Author: Serena Tramonti

Sandhya outside Knutsford High School

Sandhya Venkateswaran, a W8 member and representative of the Indian coalition ‘Don’t Break Your Promises’ gave a lunchtime talk yesterday at Knutsford High School about health and education rights in India. Students at Knutsford High were encouraged, during the event, to write their posts for the Oxfam North West blog.

Read up their posts and what they thought of Sandhya’s talk on women’s access to health and education and their doubts and opinions about aid for development.

Sat in the schools media centre, of all places, I found myself moved and appalled about the global situation concerning women’s rights, especially in education and childbirth.

Students at Knutsford High School

Most people don’t realise that childbirth is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening experience, during the 30-minute talk, 30 or more women will have died from childbirth or pregnancy. Here in the UK we take medical care for granted and most people don’t realise how lucky we are to have the NHS. Hoping to become a midwife or a paediatric nurse myself, going overseas to less economically developed countries is certainly something I will be looking into. Sam Booth and Lauren Brown

 Does lending money to countries to help them develop actually help them? Will they not become dependant on aid provided by more developed countries, such as ours, and thus leaving the country

Students writing their blogs

helpless to maintain that level of infrastructure. In Africa economic aid will often find itself in the hands of drug runners and militant groups and never make it down to the regular citizen. Corrupt governments take the money for themselves and Africa is riddled with them. Dan Smith.

Jack Street at Knutsford High School

I was shocked to find out that almost one child every minute dies from curable diseases like pneumonia. That almost 30 women every half hour, the same length as the speech, could have passed away through childbirth, and that in some schools there are no female toilets. Jack Street

Do you agree with the students’ perspectives? What do you think?

Please leave here your comments!

The Robin Hood Tax was at the centre of a political debate in Manchester yesterday. And so far is winning 4-0!  
During a question time type of debate in Manchester City Centre, Tony Lloyd MP for Manchester Central (Lab), Graham Brady MP for Altrincham and Sale West (Cons) and  Mark Hunter, MP for Cheadle (Lib Dem) expressed their support for the Robin Hood Tax- although each of them had slightly different views on it.
When asked whether they support the Tax, Tony Lloyd MP said he was very much in favour of it and was hoping that an international agreement on it could be reached at the next G20 meeting in June. Mr Lloyd also mentioned that the cost of adaptation to climate change is a very important issue and must stay high on the international political agenda.
Mr Hunter, MP for Cheadle, was enthusiastic about the Robin Hood Tax- he enthusiastically stated that it was a great idea whose time has come. Mr Hunter said: “It might not be easy to implement it, but worth trying!”.
Mr Brady instead was more cautious. He praised the concept of a financial transation tax, but was doubtful about how something like that could work on an international scale.
Similar doubts were expressed by Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South, who took part in a discussion on climate change during an ‘Age of Stupid’ screening  in Prestwich. Mr Lewis thinks that the Robin Hood Tax is a good idea and it is likely to go ahead, given the fact that it has wide support in the Uk and the EU. He also pointed out that the US could be making better noises about it, but there is time to possibly turn this round.

So 4 Greater Manchester MPs, four slightly different views, but all quite positive about the Robin Hood Tax!

Read the latest Oxfam North West Newsletter  and find out how you can get involved with Oxfam near where you live.

From dress down days, to a pub quiz at Jabez Clegg in Manchester, to collections in Liverpool, Bolton and Bury – loads going on in February in the North West to raise money for Haiti!

Oxfam supporters in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester shooting out about climate change

Loads of campaigning too- from free screenings of ‘ The Age of Stupid’, to taking action to cancel Haiti’s debt, to the launch of a new ’secret’ excitign Oxfam campaign- watch this space! And how could I possibly forget?

Oxjam is back- alive and kicking- in fact recruiting for an executive based in our lively Manchester Oxfam camapigns office.

There really isn’t an excuse not to get involved with Oxfam in the North West- whether you are a media mogul, a music lover or plainly and simply someone who wants to make a difference, there is always something you can get your teeth into and have fun with!  Click on  Oxfam North West Newsletter   and find out the latest! Get in touch!

Imagine how excited I got when I found out that a copy of the first Beatles LP ‘Please Please Me’, one of the greatest albums of all times, had been donated to the Liverpool Oxfam shop in Bold Street and sold on e-bay to a collector in Hampshire for over £1,300!

A copy of ‘Please, Please me’, the first Beatles LP, raised over £1300 for the Haiti appeal

The album was donated to the Oxfam Bold Street shop, and the money raised from its sale will go to the Oxfam Haiti appeal.

Yesterday I phoned Gerard, manager of the Oxfam shop on  Bold Street. He was telling me how busy he had been with Liverpool customers popping into the shop to give money or donate items to be sold for the Haiti Appeal. We were having a good natter and he started telling me all about his holiday plans – the first holiday in six months, the man was clearly and righlty excited about it!. Then,  all of a sudden, he said: ” You know, we found a Beatles’ album in a bag with other items the other day. The record was in good condition, and the cover had only a bit of wear and tear around the edges. When we realised that it was the first album released by the Beatles and that it was one of the first 300 pressed, we went straight onto our e-bay account and put it up for auction. Do you know what it means? We were holding in our hands one of the rarest and most collectable items in existence!”.

The response for Haiti among people in the Northwest of England has been astonishing.  £3.5 million has been raised in less than two weeks in the region for the Disasters and Emergency Committee Haiti Earthquake Appeal.  Hundreds of people have been popping into their local Oxfam shops with cash donations, as well as special items to be sold to raise as much money as possible for the Oxfam relief operations in Haiti.

‘Please Please Me’ hit the top of the UK album charts in May 1963 and remained there for thirty weeks. The first pressing was released by Parlophone, and is a sought after item among collectors. Gerard often encourages bidders to come to the Oxfam Bold Street shop to take a look at the items on auction themselves before buying them.

It was such a great achievement for Gerard, before his well deserved holiday!  Right now we are all focusing on raising as much as possible for the Haiti appeal. Gerard knows that our colleagues in Haiti are working really hard to provide thousands of people with clean water and to start re-building their lives for the future. We need more help to support them, cash donations and also music, books and clothes to be sold in our Oxfam shops. People in Liverpool and across the North West have been so generous so far, and we encourage anyone who hasn’t done done so to give what they can for the DEC Haiti Appeal.

Oxfam has now managed to raise enough money for the emergency phase of  its operations in Haiti. What we need to do now, is to raise as much as possible to make sure that people in Haiti cannot just survive the emergency, but can rebuild their lives and their own future out of poverty. So, more work to do for Gerard (and for me!)-once he is back from hols!

“Is Haiti slowly disappearing from the news?” asked Rob, a journalist who interviewed me today.  It doesn’t look like it yet. Certainly it is not disappearing from the hearts and minds of people in the North West, who, in less than two weeks, have donated to the DEC Haiti Appeal a staggering £3,610,000. A massive thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

People walk in front of a destroyed cathedral building in Port Au Prince Credit to Reuters/Jorge Silva, courtesy www.alertnet.org

 So, this proves that you don’t have to be George Clooney or John Travolta to help the people of Haiti really. It also shows that, in the face of a disaster of epic proportions, which has caused the death of hundreds of thousands and affected millions, people in the North West are prepared to dig deep into their pockets. Never mind the recession and all that.

 Rob carried on with his questions: “Is there anything else that one can do to help people in Haiti? Is it all hard cash that it is down to then?”

 Well, my dear scousers, lancastrians, mancunians (apologies if I don’t name everyone here-I don’t mean to leave anyone out, but the list is too long!), there are another couple of things that you can do apart from donating money- and they can be done very quickly, by just comfortably clicking on your laptop, phone, whatever. Honestly!

Firstly, exercise your campaigning muscles: e-mail Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leader of the International Monetary Fund, to cancel immediately Haiti’s debt with foreign donors and international financial institutions.

Haiti currently owes over $891 million in debt. If these debts aren’t cancelled, Haiti will have to send tens of millions to the IMF and other international bodies whilst it is struggling to rebuild.

 Secondly, exercise your persuasion power on people around you: encourage everyone to fundraise for Haiti, by donating to the DEC Appeal if they haven’t done so yet. Use your social networking power and spread the word!

 So, what are you waiting for? You can donate to the DEC Haiti Appeal, campaign to cancel Haiti’s debt, and encourage as many as possible to do the same or to gang together for a fundraising event.

Believe it or not, Rob was persuaded and took action today…So he said at least!

 Join the thousands of people from all over the North West who have donated their money to the DEC Appeal for Haiti on www.dec.org.uk

George Osborne MP for Tatton donated to the DEC Haiti Appeal in the Oxfam Knutsford shop on Friday 15th January

Whilst the Oxfam team in Haiti is working with other aid agencies around the clock to bring clean water, food, shelter and medical help to thousands of children, women and men, here in the North West everyone is doing what they can to promote the Haiti Disasters and Emergency Committee Appeal and involve as many people as possible to make cash donations.

The response for the Haiti Appeal has been very positive so far. I have been touching base with our Oxfam shop managers in the North West, and everyone is doing what they can to support the Haiti fundraising appeal.

David, manager for the Oxfam shop in Keswick, was supposed to go to visit the Oxfam programme in Haiti in February- and now he is working with shop volunteers to raise as much money as possible. Wendy, Oxfam shop manager in Didsbury in Manchester, has been very busy in the last few days with customers popping into the shop to make cash donations for Haiti after they have seen the horrendous images of the disaster.

Last Friday George Osborne, MP for Tatton, visited the Oxfam Knutsford shop to support the Disasters and Emergency Committee Appeal for Haiti, which had just been launched on that day. Jane, manager for the Knutsford shop, and a group of loyal shop volunteers, welcomed their MP in the shop and quickly directed him to the Haiti donations box.

Mr Osborne said: “The scale of the disaster is devastating for the people of Haiti and we should all support the Oxfam appeal and others like it.  I am delighted that they have already responded with help from this country by sending support teams and equipment, but more aid is urgently needed”.
UK donations to the Disasters Appeal emergency appeal (DEC) reached a staggering £31 million in less than a week.

 Individual donations like the one George Osborne MP made at the Knutsford Oxfam Shop all help to raise the kind of money that will help Haiti to recover over the coming weeks and months.

 Thousands of people’s lives have been devastated by the earthquake and need all the help we can give them. We are encouraging everyone who has not donated yet to do so by going to www.dec.org.uk