Consider charitable gifts this Christmas: Oxfam & Kristin Davis

With the global financial crisis creating a $2 million hole in its 2008 budget, Oxfam Australia is urging Australians to consider charitable gift giving this Christmas.
Oxfam Unwrapped is the organisation’s charitable giving scheme and allows Australians to give fun gifts to friends where donations support the agency’s agriculture, health, education and emergency programs in developing countries.
Following visits to Southern and Eastern Africa with the international development organisation, Oxfam Global Ambassador Kristin Davis is behind the global push for Oxfam Unwrapped.
“With Oxfam Unwrapped, you can help someone living in extreme poverty while also giving a gift to someone in your life. And it doesn’t take a lot of money to help make a difference,” Kristin Davis said.
“During my trips I’ve met some incredible people whose lives are changing because of Oxfam Unwrapped.
“Earlier this year I met a woman in Uganda who, thanks to Oxfam Unwrapped, was able to start up a small business selling groundnuts and is now making enough money to send her grandchildren to school.
“When people are without food, water, shelter or the opportunity to support and educate their families, your Oxfam Unwrapped gift will be providing real and practical support.”
Goats are traditionally the most popular gift in the range and other Oxfam Unwrapped gifts include: piglets, chickens, bees, buffaloes, cattle manure, toilets and school fees.
Among this year’s new gifts are ducks because they eat insects and snails and are an environmentally friendly forms of pest control for farmers.
Oxfam Unwrapped spokesperson Leigh Stewart said the global financial crisis and collapse of the Australian dollar was threatening some of the programs supported by Oxfam Unwrapped.
“Oxfam Australia is extremely concerned the financial squeeze will affect our livelihoods programs in the Solomon Islands,” Ms Stewart said.
“This work helps families buy food and pay fees to send their children to school, and now those basic rights are threatened.”
Oxfam Unwrapped gifts can be purchased online at oxfamunwrapped.com.au or at Oxfam shops in shopping centres around the country.
For media enquiries, please contact: Sunita Bose on 0407 555 960 or sunitab@oxfam.org.au