Port Meadow Sponsored Walk - 30th May - calling for walkers and helpers!

Join us for our 10 mile hike through glorious riverside and canalside scenery. Starting from 10am to 1pm at Lake Street Community Centre.

If you want to walk and help us raise funds for Oxfam, start by downloading a sponsorship form.

We also need OOG members who will staff the Walk Office at the South Oxford Community Centre – the job is to sit in the office to greet and register walkers as they start out, and later in the day to sign their forms and offer them some tea or coffee as they return. We need to have the office open from 10 am to 5pm.

And finally, we need OOG members to be “First Walker” and “Last Walker”. First Walker walks the route ahead of everyone else (Friday, or early on Saturday), putting up the route signs as they go. Last Walker goes around Saturday evening or Sunday to take the signs down again. Both First and Last get to walk the route – so you can both be a sponsored walker and help out in this way!

For more information or to let us know you want to walk / help out on the day, email volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Book fair result

Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the book fair, whether you priced, donated, drove the van, lifted and shifted books, or helped on the day placarding or working on the till or door. We raised a massive £2952 for Oxfam's education project in Zambia.

If you're interested in helping out at the next fair, please contact volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk. 

G20 blogging - well worth a quick look!

You will be seeing the news about the G20 over the next couple of days, but you may not know that Oxfam has helped to put together a global blogging group called G20 voice, who are bringing their own perspectives to the debate. You can follow it here, and use the feeds to get up-to-the-minute coverage of what the world leaders are up to - and lots more. Our Head of Research, Duncan Green, is one of the bloggers.

Book fair - 4th April

Most OOG members should now have had a phone call to see if you can help at our book fair on Saturday 4th April. If we didn't get hold of you, it's one of our biggest events so if you can help, even if it's only for a couple of hours, it would be great. We always particularly welcome extra help on Saturday from 5 till about 7 (when we're tired after a long day selling books!) to load the unsold books back into the van and unload them again at our lock-up in Cowley. If you can't help on Saturday then maybe you're free on Friday evening from 5.30-7.30ish to help load the van? Please email volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk if you are able to help. Thank you!

Fairtrade event

Fairtrade fortnight has been and gone and OOG helped out the Broad Street shop with their tasting event on Saturday 28th February. Louise and I spent the morning handing out Fairtrade goodies such as tea, coffee, chocolate, biccies and some very scrumptious fudge. The tactic worked as several people were seen diving straight into the Oxfam shop to buy more of it! We spoke to a few people who hadn't heard of Fairtrade so felt it was a really worthwhile day. 

Put People First rally in London ahead of the G20 meeting

On 2 April, leaders of twenty of the world’s most powerful nations will meet in London for the G20 Summit.The G20 meetings will be a massive opportunity to build a future that works for the benefit of people everywhere, and where global warming isn’t ignored.

On 28 March, just a few days before the G20 meetings take place, you can join a crowd of thousands of people for a rally to call for progress on the big issues that affect all of the world’s people.

Unison health branch are organising coaches from Oxford to the London rally. Tickets are £10 waged/£8 unwaged and you can buy them online here. Alternatively organisers can arrange to meet someone with a cheque payable to Oxfordshire UNISON Health Branch. People are urged to buy tickets as soon as possible to avoid a last minute rush on seats where people might be disappointed. Coaches leave St. Giles, central oxford for London at 9am on 28th March.

Or if you’ve got your own means of transport, register to come to the Put People First rally in London

The G20 and what Oxfam is calling for

In many ways, the G20 is similar to the G8. There is, however, a key difference – size. More developing countries are included in the meetings, meaning the G20 is more representative than the G8, and the presence of Barack Obama at the London Summit has heightened the sense that the world now has an opportunity for genuine change. Here’s what must be at the top of the G20’s to-do list:

Tackle climate change
G20 nations must announce their commitment to a low-carbon future. And the economic crisis must not be used as an excuse for ignoring climate change. By investing in low-carbon jobs, and clean technology we can tackle both.

Keep your promises
Overseas aid money provides some of the world's poorest communities with vital medical treatment, and goes toward kitting-out schools with books and teaching equipment. Wealthy G20 nations must keep their existing promises to increase aid.
At the same time, the G20 must cancel all poor countries’ debts. Until this happens, huge sums of money that could be spent on health and education are being wasted servicing loans.

Further info and actions:
Put people first (External website)

Rally resources (External website)

Write to Gordon Brown: tell him to put poor people first at the G20

One World Fair - first meeting of the year!

As you know, the annual One World Fair is in November; but believe it or not, planning starts now! The first meeting of the organising group will be on Wednesday 1st April at 7.30pm in the Mitre, Oxford High Street. As Julia mentioned in her post a couple of months ago, we need a group of at least four or five people to get this event up and running, as well as, of course, a lot of help nearer the time.

For anyone who's new to the group, the One World Fair is our flagship event of the year, raising a lot of money for Oxfam's work, and, equally importantly, providing a space for groups working on international development, fair trade,the environment and justice issues to come together and reach a wider public with their campaigns, merchandise, and educational materials.

The workgroup is crucial to get the Fair off the ground. Meeting roughly monthly, it organises the venue and publicity, organising the café, and taking bookings from participant groups. This involves some bursts of work, but the load isn't too heavy! If you haven't been involved in running an event like this before, it's great experience of "project management", as well as a rewarding and hopefully fun activity. And if you've been in the group a while, maybe this year, this could be your thing?

Please let me know in advance of the meeting (if you can - but don't worry) if you plan to be involved - give me a call, or reply to this post. I look forward to hearing from you soon!