You Are Not Alone by Wambui Mburathi

Cycling from town to Withington and then to the Manchester University South campus I finally located the Barnes Building where the Oxfam day was being held. Quietly I was ushered to a table to find the first speaker talking about his visit to development projects undertaken by Oxfam in South Africa.

The purpose of the talks was to update volunteers on the work and projects undertaken by Oxfam around the world and show how the projects being undertaken are benefiting communities and individuals. Being a new volunteer, I was eager to see how my hours of volunteering made a difference to someone somewhere else in the world.

Looking around I saw a great number of like minded people who have decided to dedicate a part of their lives to volunteering. People varied, from an elderly lady who had been volunteering for the last 30 years to a current student who volunteered in two different stores in different cities.

Seeing all these people in just one room made me realise that on the day I volunteer between the hours of 1:30-5:30, there are several other people in any of the other 700 Oxfam shops sorting clothes, or manning a till driven by the purpose to generate a profit so as to contribute to the eradication of poverty. 

Having a multiplier effect 1 volunteer contributing their time multiplied by the current number of 22,000 volunteers = more funds generated = more lives transformed= one step closer to a world without poverty.

Within last year alone the trading and selling of donated goods generated £76.3m pounds of un-restricted funding. Un-restricted funding has no strings attached and can be distributed to any emergency, development project or campaign. The projects undertaken involve the local communities, creating a sense of ownership, and utilise the wealth of untapped knowledge to create a solution to a problem that is suited to the communities’ circumstance and environment.

For instance in Armenia Oxfam built a storage facility which enabled farm products to be stored for up to 9 months. This meant that farmers were able to keep their fruits fresh until they had acquired a source of transport to deliver their goods to sell at the market. The projects aim to create a long term sustainable solution, so that once the allocated funds have been utilised the communities will continue to benefit from the project without the aid of Oxfam.

The speakers that spoke of their travels to these communities spoke with such touching emotion that you could feel the positive transformations and improved livelihoods of the people photographed. This showed how within the Oxfam model being a volunteer is such an integral part because one small node forms part of a bigger system that collectively makes an impact.

To finish the day there was an engaging Q&A session with (senior management), demonstrating the transparency and accountability of the organisation. The sun was still shinning as we emptied the building and I left with a feeling of solidarity for a justified cause.