Are any of the gifts sold online available in your shops?
What’s the most useful gift to buy?
What are Donated 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 are you selling condoms?
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 Donated Goods are unique and only sold online, so you won’t find them in any of the Oxfam shops. However, a selection of our Fair Trade specialist range 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 12 gifts to purchase (subject to availability):
- Build a bit of a classroom for £5
- 5 bags of seeds for £10
- Vet care kit for £17
- Working wonder women for £25
- Goat for £25
- Buy a share in a well for £26
- Tools for farming for £30
- Successful small business for £40
- Half a day's hard work (Behind the scenes heroes) for £42
- Build a bog for £50
- Help to maintain a well for £75
- Essential medicines and medical equipment for £100
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 Fair Trade Specialist department will help Fair Trade producers. Money raised from the sale of Donated goods will increase our general funds, so can be used wherever the need is greatest. Or, if you wanted an Oxfam Unwrapped gift, you can be reassured that all the gifts have been identified as essential by the communities that we work with.
The best Unwrapped gifts to buy are the "change the world vouchers" as these give us additional, flexible funds that can go wherever the need is greatest. We do know however that there is great need to expand our projects designed to help people to find a way to earn a living, since helping people to earn a sustainable livelihood is one of the most effective ways to achieve long term reduction in poverty and suffering. This might be training a farmer in Malawi, or giving women a chance to start their own business with the “Working wonder-women” gift. Additionally, we would really like to expand our health work, in particular the work we are doing to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS.
What are Donated Goods?
Our Donated 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 life savers 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 are you selling condoms?
The condoms are a fantastic gift! They are supplied in conjunction with education kits to make sure that they are used effectively against the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Oxfam recognises that condoms are an essential part of the fight against AIDS, and this gift, like all those in the catalogue, has been requested by the staff and partners who work on our HIV and AIDS programmes. As the spread of this devastating disease is having such a huge effect on so many people's lives, we are also offering a range of other gifts including HIV and AIDS awareness events, a home care kit, and counselling sessions for those affected by HIV and AIDS.
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 International Fair Trade Association (IFAT).
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