titles include:
■ AIDS
■ Refugees and displaced people
■ Eastern Europe
■ Fair Trade: the Bridge programme
■ A brief history of Oxfam
TODAY Deaf children at the Suf Community Centre for the disabled, Jordan.
Around the world. Oxfam is helping millions of poor people to help themselves.
Registered charity no. 202918 Printed on recycled paper. 0X546/kj/93
SXSAM
Working for a Fairer World
Oxfam. 274 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 7DZ Tel: 0865 312603
Oxfam in
About India
NDIA, THE SEVENTH LARGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, stretches from the
I
snowy Himalayas in the north to the tropical beaches of Kanyakumari in the
south; from the hot, dry, plains of Gujarat and the Thar Desert in the west to
the hills and tea estates in the north-east. The people of India are culturally as
diverse as the geography, and speak over 1,500 different mother tongues; Hindi
and Bengali, two of 18 official languages, are the fifth and sixth most widely
spoken languages in the world.
Modern India is a federation of 25
states and union territories, demarcated
largely by language. Because of its size
and great diversity, some people have
said that India should be looked on as a
continent rather than a country.
India’s history can be traced back for
more than 5,000 years. Empires of great
complexity existed here earlier than
anything comparable in Europe. Some
hymns and poems are still recited in
Hindu worship today as they were 3,000
years ago. It is a history resplendent with
empires and dynasties which have left
behind them some of the greatest
buildings and art in the world. The British
Raj was no more than a short episode in
the country’s long history, but one which
- through the infrastructure of railways,
postal service, and telegraph system united the once-independent states and
princedorhs, and fostered the beginnings
of a national consciousness.
India has achieved much since it
became independent in 1947. The first
Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
instigated a policy of investing in industry
which has resulted in one of the largest
and most skilled work-forces in the world.
The middle classes of cities like Bombay
and Delhi have professional ambitions
and material aspirations similar to their
counterparts the world over.
In agriculture, too, there has been
remarkable progress. Self-sufficiency in
wheat and rice, partly through the
introduction of Green Revolution
techniques and seed varieties, was
achieved by the 1970s, and buffer stoc^)
enabled India to make large donations of
grain to African countries during the
famines of 1985/86, and to avert
widespread famine during its own drought
of 1989.
While over half the population has
benefited from these achievements, the
rest of the population remains largely
untouched by economic progress. There
are wide differences in incomes between
the different castes, classes, and states
- varying from an average of Rs 4,000
(£89) a year in the Punjab, to as little as
Rsl,000/1,500 (£22/33) in Tamil Nadu,
Orissa, Bihar, and some of the smaller
north-eastern states. These differences
are often an indication of the amount of
modern industry or Green Revolution
farming there is in the state.
In spite of economic progress, India 9.,
still among the 22 poorest countries in
the world, with the largest number of rural
poor within a single country, and an
estimated 350 million people living in
absolute poverty.
Oxfam
in
India
OXFAM
(UK
and
Ireland) made its first
grant in India in
1951.
A serious
famine threatened
lives in the state of
Bihar, and Oxfam
responded
with
emergency food and
clothing. In the 1970s
and 1980s, several
field offices were
opened, and work
^landed to include
1 Winical training and
welfare programmes,
building small schools
and health centres,
and
constructing
wells and irrigation
schemes.
Over the years,
and particularly since
the late 1970s, the
programme
has
changed. Now the emphasis is on
helping poor communities to organise:
enabling people to gain more control over
their lives and benefit from resources
that are rightfully theirs. This work
includes advice, training, and forming
networks of like-minded groups, as well
as funding to support their work.
zjk Today, Oxfam has seven Regional
v™fices in India, managed and co
ordinated from Delhi, working in
partnership with more than 350 non
governmental organisations. Oxfam’s
programme of funding and support
focuses on five priorities: women's
needs, particularly on the areas of
domestic violence,
health,
and
employment; programmes of work to
preserve forests and to support forest
peoples; strategies to help poor
communities to cope with drought;
employment - including campaigns on
wages and conditions, child labour and
bonded
labour;
helping
Indian
organisations to monitor the impact of
Structural Adjustment Programmes
(prescribed by the International Monetary
Fund) on poor communities, and bringing
their findings to the attention of national
and international policy makers.
Oxfam-supported projects in India
Oxfam supports a huge variety of initiatives. In a country the size ofJcdia, and
levels of poverty.so great, it is vital to ensure that a little money
goes a long way. Here are four examples showing the range of work twft Oxfam ^Rds. All are community-based, and all involve relatively small amounts
of money, but all are succeeding in changing people's lives for the better.
Going green
THE GREEN REVOLUTION of the 1960s
brought radical changes for farmers
wealthy enough to invest in high-yielding
high-input crops, but by-passed India's
poorer farmers. Now small miracles are
happening all over the country that build
on traditional methods and people’s hard
work - and not a chemical or artificial
grow vegetables to feed their families.
They are doing it through Bio-Intensive
Gardening (BIG). Oxfam funds help to pay
for training courses, and for teaching
materials such as slide-sets and
gardening books.
Fruit and vegetables are intensively
cultivated in long, narrow, deep beds,
using organic methods. The beds are dug
as deeply as possible, adding massive
amounts of compost and manure, using
mattocks for the top soil and crow-bars to
break up the sub-soil, so that at least the
top two feet are loose and crumbly. The
beds are narrow, so that all the work of
planting, weeding, and watering can be
done from either side, and not by walking
on, and compacting, the soil. It is very
labour-intensive, but because the beds
fertiliser in sight.
Andhra Pradesh lies on part of the
Deccan Plateau of central India. The land
is hard and rocky, with poor soils; the
forests that were once here have gone;
evUlmajor rivers dry up between one
monsoon and the next. But despite the
unpromising conditions, families in the far
south-west of the state are managing to
Shakuntala with her children
□
1
Taking action
LIFE IN THE HILLS of Himachal Pradesh
appears to have changed little over the
centuries. Small villages perch on
hillsides, surrounded by terraces of wheat,
rice, maize, and fruit trees. But looks can
be deceptive. “Giving women the space to
organise themselves is one of the most
important things we do." These are the
words of Subash, the Director of the
Society for Social Uplift Through Rural
Action (SUTRA).
Working through a network of women's
groups, SUTRA runs training camps for
women to teach them about their legal
rights: how to file a complaint at the police
station, what happens during the process
of bringing a charge and going to court;
and about the political system: how things
work at local, state, and national levels and how to take part.
As more and more women go on the
courses, changes are happening.
Shakuntala, leader of a women's group,
who has been involved with SUTRA for
many years, says: “We never used to go
out of the house - we used to send the
children out to find out what was
happening. Now we go to the bank, to the
police station even. We can go and talk to
the authorities." The women are changing
men’s attitudes and behaviour too: “The
women involved have made it plain to
everyone that they will not be victims of
atrocities (for example, domestic violence
and rape); and that, if they are, then they
will not suffer in silence.”
Oxfam has been involved with SUTRA’s
work for nearly 20 years - supporting the
organisation as its work has evolved from
supplying services like health-care to
giving communities the confidence and
skills they need in order to talk to the
authorities about their needs, and demand
the services to which they are entitled.
As safe as houses
THE SLUMS OF AHMEDABAD, in western
India, are home to well over half its 2.5
million people. Most depend for a living on
small-scale manufacturing businesses
which grew up as Ahmedabad's once-huge
textile industry declined. They form a
divided work-force, with little experience of
organising together for better conditions.
Living conditions in some slums are
appalling. Housing is dilapidated and
overcrowded; water supplies are
insufficient, erratic, and of poor quality;
there is little in the way of sanitation or
drainage; few people benefit from
adequate health-care, or education; there
are high levels of unemployment. Many
lead precarious lives, at the mercy of rich
“slum-lords”, who extort illegal rents for
homes on government-owned land. At
home and at work, poverty and
exploitation dominate their lives. Few
people have the power to effect changes.
The only way for them to fight the slum
lords, and remove the constant threat of
eviction, is through recognised tenancy or
ownership agreements for the land on
which their homes stand.
SAMVAD is a local agency working with
families in six slums. They are mounting
pressure on the local authorities to draw
up such agreements, and to provide basic
services like water, sanitation, and
electricity. Gradually, in some areas,
battles are being won, through the hard
are deep and rich in nutrients, vegetables
can be planted very closely.
People are so pleased with the yields
that deep beds are appearing not just in
§
|
kitchen gardens, but on roadside verges
as
well.
Some
gardeners
are
§
experimenting with natural methods of
g
o
g
g
§
|
insect control, planting garlic, and mint,
and marigolds; others are making a
solution from pounded neem leaves to
use as a spray to kill various pests.
Nothing is wasted. Most kitchen and
garden waste ends up in the compost,
£
|
and water from washing and cooking is
used for watering the plants.
8
Preparing a deep bed
Health matters
people living in the most inaccessible
The local people have a wealth of
knowledge about herbs and plants that
have medical applications; to build on
this, SEARCH has a “Wisdom Bank”,
which houses a collection of plants so
that data can be collected and research
done on their effectiveness.
During training camps for women, they
discovered the problems caused by
alcoholism in poor communities: money
going into the pockets of the liquor
sellers, and not spent on food and other
essentials - and also increased domestic
violence. In response to pressure from the
women, the SEARCH team is helping to
develop an anti-liquor campaign - by
lobbying to close liquor shops; through
education; through making young people
aware of the problems caused by alcohol,
and encouraging them to develop other
social activities and recreations like
areas have health-care.
sports.
THE SOCIETY FOR EDUCATION, Action
and Research in Community Health
(SEARCH) works in Gadchiroli District of
Maharashtra, a poor and predominantly
tribal area of the state. The programme
was started in 1985 by two young
doctors, Rani and Abhay Bang, who
wanted to put their training to good use in
an area where it was most needed. To
start with, they spent some time talking to
people in the area and learning about
their health needs. During this process
they realised that there was more to
health-care than curing illness: social
beliefs and taboos, and economic status
were major factors in ill-health. Oxfam has
supported SEARCH since 1986 — with
funds to help them provide medical care
and health education, and training for
vil^e health workers, so that even
work of local committees with support
from SAMVAD: some tenancy agreements
have been drawn up; several areas now
have clean water and drainage; families
are filing claims for compensation
following communal disturbances, and
following flooding.
A major success has been won in
Kagdiwad slum. Following a petition in the
High Courts, the Municipal Corporation
now recognises the housing rights of 150
families, following the demolition of their
homes as part of a city “beautification"
project. The corporation has allocated
housing sites to the families, and water,
drainage, toilets, and roads and electricity
are being provided.
Oxfam supports the commurWes'
efforts by paying the salaries of the
SAMVAD staff, and the costs of organising
and running training courses.
Dr Rani Bang examining one other patients
Facts and figures
3,287,590 sq km, of which 54% is agricultural,
size
20% forests
population
880,100,000 [UK = 58,000,000]
life expectancy
59.7 years [UK= 75.8]
gross national product
per capita
$330 UK =$16,550]
adult literacy rate
49.8%, male: 64%, female: 35% [UK 99%]
health
infant mortality (under 1 yr) 89:1,000 live births
[UK= 7:1,000]
1 doctor: 2,440 people [UK 1:710]
main exports
in order of importance: textile goods, gems and
jewellery, engineering goods, leather, chemicals,
tea, fish, jute, coffee, cashews, spices
exchange rate
£1: Rs45
(all figures for 1992)
SOURCES: World Development Report 1994, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Profile 1993
OXFAM WORKS with poor people
and their organisations in over 80
countries. Oxfam believes that all
people have basic rights: to earn a
living and to have food, shelter, health
care, and education. Oxfam provides
relief in emergencies, and gives long
term support to people struggling to
build a better life for themselves and
their families.
This leaflet is one of a range of free
information materials available from:
Oxfam Supporter Services Unit,
274 Banbury Road.
Oxford 0X2 7DZ.
phone 0865 312603
Environment friendly paper
140660
Registered as a charity no. 202918
eXFAM
Working for a Fairer World
Annual
Review
Contents
Director’s report...................................... pl
Chair’s report........................................... pl
The world and Oxfam in 93-94 . . . . p 2/3
Published by Oxfam:
274 Banbury Road, Oxford, 0X2 7DZ
Tel: 0865 312603
Registered Charity No. 202918
Editors:
Liz Clayton and Pat Simmons
Oxfam in a changing world............... p 4/5
Designer:
Surviving disasters...............................
p 6/7
Making a living......................................... p 8/9
Maria Delves
Printed by:
Sterling Press, Wellingborough, Northants
Supporting rights.................................... p 10/11
Printed on environment-friendly paper
Making the link........................................ p 12/13
Raising the money................................. p 14/15
Cover photo:
Woman from Adequala village, in newly independent Eritrea, one
of 500 villagers working on a community scheme to halt soil
erosion by building bunds for soil and water conservation.
From the Finance Director’s desk . . p 16
Credit: Jenny Matthews/Oxfam.
Oxfam Review 9394
Chair’s report
- Mary Cherry
Director’s report
- David Bryer
O change to meet the needs of the times, and yet to retain
our core values undiminished: that is the constant
challenge for Oxfam. So it was good to hear our Chair
Emeritus, Michael Rowntree, who knew Oxfam's founders,
say recently that he was sure they would still recognise in
Oxfam today the organisation which they founded.
During 1993-94 we completed most of the internal changes
to which I referred a year ago, and these have led to new ways
of working for staff, volunteers, and trustees. At the same time,
Oxfam achieved a substantial
growth in income, against the
r
general trend in the charity
J
sector. But improved ways of
5
fiferking and new organisational |
fractures are neither the only,
1
nor the most significant, ways in
which Oxfam has been changing.
Other changes have been
taking place that enrich the
organisation and increase its
capability. I am thinking
particularly of Oxfam's people.
Nowadays, staff around the
world are of many different
cultures, and hence bring a
richness and breadth of
understanding to the
organisation. They question and
challenge us all to ensure that Oxfam lives its values.
I was exhilarated by this at a meeting in Delhi of staff from
across Asia. Even more challenging was the "Women Linking
for Change" conference in Bangkok. This was the culmination
of a two-year study of the situation of poor women and the
impact on their lives of projects which we fund. It brought
together remarkable women (mostly Oxfam staff) from all over
world, many of whom work close to great poverty and
Offering.
Multiculturalism and gender considerations are prominent
features of our new Strategic Intent and Plan. The Intent also
commits us to taking a lead in bringing the members of the
international family of Oxfams into a closer working
relationship, which will increase the effectiveness of the work
of us all. Important steps in this direction were taken at a
meeting I attended of Chairs and Directors of the eight Oxfams,
hosted by Oxfam Hong Kong.
In Delhi, Bangkok, and Hong Kong I found great
commitment and enthusiasm - those same qualities that typify
volunteers and staff in the UK and Ireland. Our shops here
have increased their profitability during the year, and hence
their vital contribution to Oxfam's programme. So too has
Wastesaver, our unique and highly successful operation which
sorts fabrics for recycling.
In many of our shops nowadays it is good to see young
people sharing the load with the experienced, older volunteers.
They bring talent and vigour, and spread enthusiasm for
Oxfam's work. The commitment which these young shop
helpers and campaigners - and, indeed, all our supporters,
volunteers, and staff - have demonstrated so fully in the past
year gives me great confidence in Oxfam's continuing ability to
reduce human suffering.
I
T
WENT back to Lebanon last year to see how Oxfam was playing
its part in rebuilding peace there after more than 15 years of war.
It was a visit full of emotion, for Lebanon was where I spent much
of my first four years with Oxfam back in the 1970s, in the very early
days of that conflict. Despite war and kidnappings (including, for a
mercifully short time, of two of our own colleagues) Oxfam stuck it
out through all those years, working alongside the brave people and
organisations who provided a spark of hope in grim times.
Last year I found it good to see a people rebuilding, not just their
homes and livelihoods, but also their
relationships with their neighbours. I find I
need to remember that tenacity, and what
it revealed of people's capacity to work for
a more hopeful future, when I consider
world events of 1993-94.
Sudan, Angola, Haiti, Bosnia, Armenia,
Georgia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and,
most tragically of all, Rwanda - the list of
countries where we have had greatly to
increase our emergency response is far too
long. It is an unwanted endorsement of
Oxfam's widely expressed concerns in
1991 that the 1990s would be a decade of
disaster, unless there were major changes
both nationally and internationally.
Some of those changes have begun.
The most exciting and irreversible have
been those in South Africa, and Oxfam was
proud to be invited to President Mandela's inauguration, celebrating
at last, after working there for nearly 40 years, with some of the most
committed and inspiring of all our partners.
We are also seeing a new statement of commitment by some
governments - and indeed by the World Bank - to combating poverty
and reducing the debt burden of the poorest countries. There is, too, a
movement within the UN and its agencies to review their effectiveness
- not least in tragic conflicts like those in Somalia or Rwanda.
The sadness is that we do not yet see this commitment leading to
sufficient real change on the ground. Oxfam in the last year has tried
to speed up these changes and make them more effective. This was the
purpose of our major campaign, "Africa: Make or Break", and also of
other more specific campaigns - to persuade governments to ban
those most horrific of weapons, anti-personnel mines; for increased
European and UK aid; and for relief of Uganda's debt.
The recognition that so many of the causes of continuing poverty
and suffering lie outside the communities, or even the countries,
where people live has also led us to strengthen our voice by increasing
our links with other agencies - notably the other members of the
Oxfam family and, in Europe, with the 21 like-minded agencies in
Eurostep.
But, in the end, what makes Oxfam's work so worthwhile is the
contribution of the people who struggle for a fairer and more peaceful
world - whether with time and money in the UK, Ireland and our two
shops in Germany (to give us a record income of £86.8 million this
year) or in the great range of ways described in this review, in the 80
countries where we work.
In a sombre world, it is people like Fani in Bamako running her
women's group, Amirul Islam planting his tree nursery in
Bangladesh, or Ashok Tangde working in the aftermath of the
Maharashtra earthquake who make us realise that the struggle is
indeed winnable.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Oxfam in a
Changing
World
XFAM has always done its best to be alert and
adaptable to an ever-changing world. But the
rapid changes of the last few years have tested
that alertness and adaptability almost to their limits.
1993-94 was another year in which change posed huge
challenges for Oxfam and for the people we work with.
In former Yugoslavia, Albania, Georgia, Armenia, and
Azerbaijan Oxfam spent nearly £5 million on work with
communities still reeling from the collapse of the old Soviet
Union and the political and economic system it had maintained
for so long. As fighting continued in many areas, much of this
O
An Oxfam rural development training programme in
Mulanje province, run in conjunction with the government,
has introduced new ideas and working practices which build
up people's confidence, and are helping poor communities
and civil servants to work more effectively together.
Changes in trading patterns have continued to have
profound effects on many of the people Oxfam works with.
The new North American Free Trade Agreement, for
example, sparked an uprising in southern Mexico which
grabbed the headlines in early 1994. For peasant farmers, the
Agreement meant the loss of an important market for their
crops. More than a million people are expected to lose their
livelihoods under the new agreement, which puts peasant
maize-farmers in competition with the huge mechanised
farms of the USA. Oxfam provided emergency aid to people
displaced by the conflict, and supported groups campaigning
for a free trade agreement which would take into account the
needs of peasant farmers.
Poor people, particularly women, have borne the brunt of,
cutbacks in vital health and education services resulting froni
the introduction of structural adjustment programmes
imposed at the insistence of the World Bank. In Oxfam’s
experience, these market-based reforms have increased
PRIL 1994 marked the formal end of South Africa's
apartheid system, as black voters queued at the polls
for the first time, to vote alongside their white
compatriots. Whatever the problems facing the new
democracy, 1993-4 was a year of new hope and new
possibilities.
Oxfam has worked with poor black communities there
for over 35 years, one of the few UK and Ireland agencies to
A
Women at one of two Oxfam "shops" in Tuzla, Bosnia, collecting winter
clothing donated in the UK and Ireland during Oxfam's Cold Front
Appeal.
spending was on basic emergency help to displaced and
traumatised people - warm clothing and shoes in former
Yugoslavia, water tanks, diesel pumps and tents in Azerbaijan,
for example.
Other grants were for rehabilitation, though not necessarily
of physical infrastructures: it has been equally important to
help provide counselling for traumatised women and children
who have experienced the horrors of ethnic cleansing, or
support to the many local organisations who are working to
bring about reconciliation and rebuild a functioning civic
society.
Positive changes can bring almost as many challenges as
negative ones. Malawi moved steadily this year towards
democracy, but years of fear and repression have left most
people there not just poverty-stricken but mistrustful of each
other and of their own judgement and abilities. Government
training and advice services for farmers have achieved little in
the past, because even conscientious government workers
knew only one way of working - pushing their own solutions
from outside.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Demonstrating during the apartheid years.
o so. Our funding to squatter communities facing forcible
eviction from designated "white" areas, to farmworkers
working in conditions of virtual slavery, to advice offices
and legal aid programmes has enabled thousands of people
years hStand
P°verty and injustice of the apartheid
The elections themselves created new needs. Several of
e organisations we have supported ran special "voter
,, Ucat1'on Pro8rammes, to give black people - many of
em illiterate - the information they needed to play a full
Part m the elections.
income disparities because of their failure to address unequal
power relations and poor people's lack of access to markets.
In response, Oxfam embarked on a collaborative research
programme with Southern partners to document the problems
and identify solutions. A constructive dialogue on policy has
been established with senior staff in the World Bank, and an
Oxfam policy adviser participated in a World Bank assessment
mission in Zimbabwe. As a result, Bank staff were exposed to
the problems facing poor communities, and policies on health
user fees and agricultural marketing which disadvantage the
poor are now under review.
Possibly the change which has most directly affected poor
families in the past decade has been the accelerating
movement of people towards the cities, as life becomes less
viable on the land. The loss of old community support systems
can leave people isolated, and vulnerable to exploitation.
Family structures often collapse: millions of children now
struggle alone for survival on the streets of the world's cities,
ssdth little or no family support of any kind. Oxfam has
^Fpported the National Movement of Streetchildren, again in
Brazil, in a programme which helps these vulnerable young
people to campaign for their rights, and for the chance of a
decent life.
Recife street children find food and shelter.
Oxfam also supported organisations working to make
sure that the elections were "free and fair": grants covered
the costs of a UN election observer in Sekhukhuneland, and
paid for outside observers to travel to conflict-ridden rural
areas.
The new government has inherited the legacy of
apartheid: widespread poverty, and a black population
condemned for years to sub-standard education, appalling
housing, and massive unemployment. Oxfam's work is
moving into a new phase, as the organisations we support
are able at last to concentrate on genuine, long-term
development.
One in six black South Africans
still lives in a shack.
In February we opened an
office in Johannesburg, and
are now, for the first time in
12 years, able to work from
within South Africa.
I
i Simmers of the Oxfam-funded Border Rural Committee, running a voter education session for farm
workers in Stellenbosch.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Surviving
Disasters
HE huge changes which have swept the world in
the last few years led again this year to suffering
for millions of people. 1993-94 saw the greatest part
of Oxfam's funds once more spent on emergency work,
nearly 60 per cent of it in Africa.
The end of the Cold War has left a vacuum in many of the
countries once caught up in the super-powers' conflict. At the
same time, free-market doctrines, applied inflexibly, have cut
back welfare programmes, leaving many people in desperate
poverty, disillusioned with their governments - and fatally
responsive to ethnic or tribal hate-mongering. Most of Oxfam's
emergency spending has gone to cope with the effects of
human conflict, rather than of natural disaster.
This year violence exploded in central Africa. Conflict in
Zaire's Kivu and Shaba provinces left many thousands of
people dead and over a million displaced. Oxfam spent over £4
million this year in Zaire, on clothes, blankets, tools, seeds,
medicines, and soap.
T
Burundian refugee child in Maza camp, Rwanda, wearing a top knitted
by an Oxfam supporter.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Zaire's problems, however, turned out to be part of a wider
pattern unfolding in the region. Even as Zaireans were fleeing
in terror from one part of their country to another, 65,000
Burundian refugees were seeking sanctuary in Zaire, where
Oxfam provided them with plastic sheeting, blankets, and
soap.
Their flight was part of a much larger exodus from
Burundi. Over 600,000 people fled in October 1993, after the
assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected
president, which led to widespread bloodshed. Making for
whichever border was nearest, refugees also spilt out into
neighbouring Tanzania and Rwanda.
In both Tanzania and Rwanda we aimed to provide a total
health "package" for refugees, providing clean-water systems,
sanitation, and health training. Oxfam water engineers in
Tanzania helped to set up water systems - some temporary,
but some more permanent, designed to provide long-term
hen I first visited Sirsal the day after the
earthquake," says Ashok Tangde, "and saw the
destroyed village - a huge heap of rubble and debris -1
felt complete helplessness. There was nothing I could do."
At 3.56 am on 30 September 1993, for 47 seconds, an
earthquake rocked the Indian state of Maharashtra. It
wasn't a particularly severe one, measuring a moderate 6.4
on the Richter scale, and its strike was limited to a relatively
small area, just 40km across. But for the thousands of
people living in the
area, the damage was
done. Their world had
fallen in. Thousands of
homes were turned
into tombs in just
under a minute.
It's thought that up
to 25,000 people were
killed, and probably
more than 140,000
people injured or left
homeless.
Two Oxfam staff
were in the disaster
area within six hours.
Having worked in the
area for years, Oxfam
was able to help where
and when it mattered
most. Through our
network of partner
agencies we were able
to provide emergency
shelters and water equipment, and help distribute food to
the most vulnerable survivors.
Within a day, local organisations, many of whom
Oxfam has supported over the years, had formed a relief
committee, which was able to mobilise hundreds of
volunteers. Through the torrential rain of the next three
vveeks they struggled to help survivors erect temporary
shelters, dig the injured from the rubble, and comfort the
supplies for local people as well.
In April 1994, however, Rwanda itself erupted into
violence when a plane crash killed the new Burundian
president and the Rwandan president. By the end of the period
covered by this report, it was already clear that tens of
thousands of people had been murdered. Oxfam had allocated
nearly £0.5 million to send two plane loads of emergency
supplies to refugees in north Zaire, made further large
emergency grants in Tanzania and Burundi, and started calling
for international action to halt what we could only describe as
genocide.
Most of Oxfam's work elsewhere in Africa has also been
with people affected by conflict: helping displaced people in
south Sudan to remain self-sufficient and supporting their host
communities; providing emergency water supplies in Angola;
and enabling people in Somalia to start farming their land
again, despite the continuing conflict around them.
Women al
Sarshahi
camp,
Afghanistan,
gather to
discuss camp
health issues.
W
The strength of the organisations which Oxfam has
sitP^Lt0^rtUre;VaS immediate>y ^parent. "I went to the
s te some 500 yards away, where the survivors had
congregated," continues Ashok. "A new settlement was
Above: Removing
personal belongings and
re-usable building
materials from the ruins
of Limbala Dau.
Left: Gayaben cleaning
up her pots and pans,
just excavated from her
ruined house in Limbala
Dau.
already coming up.
Volunteers from my
organisation, the
Rural Development
Centre, were busy
collecting poles, tin
sheets, string, which
they salvaged from the damaged houses. They were so
engrossed putting up the poles, tying them together,
hammering the tin sheets on the roo s that they didn t
notice me. My sense of helplessness left me.
When the immediate emergency was over Oxfam was
able to help local communities improve the.r drainage and
sanitation and restore water supplies damaged by the
quake. We provided clothes, blankets, seeds, and tools to
help people re-establish their livelihoods. As rebmldmg
began in the villages affected, we also employed an expert
in fow-cost housing to work with homeless villagers,
Conflict has also been the main cause of our emergency and
rehabilitation work outside Africa, whether in Afghanistan,
Iraq, eastern Europe, Haiti or Chile, with Bhutanese refugees in
Nepal, or Burmese refugees in Bangladesh. In all these
situations our concern has been to look at the total health needs
of the people who need our help: providing - or working with
other agencies to provide - clean water, sanitation, food, and
health education.
Though few "natural" disasters were as savage as the
human violence the world witnessed this year, we provided
seeds and water-storage systems for people affected by drought
in north-east Brazil, and food for people in areas of northern
Kenya facing their third year of drought.
We continued to provide help to the people still unable to
return to their homes three years after the Mount Pinatubo
eruption in the Philippines. Effective disaster-prevention is
always our priority, and we helped poor people in Bangladesh
to make their views heard on the Bangladesh government's
Flood Action Plan.
Oxfam
water
installation
at Benako
camp,
Tanzania.
designing safer houses.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Making a
Living
N many countries around the world, economic
recession, structural adjustment programmes,
natural disasters, conflicts, breakdown of
traditional life-styles, and lack of access to land all
contribute to the rapid growth of cities, as poor rural
people abandon their homes in the hope of making a
better life in the city. Things rarely live up to their
expectations. Poor housing and unemployment are the
reality for the majority. They make up the "informal
sector" - labouring in work that is unreliable and
poorly paid. Their survival depends on their
resourcefulness. Oxfam works in urban areas to help
poor families and communities to meet their basic
needs, by supporting community organisations which
are working to improve living conditions and incomes.
I
Fani, leader of one of the women's groups in Mali. "It is always the
women who have had to work."
In Mali this year, Oxfam supported a credit fund which is
helping women in Bamako, the capital city, to set up small
businesses. Fani, the leader of one group, explains: "We are
poor; there are not many women whose husbands have regular
jobs. There are about 80 women involved in all; the amount
each one borrows depends on the type of trade she carries out.
In my group, Solange buys clothes and sells them in the
market. Ramatou and 1 sell material; another woman buys shea
nuts, curdled milk, aubergines, and chickens in Banan, where
they are cheaper, and sells them here; and Fatima sells wood".
Fani and her group have decided what to sell, and where; the
credit programme is directed by the women's own concerns
and abilities, and demonstrates to their communities that
women can be major forces in the fight against poverty.
Oxfam Review 93-94
In rural areas Oxfam supported programmes helping
people to improve their livelihoods; where land was scarce or
unsuitable for farming, Oxfam helped to find new
opportunities for families to make an income without relying
on agriculture, to help stem the rush to the cities.
In Albania, the new Oxfam team spent the year assessing
conditions, talking to people, and planning a development
programme for communities in the north-west of the country.
People living here in the mountains have to cope with harsh
conditions. The commune of Shllak is made up of 17 villages most reached only on foot. There is little cultivable land, and
farms produce barely enough for subsistence. Water is a
problem in most of the villages; women can spend up to four
hours a day collecting water, carrying it home along narrow
mountain trails. Although electricity is cheap and easily
available, there are few power-lines to the villages, so almost
all cooking and heating is done on wood-burning stoves.
N Bangladesh to be without land is to be poor, with
all that poverty means: hard work, hunger, ill-health,
insecurity, exploitation, worry, and fear. More than 60
per cent of Bangladeshis have no land. And land is what
you need to give you security, and - if you have enough
of it - power.
But there is an
alternative: the rich may
have land, but the poor
have one another.
Community Development
Association in Dinajpur
helps people to get
organised. It is a turning
point when people join a
group and realise that
they are not alone, and
that everyone has a right
to expect more, and to
plan and work for a better
life.
What they do next
varies from group to
group, but it's always
with CDA's support and
guidance. CDA helps to
improve health by
immunisation, safe water
supplies, improved
sanitation, and training. It
helps people to earn more,
by making loans for
agriculture or a small
business. It helps local
people to protect the
environment by providing
training in organic
gardening and by
planting trees.
Fundamental to all
these activities, and to the
confidence-building that
I
Oxfam's new team started to help the communities make life
easier and more productive - not so much income-generating
as income-saving - and time-saving; installing electricity lines;
supplying materials to construct water-driven grinding mills
for maize; rehabilitating schools which can also be used as
community centres for disability counselling and family
planning advice. Teaching better farming techniques will be
important too, so that farmers can grow enough to produce a
surplus for sale.
Bridge is Oxfam's fair-trade programme. In 1993-94, the
sale of crafts and foods enabled tens of thousands of producers
to earn a better living. In the course of the year £3.1 million was
paid to 293 producer groups in 38 countries, representing a
significant transfer of resources to the poor.
Jit Maya, a wool-winder working with Kumbeshwar in
Nepal, is typical of the people whom Bridge supports: "I have
to work hard to earn my living. Even when my husband has
underlies all this work, is helping people to understand
their problems and find possible solutions.
Not so long ago Amirul Islam was unemployed, eking
out a living as a day-labourer. Last year he sold tree
saplings worth almost 20,000 taka (£344) - more money
than he had ever before seen in one year. He had been
chosen by the
Community
Development
Association to take
part in a training
course and establish a
village tree nursery.
Now he raises more
than 80 varieties of
trees. "Training has
provided me with the
essential knowledge of
how to look after
plants and trees;
which to plant in what
season." Now there is
so much demand that
Amirul has leased
more land, so that he
can extend the
nursery. "With
education and
training, we would
not be idle; we would
persevere to improve
our lives, as then we
would have the means
to do so."
Transport in the mountains of Albania is difficult, with few roads everything must be carried by foot, as few people own pack-animals.
work, he does not always give me money. Before I came here, I
used to work as a labourer, carrying cement and sand. This
work is easier than labouring, and I can do it sitting down in
the shade. 1 am paid three rupees (about four pence) for each
kilo of wool that I wind. I am happy to do the work -1 only
stop if I am ill."
As well as supporting people directly through trade, Bridge
helps to increase their opportunities to earn a living. In
1993-94,64 grants were made by Bridge staff to pay for such
things as a shop-on-a-bicycle in India to sell hand-painted teeshirts, and training for teenage girls in Thailand to work in
textiles - an alternative to prostitution.
Oxfam continued to support people's own efforts to make a
living in a number of ways: through vocational training and
upgrading skills; supporting farmers by helping them to
conserve soil and water, improve crop yields, or find new
markets for their produce; credit schemes to help people start
small businesses; or support to groups fighting for fair wages
or for access to resources that are rightfully theirs.
"The Samiti gave me a new
lease of life, as I was able to
rid myself of the stigma of
being unemployed."
Oxfam Review 93-94
Supporting
Rights
E all have rights: the right to a reasonable
standard of living, the right to an education,
legal rights, the right to maintain our culture
and traditions, and the right to take part in the social,
enonomic, and political life of our community and
country. All too often those rights are taken away sometimes by violence, and sometimes by more subtle
methods. Sometimes those rights are denied from birth
- by being bom a girl, by having a disability, by
belonging to a certain caste or class. Often, being poor
is enough.
W
One group denied those rights and opportunities makes up
almost ten per cent of the world’s population. "People see a
wheelchair as a pram," is how Rangarari Mupindi, a polio
survivor, explains attitudes to disabled people. Rangarari is the
Director of the National Council of Disabled Persons of
Zimbabwe (NCDPZ). Originally a small club for disabled
people to get together and discuss their problems, they now
have a much broader agenda. "We began to look at our civil
rights. Why were we poor? Why were we not educated? We
target the government and try to get them to address our
problems." They make sure that disabled people are enabled to
contribute to the life of their communities, and, just as
important, they are forcing the rest of us to re-think our
attitudes and change our behaviour.
Working through a network of women's groups in the hills
of Himachal Pradesh, The Society for Uplift Through Social
Action (SUTRA) runs courses for women on their legal rights how to file a complaint at the police station, what happens
during the process of bringing a charge and going to court.
They also run courses on the political system - how things
work at local, state, and national levels, and how to take part.
Over the years, as more and more women go on the courses,
the changes are becoming easy to see. Shakuntala, who has
been involved with SUTRA for many years, says: "We never
used to go out of the house. Now we go to the bank, to the
police station even. We can go and talk to the authorities."
AU of SUTRA's training workshops begin with song and dance.
Oxfam Review 93-94
There are deeper differences too: "The women involved have
made it plain to everyone that they will not be victims of
atrocities (like domestic violence and rape); and that if they are,
then they will not suffer in silence."
Because women are under-represented as union leaders
and lack influence, women workers' demands have little
impact. Mujer y Trabajo (Women and Work), an organisation
based in Santiago, Chile, is making changes. Women have
always faced problems at work. They are paid less than men
for the same work, they get no help with child-care, and safety
standards in small workshops and factories are poor. MyT are
convinced that these problems must be tackled now: there is a
shortage of skilled labour in Chile, so women are being
encouraged to work. They are working with women union
leaders tackling practical issues af work and at home. One
union now buys food in bulk for sale to its members, which
makes a big difference to prices, and encourages people to join
the union, as they see that it can be of practical help.
In the Philippines, the right to ancestral land is a major a
issue for the Ayta, an indigenous group in Central Luzon. Thai
communities have been divided, and displaced from their
NE kind of
=
violence is i
O
quiet violence;
|
which doesn't
<
mark anyone
1
with bruises;
where the worker
always goes
hungry and is
constantly
humiliated. Then
there's physical
violence, death
threats, violent
evictions."
These are the
words of
Arimatea Dantos,
a young lawyer
working in the
small town of
Esperantina,
Piaui, Brazil. He and his fellow lawyers see plenty of
both kinds of violence.
The town is poor; the area largely agricultural.
People here face many problems, but their lives are
made more difficult by the increasing concentration of
land in the hands of the wealthy; by poor agricultural
conditions, not helped by recurring droughts; by lack of
industrial development; and by political corruption - all
undermining people's opportunities for a decent life.
Corruption in local authorities means that people are
paying out their hard-earned money for services they
do not receive - for example, for roads to be paved,
which remain just beaten earth. But with the help of
Arimatea, local communities are taking on the
authorities. "We're doing a lot of work looking over the
local authority's accounts; a kind of public audit of
funds used for education, health, drainage; we need to
ancestral lands by land-grabbing for farms and military bases,
and their claims to the land have been ignored. The Central
Luzon Ayta Association (CLAA) was formed after the eruption
of the Mount Pinatubo volcano, to voice the needs and
aspirations of all the Ayta communities. Pinatubo is located
right in the middle of the Aytas' ancestral lands. Its eruption
was a disaster," ... but there's another disaster happening too.
We're being used, by organisations who are trying to claim the
Aytas as their own. They are trying to divide us up, saying,
'you 50 people will be with us, the next 50 will be with that
organisation,' and so on. This makes more divisions in the Ayta
communities and weakens our organisation. It would be better
if they consulted with us about our wishes." says Rick, CLAA's
General Secretary. The CLAA aims to unify the Ayta claims to
their ancestral lands, and assert their rights.
In 1993-4 Oxfam worked with many groups and
communities around the world, helping them to establish and
defend their economic and social rights; to exercise their legal
•^i political rights; to claim control over resources; to stay on
IWd farmed by their families for generations; to be a part of
their community.
In communities
throughout Brazil,
people are joining
together to fight for
services (such as
electricity, water,
health care), fair
wages, and better
working conditions.
demand the
right to see them
fully," says
Arimatea. On
behalf of the
community
groups, he and
his colleagues
gather the
evidence, prepare the documentation, and, if necessary,
go to court.
Who owns the land is important, too. With enough
land, you can make a fortune. Without enough, or
worse still without any, it is almost impossible to make
even a meagre living. Small landholders and
agricultural workers are at the mercy of the rich and
powerful: "The land owners really abuse the workers.
On some of the farms it's like slavery. The workers have
to respect the bosses to the point of humiliation."
Arimatea, like many other lawyers throughout Brazil, is
helping workers to fight for better conditions and
wages; and helping small landholders to register their
land and fight evictions.
"We want to interpret the law in a way that helps
people live in a dignified way, to help stop poverty and
suffering. A law that's more human."
Children from Lawin village, Philippines, helping with the household
chores in their new settlement.
Ayta women taking tree seedlings home to plant after the volcanic
eruption devastated their homelands, as a first step towards establishing
their right to the land.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Using drama and
improvisation, people there
looked for answers to questions
such as: why do we all fall for
racist stereotypes? how do they
affect our understanding of the
causes of Third World poverty?
As in previous years, we
strove to make clear the links
between decisions taken in the
rich world - by politicians, .
company directors and ordinary
consumers and voters - and the
poverty and suffering of the
people we work with overseas.
Our campaigning, lobbying, and
advocacy work at all levels aimed
to make people in the UK and
Ireland fully aware of the wider
consequences of their own
actions - as a first step to
persuading them to join us and
our partners in campaigning for a
fairer world.
Making
the Link
993 brought new opportunities for peace, democracy
and recovery in Africa, as well as continuing threats
of disaster. Wars ended, dictatorships gave way to
democracy, the formal end of apartheid was in sight.
Oxfam's "Africa: Make or Break" campaign, launched in
April 1993, called on the UK and the international community
to make moves that would support the positive changes
happening in Africa. The Oxfam Make or Break Report made the
links between events in Africa and decisions taken in the
world's richest countries.
By the autumn we were able to take 30,000 letters and
statements to the Prime Minister - including 8,000 signatures
collected at the Glastonbury Festival - supporting our
campaign for an increase in UK foreign aid, and debt relief for
Africa's poorest countries.
The degree of public support we were able to demonstrate
helped us to get African debt on to the agenda of the G7
summit in Tokyo, when finance ministers from the world's
seven richest countries met in July, and it led to a decision by
the European Commission to set up a major recovery fund for
Africa.
Besides the major campaign focus on Africa, other issues
were taken up this year. We also campaigned for land rights to
be restored to Brazilian Indians and protested against a
massacre of Yanomami Indians in the summer. We successfully
pressed the UK government to help the UN open Bosnia's
Tuzla airport, and urged the UN to improve its emergency
response strategies.
Oxfam local volunteer campaigners and fundraisers
worked in many different ways to support this work: stalls at
local events, visiting and writing to their MPs, coffee mornings
for their friends, taking part in Oxfam Week and the Oxfam
Fast. Supported by Campaigns Department staff in our
regional offices, they provided the groundswell of public
opinion which ensured that the voices of our overseas partners
were heard in this country.
And they were also largely responsible for two of the year's
major fair trade success stories. Cafedirect, the fairly traded
coffee promoted by Oxfam and three other organisations, is
now outselling many other ground coffees. And the first goods
bearing the Fairtrade Mark - a guarantee that a fair price has
been paid to producers - went on sale in most major
supermarkets in 1994.
We were particularly keen to convey our message to young
people, and regional campaigns staff worked on several
exciting new local initiatives, like the seven "Africa: Make or
Break" sixth-form day conferences we ran in south east
England, which focused on trade, aid and debt, and
highlighted the relevance of these issues to young people in the
United Kingdom. Round Southampton a series of drama
workshops run by education staff linked schools with Oxfamfunded projects in India.
Education workers from our Glasgow office reached a
wider audience - aged from 10 to 60 - when they worked with
the residents of Drumchapel, one of the city's peripheral
council-housing schemes, and Clyde Unity Theatre.
1
Oxfam Review 93-94
Drawing attention to
events in Rwanda.
Fair Trade stall at the Oxfam Fun Run in Battersea Park.
'TKNEW about our poverty and suffering," said Solofina
l.Daka, an elderly grandmother. "And we have made
enormous efforts to overcome it, but this workshop has
opened my eyes fully. The problems we face are not just due
to the causes in our own villages and among us, but the ones
coming from beyond the borders of Zambia."
Solofina was speaking at an "Africa: Make or Break"
meeting of Oxfam partner organisations in Zambia's East^a
Province. Like others at the meeting, she was voicing her^jjjer
and frustration at the effect on her life of decisions taken far
away by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
And, like others there, Solofina resolved that she would be
silent and unheard no longer, that she would write to the
world's finance ministers, telling them what the policies of the
IMF meant to her in her daily life.
The letter-writing campaign which began at that meeting
was taken up in the months that followed by 15,000 other
Zambians, as well as by many people in other African countries.
Oxfam supported the campaign by providing basic materials
such as pens and stationery pads, and by helping groups to
organise meetings at which people could discuss what they
wanted to say.
"I don't think I will ever be employed," wrote Jones
Katongo Bwalya. "When structural adjustment was introduced,
we were told it will improve our life, there will be more jobs.
All I see is more workers losing jobs. Our lives are becoming
nothing short of slavery."
The visit of Lucy Muyoyeta, Oxfam's Zambia
Representative, to present the letters from Africa to the
September meeting of the IMF was more than a protest about
the Fund's structural adjustment policies: for the first time,
Lucy Muyoyeta at the World Bank.
poor people in Africa were directly addressing the institutions
which control their countries' economies; for the first time,
Oxfam was campaigning, not just for them, but with them.
Oxfam Review 93-94
Bridget Caudle (front) who took over
the reins of the Hexham Oxfam shop
from Hazel Nandy (rear).
Raising
the
Money
VERY year, Oxfam's income is swelled by
thousands of donations from individuals: people
like you. This is more even than the income we earn
from our shops. Money arrives in a variety of ways: cash,
banker's orders, covenants, and legacies. Like many other
charities we are constantly looking for new ways of
reaching new donors. This year we ran successful trials
using advertisements on TV and radio - both very costeffective ways of reaching new people. In addition we
have continued to tell people about Oxfam's work
directly through, for example, mailings and press
advertising, and indirectly through news broadcasts.
The appeal for victims of the Indian earthquake raised
more than £1.4 million, enabling the Oxfam team in India to
meet immediate relief needs, and to plan a programme of
longer-term rehabilitation and rebuilding. Another major
success was the Christmas mailing about refugees, which
raised £500,000.
Oxfam is supported by many companies and Trusts as well
as individuals. It is impossible to thank everyone for their
valuable support, but special thanks must go to the States of
Jersey and the States of Guernsey Overseas Aid Committees,
the Baring Foundation, the members of Entwicklungshilfe
Klub, of Austria, the newly established Emerging Markets
Charity for Children, the Cooperative Retail Society, and
Northern Foods, for their continued support.
Oxfam also received £1.4 million from Charity Projects the organisation behind Comic Relief - one of our most
generous donors. This was used to support work with refugees
and displaced people in countries like Sudan and Uganda,
through, for example, supplying clean water, and sets of
household items like cooking-pots and water-cans;
development initiatives such as health work in Kenya; and
support for a disabled people's organisation in Malawi. We can
all look forward to another Comic Relief "Red Nose Day" in
March 1995.
In Oxfam's network of regional offices work went on as
usual. Nationally the highlights of the year were the Oxfam
Week house-to-house collection, the annual Fast, and the Cold
Front Appeal. Local events varied from supplying 700
volunteers to work as marshals at the Glastonbury Festival earning Oxfam £50,000 from the organisers - to the London-toCanterbury bike ride, and selling Party Packs for office
Christmas Parties.
E
Oxfam Review 93-94
HEN people hear the
word Oxfam, they think
of the shops. This is hardly
surprising, as there are now
nearly 850: the largest charity
chain in the UK. They
promote the message 'recycle
by re-use' - donating, buying,
and wearing is one of the easiest, and most environment
friendly activities around. This year the shops increased their
range of FairTrade Foods from around the world, so that it
now includes coffee, cocoa, tea, peanut butter, jam, nuts, sugar,
chocolate, and spices - all bought from organisations which
pay guaranteed, stable prices, and in which the producers are
able to control or influence prices and marketing.
So how was 1993-94 in the shops? "Generally, a good
year." That's how Bridget Caudle, shop leader of the Oxfam
shop in Hexham, sums up 1993-94, as well she might, since the
shop has beaten its income target - again. "We are very well
supported locally. We get a lot of donated goods, and usually
of good quality - and that always helps." The shop has taken
part in all the national events and appeals: the Cold Front
appeal for warm clothes for Eastern Europe, northern Iraq, and
Afghanistan; the FairTrade Food promotion; the Dress Well for
Less Autumn and Spring fashion promotions; the India
Earthquake appeal; and, as we write, the Rwanda appeal.
But the highlight of the Hexham shop's year is the fortnight
of the linen sale. Held at the beginning of March every year, it
takes months of hard work to organise. A team of eagle-eyed
volunteers sort out the choicest items from all those donated
table-cloths and tray-cloths, pillow-cases and sheets and quilts
- Victorian and modem. Everything is washed, starched, and
ironed. When opening day arrives, everything is ready; the
shop is full; and there is a queue at the door. So well known is
the linen sale that it draws a huge crowd, including dealers.
This year they raised over £5,000 on sales of linen, and more
than £2,000 from bric-a-brac in the two weeks of the sale.
The shop does well on sales of Oxfam Trading goods too, as
the area is popular with tourists, visiting the Roman Wall and
Hexham Abbey, with money to spend! The secret of their
success? Bridget thinks: "it's just where we are - in a good
position and well supported by the town; with nice things to
sell and a nice shop to sell them out of."
W
Zainab Larney - one of the people seen in Oxfam's new television advert.
eople always put off making their will because they
think it's difficult - but it's so easy," says Joy
O'Farrell. Joy made her will some years ago. Since then
she has updated it when the need has arisen, but,
however she has altered it, she is still leaving a legacy to
Oxfam.
Last year, income from legacies to Oxfam totalled over
£5 million - a substantial contribution to our income, which
meant that we could help more people to help themselves.
Joy first made a will when she and her husband went
abroad to live. She thinks it is one of those things we all
mean to do, but keep putting off: "We all need a bit of a
push to do it. All sorts of things give us a push: when yoi^B
move or buy a house; when you have a
baby; or when someone dies."
She included a legacy to Oxfam
because she has always been interested
in people: "We've lived and travelled
abroad a lot, and wherever I've been I
have tried to meet local people and make
friends. I like to help where 1 can.
Although I'm a born optimist, I'm aware
of all the sadness, and I've found over
the years that when I'm feeling low,
helping people makes me feel better."
One of the ways Joy has helped
thousands of people is by supporting
Oxfam; she spent several years as a
member of her local Oxfam group - and
as her local shop-leader and group
chairperson. She wants to go on helping
people after her death - and leaving
Oxfam a legacy means that she can do
just that.
So how do you make a will? "Just
ring any solicitor. You can get your bank
or your solicitor to be the executors -
P
then you don't have to ask friends or relatives to do you a
favour. Anyone can witness it. And you can add names just
as easily.
You don't even have to specify a sum, you can just put in a
percentage. I loved doing it -1 felt so good - and it didn't
hurt at all!"
Why Oxfam? "I thought, if I am going to leave money
in my will, I want it to go where it's most needed. There are
so many things we take for granted - from clean water to
plenty of food. Oxfam helps people in need, and I am
happy, knowing that good things will come from my
death."
Oxfam Review 93-94
From the Finance
Director’s Desk
Oxfam’s income
and expenditure
for 1993-94
Where the money comes from
j993-94 was a particularly disaster-ridden year, making life
even more difficult for the people with whom we work.
Appeals for funding for emergency relief programmes were a
major contributor to our increased income. The British
Government's Overseas Development Administration (ODA)
and the European Union (EU) provided generous support for
our development and emergencies work. In particular,
restricted (earmarked) income from the UK Government, the
EU, and from UN agencies increased from £9.6 million in
1992-93, to £18 million in 1993-94.
In summary, Oxfam's income for the year came from the
following sources (in £m and % of total):
Record Year
1993-94 set two new records. The first was a huge increase in
the need to respond to emergencies. A stark reminder of one of
Oxfam's reasons for existence, and motivation for staff,
volunteers and supporters who, every year, try to respond to
the need for more money and resources in the face of
increasing hardship. The second record was a new record total
income.
Oxfam's income for 1993-94 was nearly £87 million, an
increase of 10 per cent over 1992-93. This continues Oxfam's
steady growth of previous years in the face of the difficult
economic climate, made possible only by the energy and
determination of our volunteers and supporters.
Changes to the accounts
The management structure of Oxfam has, over the last two
years, undergone radical changes in order to support our
financial growth. The accounts have similarly been revised to
reflect the new structure, and to follow new proposals from the
Charity Commission on the presentation of financial
information to the public. I will not elaborate on the
accounting technicalities here, but I urge anyone who is
interested to write to me for a copy of the statutory audited
accounts, which give a full explanation of those changes.
Hugh Belshaw FCA MBA
Finance Director
Oxfam Review 93-94
European Union
8%
UN and other agencies
10.9
13%
Gifts in kind (food aid, blankets, shoes, and clothes)
86.8
TOTAL
100%
Where the money goes
Oxfam aims to spend each year what it raises in that year, and
to keep only a very low level of reserves to protect forward
commitments to the development programme.
Part of the revision of Oxfam's structure has been to treat
the shops operation and trading activities as a distinct part of
the organisation, bearing their own operating and management
costs. This means that fundraising expenditure now relates
directly to the cost of raising donations and grants from other
agencies.
Pattern of Aid 1993 - 1994
In summary, Oxfam's expenditure for the year was as follows
(in £m):
Overseas programme
Oxfam Review 93-94
Oxfam believes that the poverty of women
and men, communities, and whole nations
in the Third World is not inevitable, can be
tackled, and must be ended.
Oxfam believes in people - in their strength
in the face of suffering, and their
determination to make a fairer world. Oxfam
supports their efforts to change things for
the better.
Many of the people and funding bodies who supported Oxfam
this year are acknowledged elsewhere in this report, but it
would be impossible to mention all the individuals, groups and
organisations in the United Kingdom, in Ireland, and overseas
who contributed to Oxfam's work during 1993-94. We are
grateful to everyone who enabled us to achieve so much.
Oxfam was saddened this year by the deaths of the
following people, who had devoted time, energy, and
imagination to the fight against poverty, and who are
remembered with respect and affection by those who worked
with them:
Horace Bacon, who died at the age of 101, having raised
over £100,000 for Oxfam since his retirement, mostly through
the Pledged Giving scheme.
Stella Chirwa, one of the two Community Trainers with the
rural development programme in Mulanje, Malawi, mentioned
on page 4 of this Review.
Since the outbreak of conflict in Rwanda, our thoughts have
been very much with our staff in central Africa. At the time of
going to press, eight staff from our Rwanda programme have
not been accounted for, and many have lost relatives and
friends.
eXTAM
Working for a Fairer World
Oxfam, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford, 0X2 7DZ. Tel: 0865 312603
Registered Charity No. 202918
Bicester Code: 141038
From the Finance Where the money comejs from
Director’s Desk
Oxfam’s income
and expenditure
for 1993-94
1993-94 was a particularly disastcr-riddei?year, making life
even more difficult for the people with whfcm we work.
Appeals for funding for emergency relief programmes were a
major contributor to our increased incomeffl'he British
Government’s Overseas Development Administration (ODA)
and the European Union (EU) provided generous support for
our development and emergencies work. In particular,
restricted (earmarked) income from the UK Government, the
EU.and from UN agencies increased from £9.6 million in
1992-93, to £18 million in 1993-94.
In summary, Oxfam's income for the year came from the
following sources (in £m and % of total):
Record Year
1993-94 set two new records. The first was a huge increase in
the need to respond Jo emergencies. A stark reminder of one of
Oxfam's reasons for existence, and nfotivation for staff,
volunteers and supporters who, every year, try to respond to
the need for more money and resources in the face of
increasing hardship. The second record was a new record total
income.
Oxfam's income for 1993^94 was nearly £87 million, an
increase of 10 per cent over 1992-93. This continues Oxfam's
steady growth of previous years in the face of the difficult
economic climate, made possible only by the energy and
determination of our volunteers and supporters.
Changes to the accounts
The management structure of Oxfam has, over the last two
years, undergone radical changes in order to support our
financial growth. The accounts have similarly been revised to
reflect the new structure, and to follow new proposals from the
Charitv Commission on the presentation of financial
information to the public. I will not elaborate on the
accounting technicalities here, but I urge anyone who is
interest' d to write to me for a copy of the statutory audited
accounts, which give a full explanat. m of those changes.
Hugh Belshaw FCA MBA
Finance Director
Insert M jol|cu>in^
ujka.1- Mtfu-’flunk. <*/<e
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Where the money goes
Pattern of Aid 1993 - 1994
Oxlam aims to spend each war what it raises in that year, ami
to keep only a very low level ol reserves to protect forward
commitments to the development programme.
Part ot the revision ot Oxfam's structure has been to treat
the shops operation and trading activities as a distinct part ol
the organisation, bearing their own operating and management
costs. This means that fundraising expenditure now relates
directly to the cost of raising donations and grants from other
agencies.
In summary, Oxfam's expenditure for the year was as follows
(in £m):
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WHAT IS 'OXFAM PROJECT PARTNERS'?
Oxfam Project Partners (OPP) is a fundraising scheme that
offers supporters detailed feedback on Oxfam's development
work in return for regular donations.
Why does Oxfam need OPP?
OPP was developed as Oxfam's answer to other charities' very successful
child sponsorship schemes.
It offers detailed information on how
supporters' money is spent, without the ethically undesirable aspects of
child sponsorship. It has proved to be one of our most successful ways of
recruiting new 'committed givers' - people who make regular donations
direct from their bank account.
Who joins OPP?
OPP is aimed at people who are generally happy to support organisations
working in the South but want to know exactly how their money is spent.
They are a little more sceptical about our work than most-supporters, and
therefore want a degree of accountability, feedback and control.
Market research tells us that a typical OP? supporter is aged 25 - 54; more
likely to be female than male; works as a professional (e.g. doctor, teacher);
owns their own house; is married with a family; reads quality newspapers
(e.g The Guardian); is educated; moderately well off and travels relatively
frequently.
What do they give?
In order to join OPP a supporter must give a minimum of £5 per month
(although this is under review) throuyn :> standing order or covenant*. The
average is actually well above this at £9.25 per month.
What happens to their money?
80% of it is offset against a range of projects (including one that they've
chosen to fo'iow - see below). 10% is offset against costs of tne field
offices In feature projects' countries. The final 10% covers fundraising and
administration costs in the UK.
What does Oxfam offer in return?
We give OPPers a degree of choice through offering them the chance of
following 1 'feature' project chosen from a list of 3. They are sent a briefing
on their chosen project when they join and receive feedback in the form of
updates on its progress over the next 3 years.
In addition we give control by promising, that 80% of their money will be
offset against projects overseas (though not necessarily their chosen
project). The remaining 20% is split equally between fundraising and admin
costs in the UK and a contribution towards the costs of the field offices who
support the OPP feature projects. At the end of each financial year OPPers
are sent a full set of OPP accounts, making Oxfam accountable for how their
money has been spent.
What is OPP worth to Oxfam?
At the moment over 5500 OPPers contribute about £750,000p.a to Oxfam,
and it costs about £37,000p.a. to run - that's actually a lot less than our
maximum allowed: last year we spent only 6% on administration and
fundraising in the UK.
A standing order is simply a means of instructing your bank to make regular
payments of a fixed amount to a specified, recipient. They're usually made
monthly but could be weekly, annually or at any regular interval. A
covenant is similar but has an additional and valuable extra benefit - it
enables Oxfam to reclaim some of the income tax a supporter has paid. This
adds 33% to the value of their gifts without costing supporters anything
more.
sa\opp\genexp\11.07.94
©xfem Trustees
1994/95
THE TRUSTEES OF OXFAM have ultimate responsibility in
law for the charity, its assets and activities. They form the
Council of Trustees which is the governing body of the
Association (or limited liability company) of Oxfam. They are
appointed because of their commitment and qualities
and their knowledge and experience relevant to the
responsibilities of trusteeship and the range of Oxfam’s work.
This pamphlet introduces the trustees who will serva during the
year 1994/5. It also lists names of members of the Association
(former trustees, current trustees, and others from among
whom it is expected some future trustees will be nominated).
eXEAM
United Kingdom & Ireland
Mary Cherry
Chair
Trustee 1980-87. and from 1988.
Previously. Vice-Chair of Council.
Chair of Executive Committee and of
Asia Committee, served on oilier
committees. Mary is a semi retired
freelance agricultural writer, broad
caster and pnotographer whose work
has taken her to most countries
where Oxfam supports projects.
Lesley Ridyard
Amir Bhatia
Paddy Coulter
John Isherwood
Nick Maurice
Honorary Secretary
Trustee since 1990. Ex member of
Wastesaver Board. Lesley is an
Or
Shop Leader and
Campaigner m Bolton, and has been
a shop volunteer for over 20 years.
Trustee since 1993, having
previously been on Council
1986-92. Ex Chair of Oxfam
Trading Board, served on other
committees. Amir is Chairman and
Managing Director of Forbes
Campbell (Internauonal) Ltd. and
Chairman of the Forbes Trust.
Trustee since 1993. Paddy worked
as Oxfam's Communications
Co ordinator from 1982-87.
He is currently Director of the
International Broadcasting Trust.
Returns as a trustee in 1994,
having served several terms on
Council since 1968. Ex Chair of
Staff & Volunteers and Executive
Committees. Presently Vice Chair of
Water Aid. and a trustee of other
charities. John is a consultant solici
tor and has had long links with V'SO.
Returns in 1994, having been a
trustee from 1984-92, and an
Association member since 1993.
Ex Chair of Asia Committee. Nick is
a practising GP. and has a special
interest in links between communi
ties in the North/South. Honorary
Director of Marlborough Brandl
Group. Chair of Druglink. Swindon.
Eleri Elliott
Dino Adriano
Joel Joffe
Vice Chair and Chair Designate
Trustee 1980-88. 1989-93. and
from 1994. Ex Chair of the Executive
Committee. Joel is a campaigne' for
consumer rights, and trustee of
several other chanties. He was a
human rights lawyer in South Africa.
Deputy Chairman of Allied Dunbar
Assurance and Chairman of the
Swindon Health Authority.
Trustee since 1990.
Ex Chair of Oxfam Trading Board,
served on other committees. Dino is
a Director of J. Sainsbury PLC and
Chairman and Managing Director of
Homebase Ltd.
Terry
Brenig-Jones
Trustee since 1992,
Ex Vice-Chair of Staff and Volunteers
Committee, currently an Oxfam
House volunteer. Terry is a manage
ment consultant who previously
worked with Digital Equipment
Company Ltd. as UK Human
Resources Development and
Training Manager.
Chaloka Beyani
David Kingsmill
Honorary Treasurer
I Trustee since 1993. Ex member of
1 Budgets and Finance Committee.
•
David is an accountant, and
previously worked as Finance
I Director for Chase Manhattan (UK)
and as Managing Director of
Credit Agricole.
Trustee since 1993. Chaloka is a
Research Fellow in International
law, Wolfson College. Oxford and
the Refugee Studies Programme at
Queen Elizabeth House. He has
expertise in advocacy, human
rights law and refugees.
Trustee since 1993. Ex member
of Development Education
Committee. Eleri is Assistant
Principle of Bangor Normal College,
North Wales, and has earlier
experience elsewhere including
leaching in Brazil.
Wanjiru Kihoro
Starts as a trustee in 1994.
Director of ABANTU for
Development, a development ngo
concerned with training, information
and mobilising resources for African
organisations. Wanjiru is an
economist and a consultant on
structural adjustment.
Ram
Ramamurthy
Trustee since 1993. Ex member of
Asia Committee. Previously Asia
Secretary for Quaker Peace and
Service, now a consultant to them
on Asian affairs.
Chris Hudson
Bruce Coles
Trustee since 1993, having previ
ously been on Council 1985-92.
Ex Chair of PACE Committee,
served on other committees.
Bruce is a barrister and QC.
Trustee since 1992. Chris is
Personal Assistant to the General
Secretary, Communications
Workers Union, Republic of Ireland,
and Chairperson of the Irish
Congress of Trade Unions Third
World Committee.
Liz South
James Mackie
Trustee since 1989; ex Vice-Chair of
Asia Committee, served ori other
committees. Jamie is Executive
Secretary, NGO-EC Liaison
Committee. Brussels.
Starts as trustee in 1994. having
been an Association member since
1993. Liz worked tor Oxfam as
Campaigns Assistant in Scotland.
and was for a while OJTUS repre
sentative to Council. She is now
Executive Secretary of Common
Weal, and campaigns on a wide
number of peace and justice
issues.
Jeremy Swift
Rosemary Thorp
Trustee since 1993^ having previously been on
Trustee since 1989.
Ex Chair of Latin America Committee, served on
other committees. Rosemary is a Lecturer anu
Fellow at St. Antony's College. Oxford (Economics of
Development Studies. Sussex University, special
ising in pastorahsm. famine and food security.
Catriona de Voil
Ian Williams
Trustee 1985-91. and from 1992. Ex member
of Oxfam Trading Board. Volunteer teacher, running
conferences and courses for Oxfam in schools
m Scotland.
Trustee 1982-91, and from 1992 Ex Vice Chair
of Oxfam and Honorary ’Secretary, served on other
committees. Ian is Medical Director. Walton Centre
for Neurology. Liverpool and a consultant
neurologist.
Members of the Association
of Oxfam as at 21 September 1994
The trustees of Oxfam and other members:-AKWE AMOSU
STEPHEN EDELL
JONATHON PORRITT
ROSEMARY BLOXAM
JUDY EL BUSHRA
MICHAEL ROWNTREE
CHARLES
VAN DER VAEREN
MEGAN VAUGHAN
GUL BOCOCK
CAROL FISHER
SUE SANDLER
MORRIS BRODIE
MICHAEL HOLMAN
MILDRED SHERRARD
LESLEY CLARK
PENNY JENDEN
PRANLAL SHETH
GILLIAN CLARKE
ELUNED NICKSON
EUROPE SINGH
SONIA DRAKE
CARRIE OSBORNE
CHRIS UNDERHILL
CHARLES WALMSLEY
PHIL WARD
GEOFF WOOD
SAM WOODHOUSE
United Kingdom & Ireland
RcR'Sifrea cnarily no. 202918 Printed on environment friendly paper 0X1505/k|/94
OXFAM PROJECT PARTNERS MEET
BANGALORE
THt PROGRAMME : DAY 1
•S..jO,Q
-...9^15
■ . .-J: ...l.n,tr.od-u.cta.on. .to - the -day.
What do you know about Oxfam?
9.15-10.00
:
10.00 - 10.30
;:
Coffee break.
10.30 -11.15
:
A brief history of Oxfam.
11.15-11.45
;:
Where the money comes from and goes to ?
11.45 - 12.30
:
The shop operation.
12.30 - 1.30
:
Lunch
1.30 - 2.15
:
A choice of four workshops: WSSD. Afghanistan.
Beijing & Ethiopia
2.15 -3.00
:
The Overseas Division:
Where it fits.
How it
works.
Where it works.
What is its vision?
3.00 - 3.15
:
Short break.
3.15 - 4.00
:
How does "donor, marketing" work?
4.00-4.30
:
Tea break.
4.30-4.45
:
Taking care of your supporter.
4.45 - 5.30
:
The "Big Campaign".
5.30-5.45
:
Short break.
5.45-6.30
:
Video: "After Charity".
6.30 - 7.30
:
Break.
7.30 -8.15
:
Dinner.
P-T 0
DAY 2
THE PROGRAMME:
&.00 - 10.00
:
Working in the UK/1.
10.00 - 10.30
:
Coffee break.
10.30
- 11.30
:
Overseas Division Strategi Plan.
11.30
- 12.30
:
Choosing images for Oxfam.
12.30
-3u
i.
i
- 1.30
onwards
:
Lunch,
Partners Meets continuing.
OXFAM PROJECT PARTNERS MEET
14TH TO 16TH JUNE 1995
BANGALORE
THE PROGRAMME :
15TH JUNE 1995 icontd.)
LUNCH
1.00 - 2.00
60 mins
2.00 - 2.30
30 mins
Introduction to Poverty analysis"
2.30 - 4.00
‘30 mins
Small group discussion on
(a> Poverty analysis it priority groups by
5 regional groups tTN 2. KAR 2. KER 1)
it' External environment & NGO <?nvi r.onment
by 3 mixed groups
4.OO - 4.30
30 oains
TEA
4.30 - 6.30
120 mins
Plenary
7.30 - 8.15
45 mins
SUPPER
SHIRDI
Cultural evening
3.30
GERRY
-
ANBU (S. TRUST).
VARGHEESE
16TH JUNE 1995
8.30 - 8.45
15 mins
Introduction to Oxfam's future
0.45 - 9.15
30 mins
Small
9.15-
10.15
60 mins
Plenary
10.15 -
10.30
15 mins
TEA
10.30 - 12.30
120 mins
Special
12.30 - 1.30
60 mins
LUNCH
JAC1NTHA
presentations by Partners
1.30 - 2.30
60 mins
Expeetat io<;s...........................
2.30 - 3.30
30 mins
30 mins
Accounts is procedures
Information sharing,
Question i answer
3.30 - 3.45
15 mins
Follow up strategies,
& vote of thanks
4.00
GERRY
group discussion on Oxfam’s future
TEA
VIHAL
JOSEPH
GERRY
evaluation
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-
Volunteers
In the immediate aftermath of the
quake, it was mainly local people who
gave up their time to help those in
need. They rescued injured survivors
from the rubble and pulled out the
bodies of the dead. They helped with
cremations and burials, helped find
personal possessions for survivors,
and built temporary shelters. They pro
vided first aid, food, water, blankets,
clothes, mattresses and, crucially,
helped comfort the bereaved. Without
them, the relief programme would not
have been possible.
Deepak
One such volunteer was Deepak. This,
translated from the original Marathi, is
an extract from his diary:
“Visited Killari village. Felt the fury of
nature. Bodies everywhere. Heaps of
mud, stone, wood and tin roofs.
Possibility of finding many dead and
injured under the heaps. This experi
ence brought forth the other truth
about life. Rather than leading a selfcentred life, live life as best you can.
Hope in man even after dreams are
shattered is what man's struggle is all
about. Realised the true nature of
man. Two persons removing bodies of
dead relatives - wanting help from all
around. Helped them. Fear, disgust,
repulsion - all set aside. Decided to
help them as far as I could."
From the diary of Deepak Dudhale,
30 September 1993. the day the
earthquake struck.
Building safer housing
What Oxfam is doing
today
Now that the immediate emergency
is over, the rebuilding has already
begun. Oxfam is still there, helping
the survivors look to the future. We
are continuing to help the local com
munities improve their drainage and
sanitation, and restore water sup
plies damaged by the quake.
Through local NGOs in the area,
Oxfam is also providing funds for dis
tributing food, clothes, blankets, and
seeds and tools, so people can get
down to the important business of
rebuilding lives and livelihoods.
Some, though, will need more help
than others. Widows and orphans
are now among the most vulnerable
and will need a great deal of help to
regain their confidence and reshape
their futures. Oxfam's longer-term
plans in the area will focus on them.
Soon after the extent of the damage
became clear, the Maharashtra State
Government promised a massive
reconstruction programme to build
some 30,000 new houses within six
months, with money from the World
Bank.
Now, however, it seems that a more
measured approach is being consid
ered: one that will take into account
people’s needs and wishes. With this
in mind, Oxfam has hired a low-cost
housing expert with years of experi
ence in India. He is already working
with the local people and together
they are looking at designs and mat
erials for building safer houses, more
appropriate to the needs of the peo
ple.
Thank you
The response to Oxfam’s emergency
appeal for the victims of the earth
quake was fantastic and exceeded all
expectations. Press advertisements
and a special emergency mailing,
together with large, spontaneous
gifts, raised over £1,125,000.
On behalf of all the survivors, as
well as our partners and colleagues,
in Maharashtra, thank you. Your
generosity is greatly appreciated.
Working for a Fairer World
Registered chanty no. 202918 Printed on recycled paper. 0X546/kj/93
0X596/kj/93
Oxfam, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 7DZ Tel: 0865 312603
THE
BIG IDEA":
1.
WHAT IS IT?
2.
WHY?
OXFAM'S
NEW
CAMT’AK^N
[See one page handout: THE BIG IDEA]
■ The Strategic Plan commits Oxfam to improving
impact
of
our PROGRAMME through
CAMPAIGNING
INFLUENCING,
OUR
EDUCATION
PUBLIC
AND
the
INCREASING
WORK.
■ Key
to
this
is the
different
PARTS
OF
OXFAM
WORKING TOGETHER (as never before) TO INCREASE THE
IMPACT OF C'JR ADVOCACY AND STRENGTHENING
SOUTHERN
INPUT.
3.
WHEN?
- Launch : 20 JUNE,
4.
1895,
to run for 5 YEARS.
WHAT ARE ITS AIMS?
To alleviate poverty by:
- GAINING
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE'S
BASIC
RIGHTS TO BE RESPECTED.
■ SECURING
SPECIFIC POLICY CHANGES
BY
GOVERNMENTS
AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES.
■ INCREASING
LEVELS OF CONCERN,
IN UK/I PUBLIC.
SUPPORT AND
ACTION
5.
HOW?
A. TH1: CHALLENGE:
■ Oxfam
has a considerable reputation for
securing
significant policy changes on specific issues with
WB, but not on the broad ' issue
of
■ Oxfam has supported organisations in the South
on
HMG,
EC,
UN,
poverty.
advocacy and campaigning but has not
or
incorporated
integrated such work with the advocacy in
the
North.
■ Oxfam has not succeeded
levels
in raising and
of concern and understanding in
public over global poverty.
2
sustaining
th-.
UK/I
B.
THE STRATEGY:
There are three INTERLINKED ELEMENTS:
■ SECURING COMMITMENT TO OUR BIG IDEA FROM
DECISION
MAKERS.
DEVELOPING
AN
ADVOCACY
PROGRAMME
TO
SPECIFIC
POLICY
CHANGES
INVOLVING
INFLUENCING,
ACHIEVE
LOBBYING AND CAMPAIGNING.
■ RAISING
PUBLIC AWARENESS, CONCERN AND SUPPORT
IN
UK/I AND INTERNATIONALLY ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN THEMES
AND, TO
INVOLVE
MORE PEOPLE
SUPPORT OUR LOBBYING PROGRAMME.
IN
CAMPAIGNING
TO
THE STRATEGY DETAILS:
,1. SECURING COMMITMENT FROM DECISION MAKERS TO OUR VISION BY:
Laying
our agenda through a core
out
document:
THE
using
the
OXFAM POVERTY REPORT (just published).
Developing
an
"Ambassador"
programme,
influential Oxfam-friendly people.
Relationship
building with key politicians,
business
leaders and the media in UK/I "starter countries", and
with key figures in EC, UN, WB, IMF.
Producing
a
"Poverty
White
Paper"
in
early
1996
following a series of poverty hearings.
Developing
our analysis e.g. on conflict, alternative
economic approaches, and presenting these as they
are
published.
Possibly establishing an INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL
COMMISSION
based
on national,
national partner forums.
regional
and
JUSTICE
inter
THE STRATEGY DETAILS:
2.
INFLUENCING, LOBBYING AND CAMPAIGNING BY
Targeting
decision
.".ambassadors",
through
and
directly
makers,
co-ordinated North & South,
invo" ving
fieid staff and partners.
.
Generating editorial media coverage aimed at
makers
North & South, in parallel
in
decision
with
lobbying
activities around key dates/events.
Generating
letter
writing in UK/I from
public,
the
donors and supporters to decision makers.
MPs,
meetings between our supporters and
Encouraging
Ministers, and representatives of foreign
governments
in UK/I.
Focussing
specific
on
issues
at
different
in
the
first
stages
throughout
the
year
on
implementing
and resourcing action plans of WSSD
and
on securing support for UN Reform,
Beijing,
to
include
a
single
Humanitarian
issues
possibly
Department
response and a UN Peace Keeping
emergency
trade
campaign;
for
Force;
(around 3 or 4 commodities);
on
on
post
conflict consolidation and - in "starter" countries
-
on issues currently being worked out.
Later developing
campaigns.
short illustrative
issue
specific
and building alliances with
other
national
NGOs in particular in UK/I and
N.
America,
through
office.
our
Washington
Advocacy
Networking
new
international
inter
THE STRATEGY DETAILS:
3.
RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS AND RECRUITING SUPPORT TO ACHIEVE
GREATER UNDERSTANDING AND COMMITMENT BY:
Focussing on people most likely to respond
["the
target audience"]
Involving people in action which is easy to understand
.
and
do,
e.g. letter writing,
buying
fairly
traded
BASIC
RIGHTS,
goods. [See below]
support
Engaging
for the CHARTER
ON
which will be locally promoted by campaigners in UK/I,
using
shops, the media,
our
street
events,
public
meetings, to influence decision makers nationally
and
globally.
Subsequently engaging support for the CHARTER in other
countries, North & South.
Promoting
FAIR TRADE, through increasing
numbers
validated
items
available in Oxfam
and
widely,
and
through the media
and
shops
advertising,
create both critical demand and adequate supply.
6
of
more
to
Engaging
the mass media, TV and newspapers, using
as
necessary
celebrities
convey
and
to
the
messages
popularise the issues.
Publishing, in conjunction with commercial
publishers
a range of titles to communicate in a simple way
some
of the principle campaign themes.
Advertising, on TV, in cinemas.
Promoting
the campaign through development
education
work in schools and youth clubs.
In time extending public education to other
from
UK/I
in
Europe and
in
countries
Oxfams, and some where we have programmes.
7
countries
with
other
Bridge Informatics
Oxfam Trading and the Subject of Child Labour
The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee is one of Oxfam Trading's main suppliers in Bangladesh. When
they recently took over a factory making garments for export, they discovered that a third of the work force was
girls under the age of 12. Many of them turned out to be supporting their families as well as themselves, and the
new manager was faced with a dreadful dilemma. 'I cannot sack them and I cannot keep them honourably’, he said.
Instead, he set up a system to ensure a fairer deal: increased wages, free food and basic education in the evenings.
Next will come training in machine skills.
It is sadly the case ±at in many developing countries poverty obliges children to become involved in the labour
market at a young age. To turn away from this problem in order to salve our Western consciences can mean
condemning such children to even worse poverty.
We should remember that child labour was common in Europe less than a century ago (and still is in pans of
Southern Europe;, and it is only because of our increased prosperity that we can afford not to tolerate it today.
In Oxfam Trading’s experience a positive approach is by far the best in the longer term, and the understanding of
customers can make a real difference if it is directed towards suppon for fair trade.
Oxfam Trading’s Bridge programme is about bringing maximum benefit to producers in developing countries and
making sure exploitation does not take place. The investigation and monitoring of suppliers we carry out means we
know what conditions producers are working in, how much they earn and of course whether children are involved.
Oxfam Trading abides by the laws of the countries in which it operates regarding the employment of children. Wc
do not work with groups which provide formal employment to young children, although some situations such as the
one in Bangladesh cited above show ±e need to look at each case on its merits. Many of our suppliers’ families do
nevertheless involve children in light work outside school hours because their contribution is vital to the family's
survival. We do not believe it would be in their best interests to refuse to buy because of this.
Parents in developing countries are usually only too aware that education is an investment in their children’s future.
They will send them to school if they can possibly afford it. Through its Bridge programme Oxfam Trading helps
them afford it.
The following is an extract from the World Labour Report 1992 published by the International Labour Office,
Geneva:
"But the exploitation of child labour remains a disturbing aspect of the international labour scene. Hundreds of
millions of child labourers around the world work or suppon themselves and their families, often sacrificing their
education, their health - and their childhood. Even though few countries have yet developed comprehensive plans
to heal with child labour there are many steps that can be taken, including: improving and enforcing legislation;
promoting school enrolment; raising public awareness of the dangers of child labour; and supporting actions of
communities and organisations who are helping child workers. "
A SUMMARY OF KEY PARTS IN THE
OVERSEAS DIVISIOK VISION STATEMENT:
1995-1989
The Statement describes the vision of the Programme
by
2000 and the process to make it happen.
By 2000 the Programme will have enabled us to
*
Develop
our strengths and those
which
qualities
differentiate us from other agencies namely:
local knowledge & experience gained from working
with
local people;
commitment
to
skill and capacity
building
of
poor
women & men and their organisations;
our "integrated" or "one programme" approach, using
range
of
methods
e.g.
research,
project
a
funding,
advocacy, emergency response, networking;
the scale of our international activities.
*
Our primary emphasis will be on capacity building,
from
local to the national,
the
in
sustainable
ways directly beneficial to poor people.
*
We
will
work closely
with
counterparts
(i.e.,
partners) and poor people in drawing programme and
workplans; qualitative and quantitative indicators
of
impact;
and
monitoring
and
evaluating
programmes.
*
counterparts will be active
these processes.
All
participants
in
Develop a New Form of Partnership with Counterparts
We will involve counterparts more closely in the
strategic
and
programmes.
We will reach
operational
of
our
i clear agreement
with
them about our respective roles in bringing
*bout
sig
planning
;fleant changes in the lives of poor
men.
Particular
paid
attention will be
needs and interests of the former.
'omen and
the
to
We will develop
two-way contracts which will require both sides to
to the views of poor men and
listen
women
their
needs,
and to ensure that those
being
net.
All Oxfam UK/I counterparts
aware
of
understand
and
our
about
needs
are
will
be
organisational
mandate, priorities, and sources of income.
*
Positive action will be taken to ensure that woman
play a full part.
We
learn the lessons from
will
programmes
policy
to make our work more
decisions
more soundly
across
and
effective,
based,
ano
our
and
will
allocate appropriate resources to do so.
We will continue to develop two concepts as a
way
focussing and communicating
our
of understanding,
programme experience
basic
rights^ i.e., to the power and means
for
poor
people
to participate fully in society and share
its
resources.
sustainable
living which
environment.
livelihoods:i.e..
do
not
damage
ways
of
earning
other, people
or
a
the
Bridge
For 30 years, Oxfam Activities Ltd
their access to the local market. To
(Oxfam’s trading company), has had a
make sure its trade is fair for producers,
special programme of support for just
Bridge:
such producers. Today it is known as the
“Bridge” programme. Bridge makes
buy raw materials and pay wages
which make sure the producers
deal possible in terms of wages and
get the full benefit of their hard
trade and development.
Bridge works with producers in the
South: providing an export outlet for their
crafts and foods, and helping to improve
their goods so the producers can
without getting into debt;
- buys directly from the producers
or through specialist agencies
sure that the producers receive the best
conditions. It is a unique combination of
- pays an advance on the value of
work;
- gives grants so that groups can
develop and expand, and
distributes an annual bonus;
- provides a programme of support,
- helps producers to assess all their
for instance, giving advice and
costs and reach an acceptable
information on design and
price for their product;
business management.
What does this mean in practical terms?
For Fazeela, it means a chance to lead
a fuller life. She lives in Chonkanda, a
village in Bangladesh, and like most
through Bridge.
Being part of a group has given
Fazeela confidence. So has having
people in her community, she has no
land of her own on which to grow
money of her own to spend. What’s
crops. Her family has struggled to sup
month, which she will use to buy
port itself by doing casual agricultural
work for local landowners, but it wasn't
some livestock, or make improve
more, she is saving a little each
ments to her house.
until Fazeela joined a group ofcraft
women that they had a regular income
they could rely on.
Fazeela’s group meets regularly to
make embroidered pictures known as
“nakshi kantha”. Their work is support
ed by Aarong, a local organisation work
Fazeela belongs to a craft group in
Bangladesh which finds a market for
embroidery through Bridge. Regular
work has meant that for the first time
in her life, she has savings of her own.
and a savings book to prove it!
ing with small, inexperienced groups
like Fazeela’s. Aarong sells craft items
Kavitha lives in a small
village in South India. Her
schooling was cut short
when she had to find
work as a labourer in
order to support her
younger sisters.
Eventually, she enrolled
ill that he could no longer work. The
entire burden of supporting the family
fell to Kavitha.
Her co-operative helped out by giving
her greater responsibilities within the
village group. Now she earns more, and
on a course run by the
in return, trains new workers and acts
Community
as a group leader, helping to develop
solidarity among the women so that
Development Society
A group leader from Kavitha's cooperative
teaching a new group of women to weave
palmleaf baskets in Tamil Nadu, South
India.
together they managed to support their
family. Then, her husband became so
(another organisation
supported by Bridge), learned how to
make baskets out of palmleaf, and
joined a crafts co-operative organised
into village groups. Her husband
helped with the basketwork, and
together they can tackle social and
development issues.
Kavitha has become a leading light in
the community, doing much to show
the potential of poor women.
Buying
First and perhaps most obviously. Oxfam Activities’ Bridge pro
gramme supports producers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and
the Caribbean by buying their products. Regular orders from
supportive organisations such as Oxfam Activities mean that
producer groups can plan for the future, and may be able to
employ more people. But other assistance is just as important.
Support for producers
Specialist Bridge staff are based in a number of countries so
they are on hand to offer advice and practical support to pro
ducers. In addition, they organise training sessions and help to
develop local marketing initiatives such as craft fairs and
shops. Each year, the profit made by selling Bridge products is
shared with producers: as grants to improve their businesses,
Mohammad Islam. Bridge Representative for Bangladesh and Nepal,
discussing the needs of a textile worker in Kathmandu.
and as annual dividends.
Kavitha's co-operative took part in a craft fair in India which
was organised by Bridge staff: producers sold their crafts and
learned how to improve their sales. And their dividend has been
spent on prizes for design competitions, a workshop on
wc^^i’s development, and uniforms, books and school fees
for their children.
Keeping up with market trends is essential. Sales of Bridge products
weathered the recession of the early 1990s thanks, in part, to some
imaginative marketing ideas. When teamed up with a selection of
fairly-traded nuts, and sold as a Christmas gift, a basket made by
Kavitha's co-operative was one of the most successful products in the
Oxfam catalogue.
Sourcing Bridge products
To ensure that support from Bridge reaches the people who
- is fair for ail workers;
need it most, producers are chosen with great care. A Bridge
representative assesses each group of producers against a set
- pays fair wages within the local context;
of criteria which have been developed as a result of many years
of experience. Among other things, producers must show that
they are developing an organisation which:
- promotes equal relations between men and women;
- provides good working conditions;
- uses natural resources in a sustainable way.
Fair Trade food
Many small-scale farmers in the Third
and some have to abandon their
land. They may drift to overcrowded
World survive by growing crops for
themselves, and selling their surplus.
Their small harvests leave no cushion
if their crops fail, local traders reduce
the prices, or world commodity prices
cities in search of work, or even join
the lucrative drugs trade by turning to
coca leaf or opium poppy production.
In recent years, Bridge has
increased its support to small-scale
farmers by buying from farmers who
fall. As a result, many get into debt
have joined together in co-operatives
Adrian Miranda has a lease from the
Peruvian government to gather Brazil nuts
from 500 hectares of rainforest by the
Pariamanu river in the Madre de Dios
region. He works with two other men. open
ing the coconut-sized outer shells with a
machete. The nuts are then carried out of
the forest In 70 kilo sacks and sold
through Candela, a local marketing agency
which pays the gatherers an advance and
gives them a secure income.
and associations. Together, they
have more control over the process
ing and distribution of their produce,
and so get a better return fortheir
labours. Bridge also pays the growers
a stable price which reflects the real
costs of production. It's a market
they can depend on.
Through the Bridge programme, Oxfam Activities is able to help handcraft and food
producers in some of the remotest parts of the world. Women, disabled people, refugees,
indigenous communities, landless farm workers, and people living on the edge of cities,
can at last get the most from their efforts to earn a living. At the same time, Bridge is
helping to raise the profile of Fair Trade as an issue which should concern us all.
Where to find Fair Trade products
Oxfam Activities Ltd is one of a number of Alternative Trading
Organisations (ATOs) in the UK and Ireland, which give con
sumers the chance to buy a range of products which do not
exploit the producers. These are the main ATOs.
Dalton, David, A Buyer's Market: Global Trade, Southern
Poverty, and Northern Action. Oxfam, 2nd Edition, 1994.
Herald, Jacqueline, World Crafts. Letts, 1992. (An overview of
contemporary crafts and their production in non-Westem coun
tries, drawing on the experience of the Bridge programme.)
EQUAL EXCHANGE TRADING Ltd, 29 Nicolson Square,
Edinburgh, EH8 9BX 031 667 0905
Madden, Peter, A Raw Deal: Trade and the World's Poor.
Christian Aid, 1992.
ONE VILLAGE, Charlbury, Oxford, 0X7 3SQ 0993 812866
Wells, Phil, and Jetter, Mandy, The Global Consumer. Victor
Gollancz. 1991,
OXFAM ACTIVITIES Ltd, Murdock Road, Bicester, 0X6 7RF
0869 245011
Further information
SHARED EARTH, 17 Goodramgate, York, Y01 2LW
0904 636400
The following organisations are also able to provide information
about crafts and cultures.
TRAIDCRAFT PLC, Kingsway, Gateshead, NE11 ONE
091 4911591
Museum of Mankind, 6 Burlington Gardens, London, W1X 2EX
Tel: 071 734 6255
TWIN TRADING Ltd, 5/11 Worship Street. London, EC2A 2BH
071 628 6878
Horniman Museum, Education Centre, 100 London Road,
Forest Hill, London SE23 3PQ Tel: 081 699 1872
The following organisations are also involved with Fair Trade:
Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford. 0X1 3PP
Tel: 0865 270927
CAFEDIRECT. 29 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9BX
031 667 0905 - a fair trade coffee brought into the main
stream supermarkets by a consortium of ATOs - Equal
Exchange, Oxfam Trading, Traidcraft and Twin Trading.
FAIR TRADE FOUNDATION, 105 Euston Street, London,
NW1 2ED 071 383 0425 -a monitoring body set up by
Oxfam and other aid agencies, which offers commercial
companies the opportunity to sell products which originate in
the South with the Fair Trade Mark seal of approval.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR ALTERNATIVE TRADE (IFAT),
& EUROPEAN FAIR TRADE ASSOCIATION (EFTA) - organisations
which build links between ATOs and producers to form a con
certed movement for Fair Trade.
Further Reading
Coote, Belinda, The Trade Trap: Poverty and the Global
Commodity Markets. Oxfam, 1992.
‘Information from Oxfam' leaflets, on a range of topics, are
available free of charge from - Oxfam Supporter Services,
274 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 7D2. Tel: (0865) 312603.
Recent titles Include:
■ A brief history of Oxfam
■ Working for Oxfam
■ Recycling - contains information about Wastesaver
■ AIDS
■ Street children
■ Oxfam in Cambodia
■ Refugees and displaced people
■ Eastern Europe
--- (tXfAM.
Working for a Fairer World
Registered charity no. 202918 Printed on recycled paper. 0X546/kj/93 QX 1203/MJ/94 June 1994
Oxfam, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 7DZ Tel: 0865 312603
ABOUT OXFAM SHOPS
1.
NUMBERS:
*
For many people in UK/I Oxfam = shops.
*
There are 850 of them:
still the largest number of
any charity.
*
In
terms of number of shops Oxfam is one
of
the
up
in
largest retailers in UK.
2.
*
COMPETITION:
was
Oxfam's
the first charity shop,
*
But many other charities have followed,
is now huge competition between us,
donated goods,
*
set
Oxford in 1948.
Broad Street,
and volunteers.
is
also
secondhand
shops,
There
there
and
for customers,
competition
and
discount
commercial
from
stores
selling
cheap new clothes.
Oxfam
shops
are now often criticised
for
over
pricing .
3.
*
CONTRIBUTION TO OXFAM'S INCOME:
Oxfam
Oxfam's
shops contribute a declining proportion
total income,
still growing
terms,
but not so fast as other
years
ago it was about 1/3,
1/5 (£16.4 m in 1993/94).
in
fundraising.
now it is
of
absolute
less
10
than
*
But lowering prices won't change that:
will.
professionalism
[However,
increasing
creates
that
potential tension within the "volunteer ethos"
of
the organisation.]
4.
*
VOLUNTEERS:
volunteers
27,000
staff
shops,
Oxfam
but
increasing numbers now have paid managers.
*
Most volunteers are middle aged to elderly,
middle
white women (hence the stereo-type:
"Oxfam
class,
shop volunteer".)
*
Many volunteers don't have much detailed knowledge
about
what
Oxfam does - but they
"good
work
for poor people
know
it
does
and
they
greatest opposition to Oxfam working in
UK/I
overseas"
trust it.
*
But
from shop volunteers:
came
the
opposed
majority
it.
5.
WHO GIVES AND WHO BUYS:
Most people who shop in Oxfam shops are not
so
in order primarily to support Oxfam:
they
doing
are
looking for "a bargain" or "value for money".
people who give donated goods to
Many
not
doing
simply
so
in order to
support
Oxfam
Oxfam.
want to re-cycle their cast-offs,
get rid of them.
or
are
They
just
*
This explains why a very large quantity of donated
are
not
fit for sale
Wastesaver
(in
the case of clothes)
goods
and
either
go
to
or
to
the
municipal rubbish tip.
*
now using "clothing
is
Oxfam
banks"
and
"book
banks" to increase its volume of donated goods.
6. TYPES OF OXFAM SHOPS:
*
Most
Oxfam shops sell a mixture of
(crafts
and
food),
(commercially produced
books
and
cards
in UK/I),
bric-a-l irac
Bridge
goods
stationery
and
clothes,
donated
(vases,
crockery,
saucepans).
*
mixture causes merchandising problems.
This
What
is an Oxfam shop - a new or secondhand shop?
*
There is a small but growing number of
Oxfam
shops,
selling exclusively
furniture; books;
7.
*
specialist
goods;
Bridge
cheap clothing.
BRIDGE GOODS:
Bridge goods have had a difficult year
The
plan is now to reduce the range,
(1994/95).
but not
the
volume.
*
But
within the range, Fair Trade food items
expand
because
sales
have been 64%
previous year - a great success story.
up
on
will
the
Current
fair
coffees,
cocoa,
spices,
trade
items
food
include:
honeys, jams & pickles,
chocolates, nuts,
teas,
biscuits, dried fruits.
Mark
Most food items now carry the new Fair Trade
and
many are validated by the
too,
for being organically produced..
India
still
Bridge
goods:
with 15%.
Soil
supplies the largest
24% in
&
herbs
1993/94.
Association,
proportion
Thailand
is
But India's share is shrinking, as
countries come "on stream".
of
next
other
fittings were standardised.
The result has been a steady
increase in profits for the shops profits which all go directly towards
Oxfam's work. In turn, profits have
increased because, simply, more
people are shopping at Oxfam.
People buy from Oxfam shops for
different reasons. Levels of poverty
in the UK and Ireland mean that
people can’t afford to buy new
clothes and other items.
Increasingly, though, buying and
wearing second-hand clothing has
become acceptable, and even
fashionable, among the better off.
This is partly because Oxfam shops
have worked hard to maintain high
standards in what is offered for
sale. For others there’s the chance
of a rare and exciting “find”, like a
Lewis Carroll first edition, or an
original copy of the Beatles' White
Album. For some, bargain buying
with charitable results is enough in
itself. This has enabled Oxfam to
sell more Christmas cards each
year than any other charity.
But the shops make money only
because most of the goods they
sell are donated. And because
most of the people involved in
sorting, displaying, and selling them
are volunteers.
If you would like to know more
about becoming a volunteer in
an Oxfam shop, please call in
to any shop and ask to see
the Shop Manager or Shop
Leader. Or cal) the number
below for more details.
Oxfam. 274 Banbury Road,
Oxford, 0X2 7DZ
Tel: 0865 312603
‘Information from Oxfam’ leaflets
on a range of topics are avail
able free of charge from:
Oxfam Supporter Services
274 Banbury Road
Oxford 0X2 7DZ
Tel: 0865 312603
Recent titles include:
* A brief history of Oxfam
* Working for Oxfam
* Recycling
* AIDS
* Street Children
* Oxfam in Cambodia
* Eastern Europe
Fair Trade
Over the years, Oxfam shops have almost single-handedly brought fair
trade products to the High Street.
Fair trade means trading directly with producers in the Third World and
paying them a guaranteed price for goods and services which is a fair
reflection of their labour, thereby protecting them from middlemen and
the uncertainty of the market. In return, consumers can buy some beau
tiful hand-crafted goods - like rugs from Bolivia, India, and Afghanistan,
pots from Nicaragua, baskets from Bangladesh, stunning masks from
Kenya, ceramics from Thailand, and a whole lot more besides.
Also, these days, there’s an increasing range of delicious fair trade
foods. Nuts, jams, coffees and teas, chocolates and spices, and exotic
tastes galore can be found on the shelves of Oxfam shops the length
and breadth of the country. Each one helping small-scale producers
make a better living for themselves and their communities.
Volunteers
Oxfam shops would not exist but for
a vast and dedicated army of
volunteers. At the last count there
were 26,000 of them.
Our shop volunteers come from all
walks of life. Most are women,
many are retired, but these days
you’ll find more and more keen and
interested younger volunteers in
Oxfam shops, especially in
city-centres. The problem of
long-term unemployment in the UK
and Ireland has prompted people to
volunteer for some worthwhile work.
Others - like pensioners - just want
to do something useful with the
time on their hands.
In some cases volunteering can
lead to full-time employment - many
Oxfam staff started as volunteers.
Some volunteers work regularly half
a day a week, others work every
day. But no matter what hours they
work, one thing is certain: without
them and their dedication, Oxfam’s
overseas programme would be con
siderably smaller than it is.
Recycling by
re-use
Almost everything that comes
through the doors of an Oxfam shop
- everything that is generously
—
donated by the public - gets
fl
recycled. Coins, records, clothes,
”
bric-a-brac... it makes no difference.
Most things which are donated are
sold at value-for-money prices to
others who have a use for them: in
this way resources are passed on
and re-used, which causes less
harm to the environment. What
can’t be re-sold is usually recycled.
Worn out clothes are sent to
Wastesaver, Oxfam’s textile
recycling plant in Huddersfield, one
of the largest in Europe. Here, old
clothes, are sorted, graded, and
packed into bales, for sale to the
filling and flock trade, where they
are reprocessed into “new” fibres
for use in industry (for example in
mattress-stuffing or wipers).
SXFAM
Working for a Fairer World
Registered charity no. 202918 Printed on recycled paper. 0X546/kj/93
Oxfam, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 7DZ Tel: 0865 312603
PLEASE READ AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY
Tfric.
Qxffim ethics
sonucl
aEK?:roac.h
The Oxfam view
1.
Oxfam
believes in the essential dignity of people
and
their
capacity to overcome the problems and
pressures
which can crush or exploit them. These may be rooted in
climate
complex
and geography, in war and conflict or
areas
of
economics,
politics
and
in
the
social
conditions.
2.
We
believe
that,
if
shared
equitably,
there
are
sufficient
material
resources in the
world
to
meet
basic human needs on a sustained basis for all people.
3.
Oxfam
is
a partnership of
people
who
share
these
beliefs
men
and women . who,
regardless
of
race,
religion or politics, work together for the basic human
rights
of food, shelter and reasonable
conditions
of
life.
4.
We
are
committed,
therefore,
to
a
process
of
development
by
peaceful
means
which aims
to
help
people,
especially
the
poor
and
under-privileged,
Development
regardless of the politics or style of the regime under
which they live.
5.
This
development will often be pursued
through
local
organisations
and small groups whom we are
privileged
to call our partners. Whether working through partners
or direct, we hope to achieve constructive change which
allows people less precarious or more fulfilling lives,
upholds
their
dignity,
encourages
their
selfdetermination
and acknowledges their
cultural
styles
and priorities.
,
1
6.
Such
development should
also take
full account
of
environmental
factors.
Development
should
be
sustainable in the sense that it involves preservation
or
improvement
of
the
environment;
it should
not
improve life now at the expense of future generations.
7.
Oxfam's
contribution is modest within the
constrain-s
of
our limited resources. But we have learned that
,&
can serve as a small scale social catalyst; helping and
encouraging people
to realise their
full
potential;
helping
small
groups to become
self-reliant
and
to
combat the oppressive factors in their environment.
Witness
8.
We
have learned that one of the ways in which we
can
help
people in need is by reporting to our
supporters
and
the wider public the position of those in need
as
we
have found it, the causes of their poverty and
the
problems and obstacles we have encountered in our
work
on their behalf.
9.
Always
in the context of this specific
experience
we
recognise
our
responsibility,
tib
influence,
where
appropriate,
the
organisations
both national
and
international that are involved in the wider aspects of
relationships between rich and poor countries.
Oxfam itself
10.
If
we
are
to
be
effective
and
authentic,
Oxfam
trustees, staff and volunteers and supporters generally
must function as an integrated movement.
11.
Fundraising, trading activities, the stewardship of our
resources
and our personnel policies (including
those
relating
to salaries and equal
opportunities)
should
reflect
the
same
values
we
work
towards
in
our
development.
programme.
Simplicity,
frugality
and
avoidance
of waste will be elements in
our
corporate
life style.
12.
In
a
changing
world our
own
organisation
and
our
policies must
keep
pace with new
insights
as
they
emerge.
We
must be sensitive to the need
to
change
ourselves.
13.
All the people, whether they be ric. or poor, strong or
weak,
privileged or deprived, -..re interdependent,
and
should, we believe, share in the common task of seeking
to achieve the full potential of all humanity.
Interdependence
The opportunity
14.
Oxfam provides people with th? opportunity’ of playing a
small
part
in
a much larger
struggle
to
eliminate
poverty
and
to help humanity develop in a
spirit .of
love,
cooperation and solidarity.
from
Oxfam - An Interpretation
28 January 1989
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
326, V Main, I Block
Koramangala
Bangalore-560034
India
THE TWO WINGS OF THE
RAMAKRISHNA MATH AND RAMAKRISHNA MISSION
THE TWIN CONCEPT:
To the common people, even amongst our friends and devotees, often the distinc
tion between the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission is not very clear.
Mostly one is accepted as a synonymn of the other. But in their actual field of work
these two wings are not so overlapping. There are some definite distinctions in their
functioning as well as in other details of administration and control, including their
legal character and personalities. It is also a fact that with the passage of time and
experience this distinction is gradually emerging more pronounced—necessitating certain
demands of time and the nature of constitutional growth within the organisation.
How wonderful it is to think that Swami Vivekananda the illustrious founder of
both the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission visualized this distinction
between these two characters of the organizations and their functioning in such a
distinguished manner. In embodying these two characters at the very genesis of the
organization he had certainly fulfilled a great prophetic mission which time itself will
reveal in future. He had brought together as it were the entire dilemma and the conflict
of the Indian mind, its culture, philosophy and tradition; in one perspective and sought
a synthesis and solution so to say. Surely he knew well that there was a deep polemic
between contemplation and action in the minds of Hindu theologians and a sort of
obsession also in this regard reflected in the common people too. Rightly this dichotomy
between Karma and Jnana is perennial. And as one of those creative artist of the destiny
Vivekananda could not ignore this distinction in the very element of life and society;
specially in the historical context of a Modern India and its further development.
Obviously he visualized a unity which is ultimately the only reality beyond all split ups
and this he wanted to achieve universally, and beyond all periods of history; not as
a mere conception of a philosopher groping in the abstract and academic world. And
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are the creation of this vision more
crystallized and very significant as well.
Swami Yatishwarananda has very succinctly expressed; “The object of Swami
Vivekananda’s founding the twin institutions of the Ramakrishna Math and Rama
krishna Mission was to carry on the mission of his great Master, and this by bringing
65
into existence of a band of workers who would strive their utmost, for both the emanci
pation of the self and the well being of the world—‘Atmono Mokshartam Jagat Hitaya
Cha’. And with this end in view, the Swami tried to express the ancient monastic ideals
not only through the old methods of quiet spiritual practice and preaching, but also
through what the modern world calls service—but service spiritualized. All persons
irrespective of caste or creed, race or nationality, are to be looked upon as vertiable
manifestations of the Divine, and served according to their needs—physical, intellectual
or spiritual”. (Paper read at the 1926 convention of Ramakrishna Math and Rama
krishna Mission).
Ideally therefore, though the motto ‘Atmono Mokshartam Jagat Hitaya Cha’
as beset by Swami Vivekananda is one and the same, but on a close look, one can
easily find out that it has two distinct aspects in the same composite character. Of
course there is a grand unity of purpose in it and however antagonistic they look—one
is complementing the other, i.e. (1) Atmono Mokshartam (self-realization) and (2)
Jagat Hitaya Cha (Well being or service to others). Therefore deep in the motto or
ideal itself one gets the seeds of these two wings of the organization; both finally direct
ing itself to the one and the same idea of self-realization. Yet apparently one is dis
tinguishing itself from the other at the same time in its ultimate emphasis or direction.
The nature of this distinction is like that of a cause and effect or between ends and
means split as it were for a complete realization of the whole and the entirety of
Reality. One is the soul, the other is the body or we can say the subject and the object,
the individual and the social part or aspect of one and the same universal life. He
understood that the ignorance of the common people in India lies in this divisive spirit
between one and the other that failed to achieve the desired result in the course of
history.
Swami Vivekananda knew pretty well why and where the Indian civilization,
directly suffered and therefore he wanted to infuse the idea of work and worship to
gether and declared; “The national ideals of India are renunciation and service. In
tensify her in these channels and the rest will take care of itself”. So it is this ideal of
‘Renunciation’ and ‘Service’ which is nothing but another form of the same motto—
‘Atmono Mokshartam Jagat Hitaya Cha’ that formed the core principle of both the
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. As Lord Ronaldsay has expressed it
in his ‘Heart of Aryavarta’; “Associated with the monastic order (of Sri Ramakrishna)
which consists of sannyasins and brahmacharins, is a Mission; these twin organizations
standing for renunciation and service respectively, declared by the late Swami Viveka
nanda to be the two national ideals of India. The Mission undertakes service of all
kinds, social, charitable and educational etc. The monasteries are dedicated to the
perpetuation through their spiritual culture of the great ideal and revelation which
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa embodied in his life”. Referring to this, Swami Yatishwarananda observed, “A word of explanation is necessary here. The twin ideals of renun
ciation and service are inseparable like the twin institutions of Ramakrishna Math
and Ramakrishna Mission. In the monasteries of the Order of Sri Ramakrishna, greater
stress is laid on renunciation and spiritual culture. And in the various branches of the
Ramakrishna Mission greater emphasis is laid on what is popularly known as service—
True service—as we shall presently see is a form of spiritual culture”.
Again Swami Tejasananda has explained it as “Another significant contribution
66
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