I knew Oxfam did great work and I wanted to be involved but I didn’t expect quite an intense introduction. It was only my second week as an intern in the NW Campaigns office when the Haitian earthquake struck. It was a real insight into how Oxfam works – everyone in the office seemed to just
spring into action to work towards getting assistance to Haiti as quickly as possible. A BBC camera crew came to do an interview for Newsround, there was a general flurry of media activity and fundraising went into overdrive.
My own role, supporting Outreach, may not at first, seem all that relevant to providing disaster relief around the world but as a volunteer, like all Oxfam Outreachers, I know that every hour I spend working for Oxfam saves money on staff costs. The money I save Oxfam can then go towards disaster relief supplies. Even on a minimum wage rate, I estimate I’ve already saved Oxfam hundreds of pounds – that’s an awful lot of water buckets. Simply providing access to clean water saves hundreds of lives in situations like Haiti.
Outreachers do fantastic work by getting the word out there about Oxfam’s campaigns and they can gain campaigning skills and valuable work experience. But every hour they spend getting signatures on petitions and talking to people about what we do also helps Oxfam spend more of its hard earned money on the people that need it most – just one of the reasons I like being involved.