This year Oxfam shops in West Yorkshire managed to raise over a million to support the charity’s work around the world.
The money raised will go towards Oxfam’s projects such as supporting thousands of people who are displaced or refugees that the charity is working with in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Greece.
Neil Pilling, Oxfam area manager for West Yorkshire, says: “We are so grateful to the generous people of West Yorkshire who donate to and buy from our shops. This year we managed to raise over £1m, despite many challenges- for example the floods that devastated our Oxfam Hebden Bridge shop. The local community and our volunteers and staff across the whole of West Yorkshire worked tirelessly to get the shop trading again, and their efforts have definitely paid off. Their support has raised crucial funds for Oxfam’s work helping people in desperate circumstances. It is thanks to our determined staff and volunteers, and our very generous donors and customers that Oxfam can provide life saving water, and food emergency supplies to thousands around the world”.
According to the charity, we are living in a time when more people – almost 60 million – are displaced from their homes than at any time since the Second World War.
He said: “We are helping those arriving in Italy by providing food, clothes, shoes, and personal hygiene kits as well as longer term psychological and legal support. In Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, we are providing life-saving clean water, sanitation and vital support for families who have lost everything. With £36 Oxfam can provide clean and safe water to families and with £100 toilets and washing facilities for dozens of people made homeless”.
Mr Pilling says that more than ever Oxfam shops need donations to raise crucial funds for its work to end extreme poverty and suffering around the world.
He concludes: “As the need around the world grows, we urgently need to scale up our work, and we cannot do this without the people of West Yorkshire. So please keep donating, volunteering and shopping with Oxfam, it really does make a huge difference to the lives of people around the world”.
