Yeah yeah yeah, we know – pedants everywhere will be screaming that Oxfam isn’t a company, it’s a charity.
They also might be pointing out that Oxfam is different to Oxfam International – and they’d be right!
But frankly: a) bore off, b) we don’t care, and c) we’d do it again we tell you!
Anyhoo, any organisation that generates over £1billion of revenue each year and employs over 5,000 people in the UK alone gets to do whatever it wants – especially if it’s from God’s county of Oxfordshire.
Formed at 17 Broad Street, Oxford in 1942, Oxfam is a rather generous abbreviation of “Oxford Committee for Famine Relief”. The original committee was a group of concerned, prominent local residents including Henry Gillett, Theodore Milford, Cecil Jackson-Cole, Alan Pim, Gilbert Murray and his wife Mary.
The Committee met in the Old Library of University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, for the first time in 1942, and its aim was to help starving citizens of occupied Greece in World War II, a famine caused by the Axis occupation of Greece and Allied naval blockades, and to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the blockade.
Oxfam’s first paid employee was Joe Mitty, who began working at the Oxfam shop on Broad Street, Oxford on 9 November 1949. Engaged to manage the accounts and distribute donated clothing, he originated the policy of selling anything which people were willing to donate, and developed the shop into a national chain.
By 1960, Oxfam was a major international non-governmental aid organisation. The first overseas committee was founded in Canada in 1963 and in 1995 Oxfam International was formed by the group of similar independent non-governmental organisations.
Today, there are 19 member organisations of the Oxfam International confederation: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Quebec, South Africa, Spain and the United States.
As well as becoming a world leader in the delivery of emergency relief, Oxfam International implements long-term development programs in vulnerable communities. They also campaign to end unfair trade rules, demand better health and education services for all, and to combat climate change.
So there we have it: good eggs all round. So from everyone here at Selective Recruitment, to all the yolk folk at Oxfam, we salute you!
