General Chat

I heard on a local radio station that OXFAM are appealing for 10,000 extra volunteers to help cope with a massive increase in the number of items donated. They say that without the extra help some of their shops may have to close, temporarily, to give existing staff time to sort out what is coming in. I rang their Customer Services Enquiry office this morning, and was referred to the Oxfam website......Oxfam(.)org(.) for further information. Trouble is that if you wanted to be of use the local Oxfam shops do not open until Tuesday, 4th. but don't let that stop you from looking up the website, it will give you some idea of what they are all about if you don't already know. Brian

Brian, Thanks for the info. I am sorting stuff as we speak. Sue

just had a look at it but i wont b able to help as i go bak work that day its a shame they dont open up b4 so all of us who work fulltime from then on can help now

good idea ................... lol i also cud go in after work to help

Hi Jess, I don't think you'll get anywhere doing that. I live midway between Luton and Dunstable, so I could help at either. Drove into Luton yesterday evening around 6.00 expecting to see some activity in the Oxfam shop, but there was nothing going on. Rang both the Luton and the Dunstable shops this morning, but no response....and there was me thinking they'd have pulled out all the stops!! Naive, or what!!? Brian, ;-(

Nudge

Please read the following from the Oxfam website; "Oxfam shops have been inundated with offers of food, clothing and tents. Although, we are very grateful to receive donations of saleable items to raise funds for our work, we are not able to accept donations of food, blankets and shelter in our shops. Oxfam is using some of the funds raised from the sale of goods in our shops to buy supplies in the countries affected by the disaster. Potential volunteers wanting to help will need to attend a brief interview with local shop managers." Before thinking how dare they not accept my old tent, blankets etc please stop and think. These items are bulky and difficult to transport to where they are needed. It is far better for them to be purchased as close to the point of need where the money will go straight back to the local economy. They also say the following; "Every Oxfam shop in every community only needs the extra help of 10 or 12 people for four hours a week to generate millions for Oxfam's work every year." It takes time to train volunteers. They have to be able to identify what is saleable and how to prepare it for sale, determine if what isn't saleable is recyclable or whether it is just rubbish which needs to be disposed of. If you feel you could commit to four hours a week then please do offer to help. Another way to help would be if you have access to a car. The shops will be inundated with items to dispose of. The shops can only afford to pay for so many rubbish collections a week so at times when there are more donations than usual there will be more rubbish than usual. Just taking one sack of rubbish to the dump for your local shop could help.

Nudge