What we do?

Campaign for change
Why campaign?

This is not a fair world. There’s wealth everywhere. So why do millions have to drink dirty, dangerous water? And why should millions more go hungry; without schools; or die of diseases we can prevent?
People want justice, not handouts. That''s why we campaign for change, as well as working with poor communities for a better future. Our experience tells us to pile on the pressure, day in, day out. So we''re working at every level - from local to global - getting poor people heard, challenging decisions by leaders whenever we see the developing world''s interests under fire. Poverty is preventable. Time to campaign with us?

Campaigning to shout about
It takes all sorts, and all kinds of action, to get decision-makers to listen – and actually do something. So go on. Make a dent in poverty, any way you can …

How do we know what to campaign about?
Spending every day working with people in poor countries tells us certain changes are desperately needed. For example, we work in communities caught up in armed conflict – so we know that tougher controls on the global arms trade are needed. Campaigning on this stops a lot of suffering. And lets people get on with building better lives.

How do we do it?
Effectively. We put decision-makers under as much pressure as we can. Oxfam has more than 100,000 activists in the UK – and many more worldwide – taking all kinds of action. We campaign in alliance with other organisations, too, because we have even more clout lobbying governments and powerful institutions together. This makes us part of a global movement. And we use the media to ‘up’ the pressure as well. At all times, they know what we’re doing – and why.

Are we making a difference?
Yes. Sometimes it takes a while to get the changes we want – the changes poor communities we work with need. But hard work pays off. We’ve made a direct difference to international campaigns to ban landmines, cut developing country debt, control the arms trade, and change the rules of world trade. And our fight against poverty and injustice continues.

Emergency response
 Imagine losing everything but your life. Would you cope? Around 30 million people are forced from their homes by conflict and natural disaster every year. Most have only what they can carry. Survival depends on getting help. Fast.Oxfam is famous for helping people in crisis, providing vital things like clean water in temporary camps. Our teams are saving lives in more than 30 countries, right now.
What we do in emergencies
We specialise in a number of areas

We respond to the crisis. What next?
Emergencies can leave people devastated. When the worst is over, we help people back onto their feet, giving them the support they need to rebuild their lives. Oxfam helps communities to become less vulnerable to future crises too, often through our long-term development work.

Can you stop an emergency before it starts?
We try. Oxfam campaigns and lobbies to prevent emergencies we can see coming, and stands up for the rights of those caught up in them. And we''re often the first and loudest to call for more and better aid.

Conflict and natural disasters
Twenty-three-year-old Magda''s village was attacked during Ramadan.

Survivors say armed men rode in on camels and in 4×4s, looted the houses, then burned them to the ground. Magda’s husband and eldest son were brutally killed. Dozens more went missing.
Magda is from Darfur, Sudan, and is one of millions people who flee their homes every year because of conflict and natural disaster.

Now facing even deeper poverty, she’s also one of millions getting Oxfam’s support.

Health
A doctor when you need one. Medicines you can afford. Clean water to drink and enough food to keep you healthy. Not much to ask you might think.

Think again. Millions of people are going without these basic things, every single day.
Why? Poverty.

And the price? Preventable illness, and early death, on a scale impossible to imagine.

We’re working hard to get free health care – for everyone.

Education
Imagine you can''t read, write, or count. Would it hold you back?

A basic education helps us live a full and rewarding life. Yet today, more than 72 million children in the developing world – the majority of them girls – are going without one.
It’s a global disaster. Why? Because these children may never learn the skills that represent their own best chance of escaping poverty.

So we’re doing all we can to change things – supporting schools and communities worldwide, and campaigning for funds and better policies from governments. We’re working hard to help every child get the education they have a right to.

The future of millions depends on it.

Debt and aid
One day, when Juma Nsamaka was busy looking after cattle, his brother arrived to announce he was taking him off to school.

“I had always wanted to go to school, so I was very happy,” says the 12-year-old orphan.
The year was 2002 – a poignant year in Tanzania, because the country’s debts were cut, and around 1.6 million children were able to go to primary school for the first time.

Juma’s doing well in class, and he wants to be a teacher himself some day.

But Tanzania’s schools are still struggling. And he faces an uphill battle to afford a secondary education, and to become what he wants to be.

Only aid money and less debt will really help children like Juma.

Gender Equality
 
You’re more likely to be poor if you’re a woman. That’s a fact.

And as a woman – according to research – you’re likely to be doing most of the work.

Discrimination and injustice are major causes of poverty worldwide. And ensuring women and men benefit equally from our work is a vital part of what we do, wherever we do it.  

Making a lasting difference depends on it.

Development work
Development work - sounds technical? Dull even? Try ''vital''. Because ’development’ is at the heart of what we do – and that''s helping poor people find lasting answers to chronic poverty.