A short history of Oxfam
In the beginning
In May 1942, in response to reports of severe hardship in Nazi-occupied Europe, particularly in Greece where people were dying from hunger, a national Famine Relief Committee was set up to lobby for the relaxation of the allied naval blockade of Europe to allow food and medical relief through. Support groups were formed throughout the country.
The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief met for the first time on 5 October 1942. Among its founding members were Canon T R Milford of the University Church and Professor Gilbert Murray, a member of the national Committee and former Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, and Dr Henry Gillett, a prominent local Quaker. (Members of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) were to play a significant part in Oxfam’s development.) The commitment of Cecil Jackson-Cole, a London businessman appointed Honorary Secretary in December 1942, drove the Committee’s work for many years.
Many of the Relief Committees were wound down after the war, but the Oxford Committee saw a continuing need and enlarged its objectives to include ‘the relief of suffering in consequence of the war’. Activity then centred on the provision of food parcels and clothing to Europe including Germany. From 1948 grants were made to projects in Europe and elsewhere and in 1949 the Committee’s objectives were again broadened to ‘the relief of suffering arising as a result of wars or of other causes in any part of the world.’ The Committee gradually became known as ‘Oxfam’ (created as an appeals ‘reply code’ and later used as the organisation’s telex address); this name was formally adopted in 1965.
In 1951, Howard Leslie Kirkley was appointed General Secretary. Registered as a conscientious objector in 1939, Kirkley had helped found and run the Leeds Famine Relief Committee. He remained with Oxfam for 24 years, latterly as Director, and his own presence in disaster situations, the swift response of his organisation and his work as Chairman of the UK Publicity Committee for the UN World Refugee Year in 1959-60 brought Oxfam to the attention of a wide audience.
Growing and developing
The 1960s brought great changes. Concern for the world's poor grew among the general public and the charity's income trebled over the course of the decade. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Freedom from Hunger campaign aimed to combat food shortages by enabling people to grow enough to feed themselves rather than depend on food aid. By 1965, hundreds of local Freedom from Hunger groups had raised £7 million in the UK and helping to grow a dedicated supporter base for Oxfam.
Oxfam worked to present a different picture of poor people in the Third World: one in which they were portrayed as human beings with dignity, not as passive victims. Innovative education and information materials explained the root causes of poverty and suffering, the connections between North and South, and the role of people in the North in creating, and potentially solving, poverty in the developing world. Oxfam's overseas operations changed too. The major focus of work, managed by a growing network of Oxfam Field Directors, became support for self-help schemes whereby communities improved their own water supplies, farming practices, and health provision.
As Oxfam continued to expand its work through the 1970s, many new ideas and theories were put forward about development and poverty, including the decision to employ local people to run and work on projects. Oxfam's relief work in the Sahel in the late 1970s looked at the traditional ways in which communities survived - helping them to improve and refine their survival techniques, and making sure that the local people kept control of the schemes they were involved in. The same principles of community involvement and control are still behind Oxfam's work today.
Speaking out
In the 1970s it became clear that many of the problems associated with poverty required government and international action. Oxfam started - within the bounds set by charity law - to campaign on behalf of the people it worked with overseas and to talk to decision-makers who shaped policy on relevant issues
In 1979 Oxfam hit the headlines by taking the first significant quantities of aid into Kampuchea (now Cambodia), where Pol Pot's brutal regime had laid waste to the country and left more than one million people dead. Oxfam then organised and led a group of agencies which mounted a huge relief effort, importing supplies of rice, seeds, tools, water pumps, and fertilisers for cities and rural areas alike.
Oxfam’s Public Affairs Unit (PAU) was set up to provide research into and analysis of the causes of poverty. By the mid-1980s the PAU was lobbying on a range of issues including pesticides, food aid, and Third World debt.
Retail success
Oxfam's network of shops run by volunteer groups around the country became one of the main sources of income in the late 1960s, selling donated i
A short history of OxfamIn the beginning In May 1942, in response to reports of severe hardship in Nazi-occupied Europe, particularly in Greece where people were dying from hunger, a national Famine Relief Committee was set up to lobby for the relaxation of the allied naval blockade of Europe to allow food and medical relief through. Support groups were formed throughout the country.The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief met for the first time on 5 October 1942. Among its founding members were Canon T R Milford of the University Church and Professor Gilbert Murray, a member of the national Committee and former Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, and Dr Henry Gillett, a prominent local Quaker. (Members of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) were to play a significant part in Oxfam’s development.) The commitment of Cecil Jackson-Cole, a London businessman appointed Honorary Secretary in December 1942, drove the Committee’s work for many years. Many of the Relief Committees were wound down after the war, but the Oxford Committee saw a continuing need and enlarged its objectives to include ‘the relief of suffering in consequence of the war’. Activity then centred on the provision of food parcels and clothing to Europe including Germany. From 1948 grants were made to projects in Europe and elsewhere and in 1949 the Committee’s objectives were again broadened to ‘the relief of suffering arising as a result of wars or of other causes in any part of the world.’ The Committee gradually became known as ‘Oxfam’ (created as an appeals ‘reply code’ and later used as the organisation’s telex address); this name was formally adopted in 1965.In 1951, Howard Leslie Kirkley was appointed General Secretary. Registered as a conscientious objector in 1939, Kirkley had helped found and run the Leeds Famine Relief Committee. He remained with Oxfam for 24 years, latterly as Director, and his own presence in disaster situations, the swift response of his organisation and his work as Chairman of the UK Publicity Committee for the UN World Refugee Year in 1959-60 brought Oxfam to the attention of a wide audience.Growing and developingThe 1960s brought great changes. Concern for the world's poor grew among the general public and the charity's income trebled over the course of the decade. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Freedom from Hunger campaign aimed to combat food shortages by enabling people to grow enough to feed themselves rather than depend on food aid. By 1965, hundreds of local Freedom from Hunger groups had raised £7 million in the UK and helping to grow a dedicated supporter base for Oxfam.Oxfam worked to present a different picture of poor people in the Third World: one in which they were portrayed as human beings with dignity, not as passive victims. Innovative education and information materials explained the root causes of poverty and suffering, the connections between North and South, and the role of people in the North in creating, and potentially solving, poverty in the developing world. Oxfam's overseas operations changed too. The major focus of work, managed by a growing network of Oxfam Field Directors, became support for self-help schemes whereby communities improved their own water supplies, farming practices, and health provision. As Oxfam continued to expand its work through the 1970s, many new ideas and theories were put forward about development and poverty, including the decision to employ local people to run and work on projects. Oxfam's relief work in the Sahel in the late 1970s looked at the traditional ways in which communities survived - helping them to improve and refine their survival techniques, and making sure that the local people kept control of the schemes they were involved in. The same principles of community involvement and control are still behind Oxfam's work today.
Speaking out
In the 1970s it became clear that many of the problems associated with poverty required government and international action. Oxfam started - within the bounds set by charity law - to campaign on behalf of the people it worked with overseas and to talk to decision-makers who shaped policy on relevant issues
In 1979 Oxfam hit the headlines by taking the first significant quantities of aid into Kampuchea (now Cambodia), where Pol Pot's brutal regime had laid waste to the country and left more than one million people dead. Oxfam then organised and led a group of agencies which mounted a huge relief effort, importing supplies of rice, seeds, tools, water pumps, and fertilisers for cities and rural areas alike.
Oxfam’s Public Affairs Unit (PAU) was set up to provide research into and analysis of the causes of poverty. By the mid-1980s the PAU was lobbying on a range of issues including pesticides, food aid, and Third World debt.
Retail success
Oxfam's network of shops run by volunteer groups around the country became one of the main sources of income in the late 1960s, selling donated i
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