Are any of the gifts sold online available in your shops?
What’s the most useful gift to buy?
I don’t understand the Flanimals gifts – how do they work?
What are Second-hand Goods?
How do the animals supplied help to overcome poverty?
How do you make sure that the animals are well looked after?
How do you make sure that the animals don’t have a negative impact on the environment?
Why do certain gifts disappear from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue?
What’s the difference between Fair Trade goods and ethical goods?
What sort of greetings cards do you sell?
Where can I find books about Oxfam and its policies?
Are any of the gifts sold online available in your shops?
The Second-hand Store goods are unique and only sold online, so you won’t find them in any of the Oxfam shops. However, a selection of our Ethical Collection is available in some of our Oxfam shops. Click here to find out what kind of products you can find in our Oxfam shops.
For Oxfam Unwrapped, all shops have the following gifts to purchase (subject to availability):
- Fertiliser £5
- Health check-ups £6
- Feed a family £7
- 8 buckets £8
- Safe water for 10 people £9
- 5 bags of seeds £10
- Give girls a headstart £17
- Animal house and food £18
- Rainwater collection £18
- Glonk (Flanimals special edition) £20
- Desk and chair £21
- Plant an allotment £24
- Goat £25
- Get guns off the streets £26
- Teach a teacher £27
- Reading classes £30
- Care for a vulnerable child £47
- Build a bog £50
- Bicycle £50
- Cow £80
Around half of Oxfam shops stock a range of 43 gifts
What’s the most useful gift to buy?
All of the gifts in Oxfam’s online shop will make a significant contribution to Oxfam’s work. Some of the items in our Ethical Collection will help Fair Trade producers. Money raised from the sale of Second-hand Store goods will increase our general funds, so can be used wherever the need is greatest. Or, if you want an Oxfam Unwrapped gift, you can be reassured that all the gifts have been identified as essential by the communities that we work with.
All Oxfam Unwrapped gifts are useful, because when we’re deciding on what to include in our range, we work really hard to ensure that the things we offer are the things that are most needed by the people and communities we work with. However, sometimes their needs change; for example, if there is a drought or flood in a region we might need more water and sanitation items when previously we had been focusing on agricultural projects. When purchasing your Oxfam Unwrapped gift online you will be given the option to allow us to use the money to fund any part of Oxfam’s work rather than for a specific gift. If you select this option you will help us give the right help at the right time to the people who need it most.
I don’t understand the Flanimals gifts – how do they work?
This year, Ricky Gervais has kindly designed 5 special edition Oxfam Unwrapped gifts based on his popular illustration – Flanimals.
The Flanimals special edition gifts do not relate to one item, like a goat or an allotment – instead we will use money from these gifts to fund a range of items within a particular area of activity.
The Honk gift is from our advocacy category, and the money raised will help people speak out and defend their rights, for example:
- campaigning against violence against women in India
- helping people defend their land rights in Honduras
- bringing communities in conflict together to resolve their differences in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
Clunge Ambler is from the HIV/AIDS category, and will fund awareness raising activities like education, training and street theatre, as well as practical items like condoms and medicines.
The Plamglotis gift represents our humanitarian work and funds emergency response, such as providing water and sanitation, food and shelter.
The Spelg gift supports our water and sanitation work, funding any activities that help provide water such as digging wells, installing and maintaining pumps, or delivering taps and tanks in an emergency.
Money raised by the Glonk gift will go into Oxfam’s general funds, which means we may use the money to fund any aspect of Oxfam’s work.
What are Second-hand goods?
Our Second-hand range is made up of items donated to some of our Oxfam High Street shops and certain specialist Oxfam warehouses by members of the public. Each item is carefully photographed, described, and dispatched by teams of volunteers and shop managers. Thanks to their hard work and dedication, each of these donations helps Oxfam to overcome poverty and suffering.
You could be a part of this amazing experience by volunteering to help Oxfam's Online Shop –
click here to find a location near you.
These items are only available online, and there is a fantastic range to discover in each of the following categories:
How do the animals supplied help to overcome poverty?
Animals can be real lifesavers in the fight to overcome poverty, particularly to the pastoral communities that we work with. As well as providing milk, owning a goat or cow means people have something they can sell when times are hard, or when they need cash to pay for essentials such as medical costs and school fees. The animals also provide much needed manure, which is an extremely cost-effective and environmentally friendly replacement for chemical fertilisers.
In Malawi, for example, Oxfam goat loan schemes provide 10 goats for a village to start with. One person takes care of each animal until it produces a female kid (doe).
The doe is paid back to the scheme and allocated to a new person; the original recipient now has his or her own goat, and the process starts again. This has proved to be a cost-effective and sustainable way to help poor communities.
How do you make sure that the animals are well looked after?
Oxfam programmes work to a set of guidelines to help ensure that animals supplied to them are well looked after. Each animal gift includes training in animal care for the new owners and vaccinations for the animals. The animals are bought locally (not imported) and their appropriateness for the community and the environment is always taken into account. The animals are a valuable asset to the families who receive them, bringing them income and improving their diets. As a result they know it is in their interests to treat the animals well, and with respect.
How do you make sure that the animals don’t have a negative impact on the environment?
We only provide animals to communities where they are a traditional or essential part of their way of life. The impact on natural resources is always considered as part of the programme of supplying animals, and with proper management animals can be raised without environmental degradation.
Pastoralist communities, for example, have herded their livestock in search of seasonal pasture for centuries – a practice that maintains the stability of the ecosystem and allows wildlife to flourish. Animals are supplied in small quantities to these communities, often just one animal to each household. Animals, but especially goats, consume crop wastes, residues and household scraps, producing manure. This helps soil and therefore their food to become rich in protein, energy and nutrients.
Why do certain gifts disappear from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue?
We respond to the needs and demands of the communities that we work with around the world in choosing the gifts to go into the catalogue. However where gifts prove much more popular than we anticipate, then we will, where necessary, remove those items to ensure that we don’t sell more than we will be able to deliver through our programmes. We feel it is very important to be transparent with how we spend our supporters’ money and not pretend to deliver something when we can’t.
What’s the difference between Fair Trade goods and ethical goods?
Fair Trade focuses on collectives of small producers in developing countries and their access to international markets on fair terms. It ensures the producers receive fair treatment and a fair price in return for the goods they produce. This fair price covers the cost of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested in social or economic development projects. Some of our ‘Fair Trade’ products carry the FAIRTRADE mark; those that don’t have been produced by members of The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).
Ethical trade is primarily aimed at helping waged workers. It tries to ensure that decent minimum labour standards are met in the production of goods and services. In line with our Ethical Purchasing Policy, all the Fair Trade Specialist department goods that we have sourced which are not ‘Fair Trade’ goods, are produced and delivered under conditions which do not involve the abuse or exploitation of any persons and have the least negative impact on the environment.
You can find more information on this here.
What sort of greetings cards do you sell?
We have a range of beautiful, hand-crafted Fair Trade greetings cards on sale. There are a number of designs suitable for most occasions and left blank for your own message.
Where can I find books about Oxfam and its policies?
A wealth of publications, including reports, research, policy documents, and resources for schools and training, is available from our Oxfam Publishing website at www.oxfam.org.uk/publications
For more information including details on how this affects high street branches, please see www.oxfam.org.uk/vat