Oxfam Ireland launch Unwrapped for Christmas

national | miscellaneous | press release Friday November 06, 2009 12:03 by paul dunphy - oxfam irealnd

Change the present, change a future

This Christmas you can give a truly great gift with Oxfam Ireland, by choosing your presents from its exciting new Christmas catalogue Unwrapped.

This Christmas you can give a truly great gift with Oxfam Ireland, by choosing your presents from its exciting new Christmas catalogue Unwrapped.

Does the world really need another pair of novelty socks or more bubble bath? With an Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped gift when you change the present you really can change a future. Choosing an Unwrapped gift like a cow or school books means you are giving someone living in poverty in the developing world the chance of a better life.

The Oxfam Unwrapped gift goes to a family or a community in the countries that Oxfam Ireland works and who need it most, so when you choose an Oxfam Unwrapped gift you make a real difference to people’s lives and when you buy your Unwrapped gift the purchaser receives a gift card, which they can send to friends or family.

This year Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped is launching novel new gifts including Sports kit for kids (€9), Sunflowers (€20), Care for a goat (€35), Supergranny (€59), Fish pond (€399), Village grain bank (€795) and the chance to Champion a Fair Trade craftsperson (€36).

Sports kit for kids is the ideal gift for the annoyingly healthy person in your life; the present includes balls, skipping ropes and lots of fun so it will help kids who are living in poverty stay happy and healthy. Sunflowers aren’t just a pretty face, they can be pressed for oil to provide a valuable income and they are an ideal gift for relatives with green fingers.

Everyone wants a Supergranny and, with Unwrapped, grannies that are looking after children who have lost their parents to AIDS are helped to keep them in school as well as provide them with access to essential medicines and state support.

The Fish pond is an ideal gift for those with a passion for the rod and reel and provides a whole community in Malawi with food and an income; even the pond’s mud can be used for fertiliser. The Village grain bank provides storage and keeps grain safe and sound beyond times of plenty so there’s ‘gold’ in the bank when tough times arrive.

The Champion a Fair Trade craftsperson gift gives the people right at the beginning of the supply chain the chance to gain skills to build their business and benefit not just themselves but the local economy too, a great gift for Fair Trade supporters.

There are over 30 gifts to choose from this year. Prices range from just €9 for the Sports kit for kids up to €3,120 to provide fresh clean drinking water to an entire community in countries such as Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. So there is a gift to suit any and every budget, even a mini-budget.

Other gifts include Chicks (€26), Piglets (€29), Cows (€105), Cooking stove (€15), School books (€18), Fruit and veg garden (€48) - every single gift is tailor-made to empower people and improve the lives of people and communities in Africa.

Unwrapped gifts can be purchased online, in your local Oxfam shop, by post and by phone (1850 30 40 55). Simply check out the website www.oxfamireland.org or visit Oxfam Ireland stores to find out more.

Notes to the Editor

Last year cud-dly Cows generated the single largest income for Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped raising a total of €85,964 through sales of 844 gifts

Plucky piglets managed to raise €72,676 through a total of 2,150 pretty pink presents

The full range this year features over 30 gifts and an all-new corporate catalogue features 12 gifts specifically aimed at the corporate gift market

Countries where Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped gifts apply: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa

This is the 6th year of Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped and Oxfam Ireland hopes to exceed 100,000 presents given this Christmas

Globally, Oxfam Unwrapped’s campaign of life-changing alternative gifts has helped bring charity gifts into the mainstream

Since the scheme launched in winter 2004, worldwide it has sold a total of 3 million gifts and it has raised over €50 million to help fund projects in more than 60 different countries

Since 2004 Oxfam Unwrapped has built over 200 classrooms worldwide, constructed over 35,000 toilets, sold more than 200,000 goats, raised more than €1 million for teacher training and distributed more than 3.5 million bags of seeds and saplings

For further information or to request images, please contact Unwrapped Media Intern Alan Roche on 01 6350428 / alan.roche@oxfamireland.org