One year ago this week, Oxfam America founded ten Oxfam Action Corps groups, including Oxfam Action Corps - San Francisco. Through grassroots organizing and outreach, these teams mobilized supporters in their regions to ask Congress for a reformed Farm Bill. Although the Farm Bill continues to languish in Congress and current versions of the bill keep the trade-distorting subsidies linked to poverty abroad, the Oxfam Action Corps have left their mark. The Wall Street Journal gave a nod to our David and Goliath-like campaign, writing "Some groups argued that farm subsidies hurt poor, unsubsidized farmers in the developing world.... Antipoverty group Oxfam America tapped into a grass-roots network around the country to raise awareness of the issue."Here in San Francisco, our outreach efforts took us to:
11 concerts
2 music festivals
3 community festivals and fair trade fairs
1 hunger banquet
3 house parties
1 speaking event
1 movie screening in Dolores Park
and 12 visits to congressional offices!!!
Through these efforts and more, we've reached thousands of people and have had a lot of fun along the way! The second year of the SF Oxfam Action Corps brings new challenges, opportunities, and a climate change campaign with a poverty focus. You can get involved; there are many ways to make a difference in the fight against poverty and injustice without writing a check. Email oxfam.sf@gmail.com to learn about volunteer opportunities. There is truly something for everyone.
Our Next Event:What: Earth Day Festival
When: This Sunday, April 20th from 12:00 - 6:00 pm.
Where: S.F. Golden Gate Park Green Apple Music Festival
If you’re interested in getting involved and volunteering with Oxfam at this fun event, please respond to this email and let us know what shifts you’re interested in. Shifts are from 12-2pm, 2-4pm and 4-6pm. Please also let us know if you’re interested in participating in our “Walk for Climate Justice” stunt, to take place around 2:30 -3:00 pm.
More About the Stunt:
While least responsible for causing climate change, poor people
bear the brunt of its impacts. As an international relief and
development organization dedicated to finding lasting solutions to
poverty and injustice, Oxfam America is undertaking a campaign
to create equitable solutions to the crisis. We are asking that the
US cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide financial assistance
so that the most vulnerable communities can adapt.
We’ve all seen the images on the evening news: the droughts,
floods, hunger, and disease. Decades of greenhouse gas emis-
sions have finally caught up with our climate—and it’s the poorest
among us who are worst affected. Oxfam America organized the
“Walk for Climate Justice” to draw attention to these impacts and to
highlight the human face of climate change. The walk is a visual
representation of the current and future hardships caused by er-
ratic temperature and rainfall, flooding, drought, competition over
scarce resources—and the growing distance that poor people,
especially women and children, will have to walk for water.
What the stunt looks like:
By dressing in white and carrying water buckets a significant
distance as part of a procession, you will stand in for people
around the world who, because of the negative effects of climate
change, must travel farther and experience increased hardship
in order to find fresh water and other vital resources. You will then
read dramatized stories about real people around the world who
are affected by climate change.
