Picturesof Oxfam50 YEARS FOR A FAIRER WORLD

Elizabeth Stamp

• | © Oxfam 1S92

; ISBN 0 85598 209 8

ContentsFood and Famine

4 Conflict6 Refugees

8 Health10 AgricultureThe Clothing Story

14 Fundraising 1942-196716 Shops and Trading

18 Fundraising 1968-199220 Education ahd Campaigning

22 Social Development24 Water

26 Earthquakes and Floods28 Women

30 Environment'32 Some important dates

A

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This book converted to digital file in 2010

Food andFamineFamine in enemy-occupied Greece during thesecond World War inspired a group of Oxfordcitizens to set up the Oxford Committee forFamine Relief. They, with other groups nation-wide, campaigned for grain ships to be sent inthrough the Allied naval blockade. Over the 50years ofOxfam's existence since then, famine,food shortages and malnutrition have remainedpriority issues.

A Food shortage soon turned into famine.Thousands died in Athens and other Greekcities. In the mountain villages where manybuildings had been destroyed, families sleptin the open, scavenging what they could.This homeless family lived near the Bulgarianborder, existing on potatoes.

4 Malnutrition waswidespread amongAfrican children inSouth Africa's citiesin the 1950s.Oxfam assisted manyfeeding schemes forover 15 years. ThePietermaritzburg andDistrict MalnutritionRelief Organisation(PADMRO) providedmilk for primaryschool children withOxfam help.

This child helped Oxfam'sHunger £Million appeal in1963, appearing in ads

and on posters.

A 1960-61.The Congo famine hitthe tabloid headlinesand donations pouredin to the OxfordCommittee.Some funds werechannelled to theUnited NationsOperation in theCongo for relieffeeding. A Children wait for relief food - Botswana drought, 1965.

A Drought affected north-east Brazil for fiveyears in the early 1980s. Oxfam undertook anutrition survey in several locations to seekout areas of greatest need.

• David Frost helps with feeding in Bihar. He wrote Oxfam's 1967Christmas Appeal letter from India.

•4 A feeding kitready to fly out toa disaster situationfrom Oxfam'sEmergency Unit atBicester.

4 Taking relief foodhome to their village.Drought and civilwar hit agriculturalproduction in Eritreain the mid-1980s.Oxfam financedtrucking fleets totake food to theworst-affectedareas.

Conflict

4 A Berlin familyreturns to a war-damaged city. Oxfamfunds and clothinghelped some of theneediest.

Born out of the needs of war, Oxfam hascontinued to help the victims of armed conflict.Some have lost their homes and some theirfamilies. Some are starving, some wounded or sick,and some are imprisoned. Conflict has producedmore misery and created more need than any othercause in Oxfam s 50 years.

Boys orphaned inthe Korean War werecared for in SalvationArmy centres. Oxfam

funded part of thisprogramme for

12 years. •

• Leslie Kirkley, Oxfam's Director, visiting theQueen Elizabeth Hospital, Umuahia, in Biafraduring the Nigerian civil war.

THE TESTIMONYOF SIXTY

a the crisis in Bengal

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^ Sixty people - statesmen, journalists, photographers, reliefworkers, and others - gave their words and pictures to call for massiveinternational support for the millions of Bengali people - refugees anddisplaced - affected by the Bangladesh war of independence.

A Unloading the first shipment of Western aid to Cambodia at KompongSom in 1979, watched by Oxfam's Deputy Director, Guy Stringer, andtug captain, David Falkner. This first barge, the size of a football field,and those that followed, brought food, seeds, fertiliser, tools, equip-ment and vehicles financed by the Oxfam-led consortium of agencies.

One of the thousands of families camped inKorem in Northern Ethiopia, scene of MichaelBuerk and Mohammed Amin's television film,

who left their homes in search of food andwater in the drought of 1984-5. Oxfam setup emergency water supplies in Ethiopian

feeding centres and refugee camps inSudan, and provided plastic sheeting,

food, medicines and relief teams. •

Migrant labourand the separate

development ofapartheid haveproduced splitfamilies and a

culture of violenceand deprivation in

South Africa. Oxfamhelps families and

communitiesstruggling against

the odds. •

A Chico Mendes,leader of the rubber-tappers in Brazil, herevisiting Oxfam House,was assassinated in1990. He led thestruggle for savingthe rainforests for thepeople who live Inthem, promoting theidea of extractivereserves. Oxfam hasfunded educationprogrammes and thedevelopment ofnetworking amongthe rubber tappersand Indian peoples.

A Algerian refugees fled civil war in 1956. Thousands camped inneighbouring Tunisia and Morocco for several years. Oxfam helpedwith feeding and clothing.

A Refugees from Poland, Russia, Yugoslaviaand elsewhere were housed at Camp Enns inthis gaunt, damp old barracks: 400 of them,some sick, some from concentration camps,many bitter or apathetic, and all homeless.Frankie Hamilton, a Dutch social worker,starting in 1955, organised repairing thebuildings, and helped some families emigrateto Sweden and Holland and others to settle inAustria. Oxfam provided small welfare grantsand clothing and from 1957 supportedFrankie herself, later working more widelywith sick and vulnerable children.

A World Refugee Year 1959-60 aimed toclear the European refugee camps andresettle the remaining World War II refugees.Britain raised £8 million to which Oxfamcontributed £V2 million. Gordon McMillan, oneof Oxfam's first regional organisers, raisingfunds with a barrel organ outside Wantagerailway station.

A Vocational training courses for Palestinianrefugees were organised by UNRWA. Duringthe 1960s Oxfam financed scholarships forhundreds of students.

A Ten million refugees crossed into India during the Bangladesh warof independence in 1 9 7 1 . Oxfam recruited medical and relief teams ofrefugees and Indians to work in the camps.

• Civil conflict in El Salvador drove manypeople to flee to neighbouring Honduras inthe early 1980s. Oxfam funds helped set upschools in Mesagrande camp.

Fear of persecution and wardrive people to leave their homesand seek safety in neighbouringcountries. Oxfam has helpedrefugees with immediate reliefand with later rehabilitation, formore than forty years.

A Mozambiquan refugees in Mangochisettlement in Malawi. More than one millionpeople have sought refuge from the fightingin Mozambique. The women make clotheswith Oxfam-supplied cloth.

A Kurdish refugees camped in Turkey, winter 1990-91. Oxfam providedrelief and water supplies.

A little boy with TB being treated byColumban Sisters at St Joseph's Clinic,Samchuk. Oxfam helped this and otherclinics for more than 15 years after theKorean War.

• Reconstructive surgery for leprosy patientsis undertaken at the Holdsworth MemorialHospital in Mysore City. For some years Oxfampaid the salary of an Indian physiotherapist.

• The Protestant mission hospitals in India joined in a major newfamily-planning programme in the 1960s. Oxfam provided funds forstaffing and travel. Here Dr Ratna Solomon of the Christian MedicalCollege at Ludhiana gives advice to a mother.

HealthHealth care funds from Oxfamwere first channelled via missionhospitals and clinics withdoctors and nurses, and oftenonly in towns. Gradually thefocus changed to establishing•preventive schemes and traininglocal health workers, especiallyin rural areas.

• Local health promoters in the slums of Lima, Peru, monitor thechildren's health and recommend 'best nutritious buys' to motherseach week to help battle against inflation. Oxfam supported thisprogramme from the mid-1970s.

8

• Oxfam's Sanitation Unit was developedwith help from the Universities of Surrey andLoughborough, with testing at the CholeraHospital in Dhaka. It provides quickly-assembled facilities for large numbers andwas used in the 1970s in refugee andsquatter camps in Bangladesh.

• Pat Diskett from Oxfam's Health Unit, which was established in1980, tests the scales in a refugee camp in Somalia.

•4 Measuring armcircumference is asimple way ofchecking growth andwatching for signs ofmalnutrition. HereSudanese healthworkers are carryingout regular checksduring the 1980stime of drought andfood shortage.

4 Puppets andmodels are beingwidely used to getover the message ofAIDS prevention. ZeCabra Macho is aclay figure used in afilm for migrantconstruction workersin Brazil, made bythe InterdisciplinaryAIDS Association.Oxfam supports theirInformation andeducational work.

4 Oxfam provided funds to build small cheesefactories in the northern Greek villages ofLivaderon and Vlasti under the supervision ofFrankie Hamilton. Villagers then had controlof manufacture and marketing.

The ProgressiveFarmers' Scheme in

Basutoland was partof Oxfam's first

developmentprogramme in theHigh Commission

Territories inSouthern Africa.

£25 was enough toset up a farmer with

new tools. •

4 Ten years afterthe Korean Warthere was still wide-spread poverty andfood shortages. Withhelp from Oxfam andCatholic groups,Susie Youngerdeveloped a farmwhere poor youngmen and women fromthe cities could learnfarming.

AgricultureHelping small communities grow more food became a major Oxfamfocus in the 1960s with the launch of the Freedom from HungerCampaign. More recently, funds have been given for storage, creditand marketing to enable groups tocope in bad years as well as good.

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A Small fishermen in Muttom near the tip of southern India strugglefor a living against competition from trawlers and foreign factoryships. Oxfam has helped with marketing, fish processing andorganisers' salaries since the mid-1970s.

A A Freedom fromHunger-sponsoredresearch project toencourage thedevelopment oftraditional mountaincrops took Oxfam toBolivia. Tuberssimilar to the potatoand high-proteingrains like quinoagrow on the highAltlplano.

A Rows of stones along the contours captureprecious rainfall to grow crops. Oxfam set upthis conservation programme in Burkina Fasoand has been supporting its multiplication for13 years.

A Grading, packing and marketing are allimportant for Caribbean small holders whomake a living sending their bananas toBritain. Oxfam and Oxfam America havehelped local organisations in Dominica withtraining and materials.

1 1

<4 A Korean orphanboy brought in off thestreets to the Savethe Children Fund'sBeggar Boys' Homegets a coat from abale of Oxfamclothing.

• Refugee children in post-war Germanywarm in their knitted cardigans from Oxfam.

• Oxfam's Wastesaver Unit in Huddersfieldset up in 1974 sorts unsaleable clothing forrecycling as industrial wipers and rawmaterial for felting and insulation.

A Clothing being sorted and packed for Hungarian refugees in 1956 atthe Bourne Street depot in London's Pimlico.

• Millions of squares have been knitted byyoung and old to make into blankets to sendoverseas.

12

The Clothing StoryClothing has been the mainstay of Oxfam s workthroughout most of its history. For the first 20years, clothing was collected and sent overseas torefugees, the needy and destitute. Not until 1959did cash aid overtake the value of clothingdespatched. For the last 20 years donated clothinghas been the top sales item in Oxfam shops,themselves the single largest source of Oxfamincome. Now the wheel has turned full circle, andOxfam partners overseas are knitting and sewinggarments for us to buy in Oxfam shops or throughOxfam's mail-order catalogue.

A Knitted tops have been sent to refugeesand to victims of disasters in many countries.Here a nomad child from Chad forced bydrought into the Urn Balla camp in Darfur,Southern Sudan, shows off her warm woolly.

A An Oxfam fashion show. Good qualitydonated clothes are selected for special sales- to boost income and publicise the shops.

Rosalia knitting a sweater for Oxfam from anew range of patterns, developed by designer

Vanessa Keegan with a grant from Oxfam'sBridge Development Fund. Rosalia is a member

of the Cochaquinray knitwear group, one ofseveral along the Peru/Bolivia border served

by the Minka marketing organisation. •

13

• Stella Humphries of Bredbury, nearStockport, collects her weekly shillingdonation from a neighbour, one of the125,000 subscribers to the Pledged Giftsscheme. Stella Humphries was chosen to visitSierra Leone in 1962 to see how some of thefunds were being spent.

4 Appealing forrefugees in the 1950s,when 'can-rattling'played a major part infundraising.

Fundraising1942-1967Ordinary people and the famous, young and old,have raised money for Oxfam over the years - tohelp the many overseas programmes, and to supporteducation and campaigning work here at home.

A Dorothy Hyman, Olympic sprinter, takes Oxfam's Hunger £Millionappeal to miners at Woolley Pit near Barnsley before Christmas 1963.

14

• Lester Pearson, Canada's Prime Minister,with Oxfam Canada's Director, HenryFletcher, lead off the first 'Miles for Millions'sponsored walk in Ottawa, 8 April 1967.

• The cartoonist Vicky left many of hiscartoons to Oxfam in his will. Sir AlecDouglas-Home, one of Vicky's favouritesubjects, opens the exhibition at theWilliam Ware Gallery, 2 May, 1967.

4 Trafalgar Square,29 November 1964.Bamber Gascoigne,with James Cameronand others, launchOxfam's Christmasappeal and FamilyBox.

Harry Secombeand his family with

their box. •

One of the sponsored walks organised to celebrate Oxfam's25th birthday in October 1967. Leslie Kirkley, Oxfam's first Director,walking from Reading to Oxford. T

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15

The original BroadStreet shop whichis still flourishing

today. •

Shopsand

TradingBoxes from

Hong Kong - the firstimported handicraft

sold by Oxfam in thelate 1950s. •

Oxfam s first shop was opened in Broad Street,Oxford, in 1948 to sell articles donated by thepublic. The first Christmas cards and importedhandicrafts were introduced ten years later.In 1965 the Oxfam Trading Company wasestablished, with its Bridge programme to expandthe importing of handicrafts direct from producergroups overseas, paying fair prices and givingproducer dividends.

Many Oxfam volunteer groups openedtemporary shops during the late 1960s, and theirinitiative developed into the Oxfam shop 'empireof over 800 shops we know today. They producearound one-third ofOxfam's income.

A MPs ran anevening shift at theWestminster shopin the summer of1973 to help raisefunds for the Indiandrought. Cyril Smith,Joe Ashton, and TobyJessel were part ofthe group.

• One of Oxfam's prize-winning tea towels onsale at a Christmas fair organised by fourTwickenham churches in 1969.

16

• The BBC children's programme Blue Peter launched a nationwide'bring and buy' sale in November 1979 to raise urgently-needed fundsfor Cambodia. All Oxfam Shops participated, with helpers working allhours to cope with the volume of gifts. With other small sales, wellover £3 million was raised by Christmas. Ten years later a second BluePeter appeal raised funds for Cambodian development programmes.

Oxfam's address book and the larger diaryare produced by the Papworth group atPapworth Everard near Cambridge, wherepeople with disabilities live and work.This is part of Oxfam's Good Neighboursprogramme to provide sales outlets for somedisadvantaged groups in this country. T

-4 Three families who live within three milesof each other in Pangasinan province, Luzon,in the Philippines, helped by neighbours andfriends make two styles of magazine racks.Oxfam sells the products of the Docusin, theSabados and the Nisperos families throughits mail-order brochure and in some Oxfamshops. They are transported, packaged andexported, along with many other items, bythe Community Crafts Association of thePhilippines, one of Oxfam's largest suppliersfor 15 years.

• John Mortimer autographing his Rumpole'book at Oxfam's new bookshop in St Giles,Oxford, in 1987.

17

Fundraising 1968-1992

A Christmas 1968. Piccadilly Circus, London.Lord Soper, preacher and soap-box orator,encourages some Oxfam fasters.

Actress Rita Tushingham launchesOxfam's 'Tap tax' - part of the

India drought appeal in 1973. •

• Clement Freud presents the prize for the junior section of the Oxfam/Young Observer Christmas card competition to Bridget Stevens fromLlanfrynach, December 1975.

• The 'Crack-a-Joke Book' was the 1000thPuffin, with jokes from children all over thecountry, and profits to Oxfam. Kay Webb, thePuffin founder, with Oxfam's Richard Stanleyat the launch in 1978. Sales of over 1 millioncopies have netted Oxfam over £200,000. Anew edition with some new jokes has beenpublished in 1992 to mark Oxfam's 50thanniversary.

18

4 John Swan, Premier of Bermuda, hands overa cheque to Gaby Taylor, Field Director for theCaribbean. The Island's 55,000 people raised£110,000 for the people of Ethiopia in 1985.

• Oxfam's Stamp and Coin Unit providesstamps for sale in Oxfam shops. Valuabledonated items are sent to auction.

A The Princess of Wales visited Oxfam Houseon 6 February 1990. Here she is being shownthe computer register.

4 Lenny Henry andGriff Rhys Jones backfrom their projectvisits overseas wearred noses to publiciseComic Relief. Withthe earlier Live Aidand Band Aid, thesemassive fundralsingevents provided extrafunds for Oxfam andother overseascharities for work inAfrican countriesaffected by droughtand armed conflict.

19

ALI and GAZA4 'AM and Gaza'.One of a series ofprimary level educationmaterials produced byOxfam in the mid-sixtiesin collaboration withUNESCO.

Oxfam's Education Department was set up andstarted working in schools in 1959. Soon, theFreedom from Hunger Campaign opened up wideropportunities for development education andOxfam staff became involved with curriculumdevelopment and the production of educationmaterials.

Education andCampaigning

• 1972. charities came together to campaign j n e public Affairs Unit was established in theagainst the possible imposition of VAT. . , „„-,„ , , T , , .

mid-1970s to undertake research on subjectslinking the rich and poor worlds. And in the early1980s a Campaigns Department with area staffrecruited to work around the country gave furthersupport to the study and discussion of worldissues such as aid, debt and trade.

Volunteers outside the House of Commons.

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A Oxfam's Rational Health Campaign linksthe need for sensible and economical drugpolicies overseas with campaigning here forsafer exports, better and more appropriatelabelling, and fair advertising.

A Politicians and media stars join in a human billboard to launchOxfam's 'Hungry for Change' campaign.

20

A Pupils from Edward Wilson primary school, • The newsletter 'Issue' kept campaignersWest London, work out patterns in 'Alaro', an and supporters up to date with news, activitiesOxfam pack about Nigerian textiles. and new areas of concern and action.

•4 A Belfast pupilstudies the PetersProjection map.

The Trade Trap:Poverty and theGlobal CommodityMarkets, by BelindaCoote. Published byOxfam in 1992. T

21

A Learning by radio is efficient where peoplelive in scattered settlements. Oxfam hashelped many radio schools programmes inLatin America since the early 1960s. Here,one of the first, in Ecuador, taught the threeRs as well as nutrition, health and agriculture.

A Mobile creches set up on building sites for the children of womenbuilding workers in Delhi first opened in 1970, with branchesestablished in Bombay and Pune later. Oxfam has assisted withsalaries, training and running costs for 20 years.

A This simply-converted school-on-wheelslaunched in 1966 by the Mindolo EcumenicalFoundation in Zambia took adult education tovillages and townships, concentrating onnutrition and health. Oxfam provided funds forpetrol and running costs.

A A national adult literacy campaign was oneof Nicaragua's Sandinista Government's firstprogrammes. Those who could read went outto villages to teach those who couldn't.Oxfam funding provided materials and travelcosts. One of the youngest teachers guidesan evening class.

<4 Dom Helder Camara, Bishop of Recife,Brazil, has long championed the poorest insociety. From the mid-1970s, Oxfam helpedfund his 'Bank of Providence' established tohelp poor people with medicines, school fees,a job register, housing and other emergencyneeds.

22

4 A motherencourages herdisabled son tolearn to talk - partof a wider UNRWAprogramme,established in 1983to work with disabledPalestinian people inrefugee camps inJordan.

Social Development'Helping people to help themselves' has long beenan Oxfam principle. Learning skills and workingtogether are important steps for people seeking tobreak out of their poverty. Oxfam assistance isoften small-scale - money for bus fares, books,tools, running costs and salaries.

A So many educated young men were killedduring the Pol Pot years, the Cambodianeconomy is desperately short of skilledpeople. Oxfam has helped rehabilitate theMinistry of Industry's vocational trainingcentre, providing equipment, salaries andscholarships.

< The needs of the landless in Bangladeshare now a major rural problem. Oxfam issupporting several groups with educationaland legal aid programmes to help them getland or organise income-generation schemes.

23

• Greek women of Livaderon queue for waterat their new standpipe.

.•:•:>$

A Constructing an earth dam for wateringcattle at Toretet, Kericho District - one ofthe 1960s Oxfam-supported projects inKenya.

WaterWater is essential for life.Some of Oxfam's first long-term grants provided pipingfor village water supplies inNorthern Greece, startingin 1949. In recent yearsOxfam has spent more onwater provision than anyother type of aid, withOxfam's Technical Unit tproviding water supply 'systems for emergencies.

• Drilling for water in India in the 1960s.Oxfam financed several Halco Tiger rigs andBritish volunteers to supervise them and trainlocal operators.

24

4 An Arab farmerwaters his treeseedlings. Oxfam hashelped with irrigationin Lebanon and otherareas of the MiddleEast where water isan issue of humanrights.

• Throughthe CommunityDevelopment Trust |Fund, Oxfam helpedhundreds of Tanzanianvillages to dig andline new wells - from1967 onwards.

In parts of JavaOxfam funded piping

so that villages couldbring water down

from neighbouringmountains, easingthe daily climb for

water of the womenand children. •

A and T Oxfam's water packs - piping,pumps and tanking - can be flown out toprovide emergency water supplies at shortnotice. The first packs were used in Mocoronrefugee camp in Honduras in 1 9 8 1 , whereMiskito Indian refugees from Nicaragua weretaking shelter.

• Refugees from Iraq on the Jordan bordersawaiting transport to their home countries.

25

•4 When a severe earthquake hit the GreekIonian islands in 1953, Oxfam's new directorLeslie Kirkley flew in to offer help. Grantswere made for general relief work and fortemporary shelter on Zakynthos.

He visited the ruins of Agadir, Morocco, in1960, and Oxfam sent clothing, and funds fortents and drugs for the earthquake victims. T

Earthquakes•4 Oxfam provided £25,000 for the rebuildingof Dousadj, one of 150 villages destroyedin the Iran earthquake of 1962. EuropeanWorking Group volunteers and TeheranUniversity students worked togetherwith the villagers.

C0MO HACER

CASAS SEGURASZONA

PRINCIPIOS Y BASES

• After the 1976 Guatemala earthquake,villagers in the San Martin area learned howto rebuild safer houses with cross-bracing andwiring. Oxfam purchased roofing and buildingmaterial and financed the building educationprogramme. Cover of the instruction manual.

26

•4 East African floods 1962.

The Rimac River valley, near Peru's capitalLima, regularly floods, destroying housing andcrops. Here, members of an Oxfam-supportedcommunity group shore up a river bank in thedry season. •

and RoodsIt is the poorest people who are worst hit bythese sudden disasters. Oxfam helps withimmediate relief and with preventive schemesof construction work in vulnerable areas.

Every few years typhoons damage part of thesea defences on Vietnam's east coast. Here,women rebuild the Nghe Tinh sea-dyke byhand after the 1987 typhoon. Oxfam helped anumber of communities with cement andsteel. T

A The annual monsoon floods in Bangladesh bring renewed fertility tofarm lands. But in recent years, excessive flood waters have destroyedvillages and livelihoods. Oxfam mounted a massive feeding programmein 1988, taking cooked chapatis out from Dhaka to marooned villagers.

27

• Among Oxfam's first development grantsin Southern Africa in the early 1960s wassupport for the Basutoland Homemakers'Association. Local groups played an importantpart in life in the remote mountain villageswhere the men were away as migrant workersIn South Africa.

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B ^ 1• At the Kangu Catholic Mission in theCongo, older students paid their way bylearning to design and produce visual aids.Oxfam funds set up Dr Courtejoie's enterprisein the late 1960s to produce a range ofeducation materials on preventive health,eventually used in 40 different countries.

A Girls studyingchildcare at theKwan Tong VocationalTraining Centre forChinese refugees inHong Kong. Oxfamsupported thiscentre and otherprogrammes run bythe Lutheran WorldFederation from themid-1950s.

WomenWomen do two-thirds of the world's work, butreceive only one-tenth of the world's income, andinvariably enjoy less education than the men.

Oxfam has encouraged the development andrecognition of women - in the early days, throughtraditional projects. More recently initiatives havebeen taken to seek out and give special support towomen - with the establishment of a Gender andDevelopment Unit (GADU), and the appointmentof women project officers.

A With support from Oxfam, Saptagram began working with poorwomen in a handful of villages in Bangladesh 16 years ago. Now it has50,000 women members in 700 villages who run income-generationprojects, and adult education, legal aid, family planning, health, andwater programmes - enterprises beyond their imagination when theystarted.

28

< Market traders, rag pickers and domesticservants are just some of the occupations ofthe women who have joined the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) inAhmedabad, the textile city of Gujarat inwestern India. Famous for running their ownbank they also organise a range of servicesfor their members. Oxfam has assisted overthe years and now buys some of theirhandicrafts through Oxfam Trading.

• Special courses were set up for women co-op members at the Iwacu Centre in RwandaIn 1985 at Oxfam's suggestion. Womenpractise much of the farming but usually lackthe business skills for marketing. Here theyare learning simple book-keeping.

• When world tin prices collapsed In the1980s, Bolivian tin miners' families were leftdestitute. Oxfam helped with small projectsto construct greenhouses where women aregrowing vegetables for family consumptionand for sale.

4 Sister Chiedza, Oxfam's Project Officerfor Masvingo and Midlands provinces inZimbabwe, discusses their handicrafts witha women's group, one of a range of smallincome-generating schemes.

29

EnvironmentIt is the poorest people who live in the most unsafeand polluted areas. They depend more directly ontheir immediate environment for the barenecessities, drinking untreated water and usingscarce firewood. And many are forced to take ondangerous jobs. Oxfam helps small groups withpositive action to safeguard and improve theresources on which they depend.

A The Indian population of Guatemala hasbeen forced on to steeper slopes as the cashcrop plantations have taken over the bestland. Villagers from the San Martin area, hereterracing a hillside, in an agricultural develop-ment programme led by World Neighbors andpart-funded by Oxfam, in the early 1970s.

The rubbish collectors of Cairo - theZebbaleen - have long practised recycling

to make a living. Oxfam has helped them toextend and improve their market outlets, and

supported a health programme to combattheir insanitary living conditions. •

A The cycle rickshaw drivers of the Indian city of Nagpur staged a massive demonstration and strike in October 1982to preserve their jobs and their 'clean' vehicles. Oxfam funded a small delegation to the state capital to argue theircase against the introduction of motorised rickshaws. They won the day.

30

• Justinian Ngemela, forestry extensionofficer of the Arusha Diocesan DevelopmentOffice, at the demonstration tree nursery atOlkokola. Oxfam assisted with funds for shorttraining courses for local people.

Pollution and destruction of fish breedinggrounds In coral reefs and mangrove swamps

threaten the livelihoods and food sources ofmany who live along the extensive island

coastlines of Philippines. Oxfam is helpinga number of organisations of fisherfolk

to sustain their way of life. •

• In 1982 Oxfampublished A GrowingProblem: Pesticidesand the Third WorldPoor, a report thathighlighted thedangers facingagricultural workersin many countries.Since then, Oxfamhas supportedvarious groups whichare publicising thedangers - such asHabitat, in theDominican Republic.

Cultivation of a single variety of pine is leaving soils acid and unusable in the areas aroundConcepcion in Southern Chile. Here, too, fish processing pollutes air and water, and thetraditional mining industry has become dangerous through lack of investment. Oxfam, togetherwith Oxfam Canada and Christian Aid, has supported the training and education of workers andcommunity leaders for several years, in a programme working for fairer distribution of resourceswithin a safer environment. T

A Oxfam's 1992publication No Timeto Waste: Povertyand the GlobalEnvironment adds aSouthern voice to thedebate, describingthe problems fromtheir perspective andhighlighting solutionsdevised in the South.

3 1

Some important dates1942 5 October. Oxford Committee for Famine Relief formed to try and help

starving people in enemy-occupied Greece.1945 Decision to help refugees and displaced people in post-war Europe,

with clothing, supplies, and money.1948 First shop and office established in Oxford.1949 New aim defined: 'The relief of suffering arising out of war or any other

cause in any part of the world'.First help to Palestinian refugees after creation of State of Israel.

1 9 5 1 Famine in Bihar. First grant to India.Director appointed.

1952 Assistance to Korean War victims begins.1953 Assistance to Chinese refugees in Hong Kong begins.1954 First grant to an African project.1956-7 Hungarian uprising. Total overseas aid of £348,000 with half going to

Hungary and the rest of Europe.1959-60 World Refugee Year. Oxfam raises £756,000 for refugee campaign.

First fundraising regional organisers recruited.Schools Department set up.

1960 Freedom from Hunger Campaign launched by FAO in Rome.Oxfam moves into long-term development.

1960-61 Congo famine.Aid programme tops £1 million.

1962 First overseas field director appointed, to work in southern Africa.1963 Oxfam Belgique founded.

Canadian Committee - later Oxfam Canada - set up.In UK, there are 250 local groups.

1965 Oxfam's trading company registered, to import and sell overseashandicrafts.Decision to help family-planning projects.

1966 Famine in Bihar. Oxfam sends dried milk and British volunteers to helpwith feeding programme.

1967-69 Nigerian civil war. Oxfam helps both sides.First field director sent to Latin America: Brazil.

1970 200 temporary Oxfam shops run by voluntary groups help boost funds.Oxfam America founded.

1 9 7 1 Community Aid Abroad (Australia) joins Oxfam 'family'.Bengal refugee crisis in India. Oxfam recruits 250 young doctors andhealth personnel in India to help.

1974 Wastesaver recycling unit in Huddersfield opened.1975-76 Income tops £5 million.

600 permanent shops raise more than £1 million.16 field directors support 800 projects worldwide.

1970s (end of) Three overseas advisory units set up: Health, Technical, andEmergencies.

1979 Campaigns Unit established.Joint agencies consortium formed to support Cambodia programme.

1979-80 Income doubles to £23.8 million.1984-85 Famine and war in Ethiopia and Sudan. £21.7 million channelled in

assistance. Income £51 million.1986 Gender and Development Unit (GADU) set up, to encourage women's

development.1989-90 Income £62 million, including over £20 million from over 800 Oxfam

shops and Oxfam Trading. Oxfam spends £12 million on emergenciesand £24 million on development, supporting more than 2,300 projectsin 70 countries.

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