“Oxfam? That’s the old people’s shop right?”

Amy Coates explains how a work experience stint at Oxfam changed her perceptions.

It is horrible to know that if you have anything from Oxfam you are ridiculed in our generation. Why should it be thought of as social suicide to step foot in an Oxfam shop? I hurriedly told them what it actually is; that it would be fun, that the people who work there went to festivals to promote Oxfam and such like.

Earlier this year, my year had to fill in forms to do with work experience. Unfortunately a place was not found that related to what I wanted and as I pointedly refused to work in Travis Perkins or Tesco, I arranged my own. I wanted something different, unique and this is what I got when I received a placement at Oxfam GB. This is where my query emerges.

Every time anyone asked me about where I was going I would reply “Oxfam”. This is when eyes would widen and I quite quickly realised that they thought I was going to spend a week behind a till with a 70-something year old woman attempting to sell stale cakes and toffee which superglues your jaws together for ten pence and clothes for not much more. I hurriedly told them what it actually is; that it would be fun, that the people who work there went to festivals to promote Oxfam and such like, but it did not really help as they became more confused as the thought of Oxfam as a shop was burnt on to their brains. After I had explained this about a zillion times I just mumbled, “work experience, oh, um adopt an orang-utan.” “What do you have to do?” “Um … no idea.”

Even though Oxfam is so much more than the shops this is mostly what people see. It is horrible to know that if you have anything from Oxfam you are ridiculed in our generation. Why should it be thought of as social suicide to step foot in an Oxfam shop? You never have to wear exactly what you have bought; you could adapt it to match your style. Surely knowing you are helping poor people is enough to entice you through the threshold.

Yet, as soon as someone famous jumps on to the Oxfam bandwagon it becomes cool. When Victoria Beckham bought something from Oxfam it suddenly became THE place to be. However did anyone see her in the dress she bought? The answer will be an unquestionable NO!

It seems people would rather go to Primark and buy clothes for probably the same price. What’s the difference? Well, no one has worn the clothes before. But then you have to think of the makers of those clothes working in sweatshops for hardly any money. Is it quite as preferable now?

This is Oxfam to the unknowing eye but then think about this: every summer for one muddy weekend only, the greatest festival ever, Glastonbury, comes. Tickets go on sale and are snapped up in the blink of an eye. Some are put on eBay for astronomic prices. All the coolest acts are there and…Oxfam. They are there in the mud petitioning to overcome poverty.

Before now I had never heard of Generation Why. Oxfam was just a shop - now I have been introduced to this new world it is overwhelming, a million miles from vice-gripped jaws.