Oxfam Ireland Wants Your Unwanted Goods

national | miscellaneous | press release Monday May 25, 2009 12:38 by Paul Dunphy - Oxfam Ireland

Oxfam Ireland needs 10 million of your unwanted goods!

Oxfam Ireland needs 10 million of your unwanted goods!
Give goods a second life

Irish aid agency Oxfam Ireland is calling for a national summer clear-out in which the public are being urged to ClearURClutter, gear, books and music to help tackle poverty around the world. A welcome increase in custom for Oxfam Ireland’s shops recently has meant that it is starting to run out of stock and so is urgently appealing for more.

Trevor Anderson, Oxfam Ireland’s Head of Retail, said: “Following last year’s excellent public response to our ClearURGear campaign, Oxfam Ireland shops currently receive around 8 million donated items a year. To ensure we have enough stock for our 48 shops to meet the increased public demand we will need to increase that figure to a bumper crop of 10 million donated items in 2009. We need your goods now more than ever.”

“We urge you do a summer clear out and drop all your unwanted good quality clothes, books, music and household items into your local Oxfam Ireland shop. By doing this you will not only be supporting our work with poor communities overseas but you will also be diverting millions of items from the ever growing landfill sites around the country.”

An extra 2 million donated items could generate an estimated additional €1,500,000. This would be enough to cover the entire annual cost of Oxfam Ireland’s overseas programme in Uganda, where initiatives include preparing communities to cope with natural disasters; improving access to water and sanitation in villages; building long-term livelihoods; and working to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS.

Your donated items can really make a huge difference, so keep them coming – they help save lives. Get summer off to the right start and ClearURClutter for Oxfam!

Amazing finds
Oxfam Ireland’s 48 shops across Ireland welcome donations of items from the public – however weird or wonderful, Oxfam can use the funds raised from them to help change lives around the world. In recent years, there have been a number of unusual items of donated ‘clutter’, including:

• over €1,000 was found stuffed inside a toy that was left into the Oxfam shop at the recycling centre in Wicklow;
• an eagle-eyed volunteer in a Belfast shop spotted a diamond broach amid some costume jewellery – it sold at Christies for £1,100;
• a signed copy of Roddy Doyle’s drama War was donated to Oxfam’s Rathmines shop;
• designer clothing is often available in Oxfam shops: most recently Oxfam Dun Laoghaire received a green Versace dress and a new black leather Furla handbag, priced at €60. The shop presently boasts a Diane von Furstenberg dress in 100% silk at a knockdown price of €120 (original price: €397);
• a vase in the Oxfam Phibsboro shop was revealed as a genuine antique originally from Cyprus, and was purchased for €500 and put on exhibition by the National Museum of Ireland.

So while you are dropping off your quality goods at your local Oxfam shop have a look round – besides some well-known designer names on the clothing racks, valuable vinyl in the music section and first editions on the book shelves, you may be surprised by other hidden treasures to be found there!

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

For more information please contact Paul Dunphy, Oxfam Ireland Media Executive, on 01 6350 422 / 087 905 8075 or email paul.dunphy@oxfamireland.org

The estimated additional €1,474,622 that a rise to 10 million donated items would generate is a projection based on figures from the Oxfam Ireland Annual Report 2007-2008.

• Oxfambooks in Rosemary Street, Belfast, has received a corporate donation of 3,000 books from Northern Ireland publisher Blackstaff Press.
• The Oxfamhome store on Belfast’s Dublin Road is presently running a free furniture collection scheme in selected areas around Greater Belfast.

For more information about Oxfam’s ClearURGear initiative visit the website at www.oxfamireland.org/clearurgear

Oxfam Ireland’s network of 48 shops around the country is a vital way of raising funds for our overseas and campaigning work. Oxfam Ireland works primarily in Africa, with programmes currently in Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. By donating good quality goods or making a purchase from an Oxfam shop you are helping us fight poverty and injustice in these countries.

Oxfam Ireland is a member of Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 Oxfams worldwide. For more information about Oxfam visit the website at www.oxfamireland.org