Oxfam and The Language Factory

Thanks to our clients, The Language Factory has been able to donate over £60,000 to Oxfam since 2005. We would like to continue our support of Oxfam in 2008 and intend to lend our support to several projects. Having already supported projects in Tanzania, Brazil and Rwanda, our current project of choice is an HIV and AIDS awareness programme in Malawi.

Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries and one of the hardest hit by HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Seventy thousand people die every year from AIDS-related illnesses, and an estimated 850,000 children have been orphaned since the epidemic began.

With ninety percent of the population living in rural areas, the vast majority earn a living through subsistence farming. It’s tough work and the labour-intensive methods commonly used can become impossible for people living with HIV and AIDS, and for the children and elderly people who have to support family members when they fall ill.

Oxfam is working with the Malawian government and partner organisations in the southern district of Chiradzulu to help families affected by HIV and AIDS to use less labour-intensive farming methods and to earn an income through farming. Communal vegetable gardens are also being set up, which communities farm together to grow produce either to sell or to give to orphans or people who are unwell.

This is the third year of a three-year project, and is one of two linked Oxfam projects currently operating in the area – the other increases the availability of treatment and care for affected families.

For more information on this project and others, visit Oxfam's website here.

In addition to our own corporate donation, we will continue to highlight a number of Oxfam's campaigns throughout the year and ask our clients and translators to participate in various initiatives to help Oxfam's vital work.

For example, why not say "I'm In" by signing up to Oxfam and receiving ideas about how you can help? I'm In is a community of people who share the belief that poverty is an injustice which can be overcome and who care enough to want to do something about it. For more information please click here.

Or, in the spirit of environmental-friendliness, what about recycling your old mobile phone? It is estimated that 15 million handsets are discarded each year in the UK alone. Your old phone is worth on average of £5 to Oxfam, so one phone could provide five schoolbooks, six could train someone to become a teacher, and ten handsets could provide an emergency shelter for a family. Since 2001, recycling mobiles phones has raised £530,000 for Oxfam's work and prevented over 120,000 unused phones from ending up in landfill sites.

So why not send Oxfam your old mobile phone? Just pop it in a jiffy bag and send it by Freepost to:

Oxfam Bring Bring Scheme
Freepost LON16281
London
WC1N 3BR

For more information on this and other schemes, visit http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/recycle/bringbring.html.

 

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