Oxfam Nw Newsletter December 09

Oxfam Active in North West England December 2009 So the year has somehow snowballed its way into December and after all our preparations the Copenhagen climate talks (http://tiny.cc/HG8lN) are nearly here. People around the North West are passionately going for it to push for that fair, adequate and binding deal that the world needs – from making climate change giants in Chester to hitchhiking to the summit, to school students from across the region dancing and presenting their views to number ten. Remember that it’s not too late to take action on climate change and show the world you care! Today is also World Aids day: Show your support in two simple ways. 1. Get inspired by reading the Annie Lennox blog, organised by Oxfam, up on the huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-lennox/demanding-aids-justice_b_374058.html 2. Take action on the OGB website: we're supporting a campaign action asking GSK, Britain's biggest pharmaceutical company to put its ARV medicines in a "patent pool", a one-stop shop where, for a small fee, pharmaceutical companies allow generic version of their patented medicines to be produced. These medicines are far cheaper. In the past the cost of treament annually has gone from $10,000 to $87. A patent pool means far more people can get the life-saving treatment they need, and live the healthy life they deserve. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/actions/stop_aids.html Remember to write in and let us know what you’re up to or just to find out more ways of getting involved! [email protected] and join our Facebook group: http://tiny.cc/xOWCO and twitter: http://twitter.com/oxfamnorthwest feed to stay uber up to date. Also check out (and subscribe to) our brand spanking new North West Blog: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/where-you-are/northwest/

See you on Saturday at The Wave! After talking about it for so long it’s finally here this Saturday: The Wave(www.oxfam.org.uk/thewave, on the 5th of December hopes to bring together 100,000 people demonstrating on the streets of London calling on the government and other world leaders to deliver the global deal on climate change we need. We need as many people as possible to attend The Wave to show just how important we think it is - and we need your help to make this happen! 1.

Book your transport today, and get all your friends/ family to come too! Some people are even walking/ cycling to get there. Use your imagination – cartwheel all the way! Tell everyone that you are going and why! 2. Meet up with us in London so we can march together. Please meet us on the pedestrianised South Molton Street, London, W1K between 11:45 am -12:00pm. We will then move as one Oxfam group around the corner to where the Wave will commence at 12:15. Meeting Point Map: http://tiny.cc/0EIwj rd 3. Attend our free craftivism session this Thursday 3 December and make lots of amazing blue goodies for The Wave/ Copenhagen. http://www.oxfamcraftivism.eventbrite.com/

The Copenhagen Climate Charge 59 student volunteers from Manchester and Liverpool (and one polar bear). 1000 kms. One big problem. One international summit. Lots of kindness from strangers. Sound interesting? th Setting off on Wednesday 9 December from Manchester/Liverpool Town halls and arriving in th Copenhagen by 12 December. A journey of a lifetime to change lives. Pushing for a fair climate deal for everyone in the world in Copenhagen. By raising as much awareness as possible, befriending politicians like Chris Davies (MEP) and going all the way to Copenhagen to ensure we get the deal we need! Support us by sponsoring us to raise money for climate adaptation in Nepal/ Bangladesh (http://www.justgiving.com/climatecharge) and by watching our journey and sending us messages of support along our way because it’s going to be mighty chilly hitchhiking in December. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/where-you-are/northwest/ccharge.html

Other fun things to get involved with An Evening with Ed Miliband Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, will take part in a public rally in Manchester. When: Tuesday 8 December, doors open at 5pm for a 6.30pm start Where: The Exchange Auditorium, Manchester Central (formerly G-MEX)

Manchester City Councils Climate Change festival th

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From Sunday 13 – Thursday 17 December Manchester is hosting this Climate Change Festival in the town hall to coincide with the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. This Climate Change Festival will both support awareness of the summit and to promote the advent of Manchester's Climate Change Action Plan.Manchester is committed to reducing it's CO2 emissions and along with community and interest groups, public sector organisations and businesses has produced an action plan to this effect that sets headline actions for the next decade. The festival will run mainly in the City centre from 13 - 17 December with a full programme of events each day.

The event is free, but if you wish to attend, please email [email protected] with "Manchester, 8 December" in the subject line. Please make sure you include your name and the names of people who wish to attend with you if relevant. You will receive a confirmation by email that your tickets have been booked.

Events include; - A family day on Sunday 13 December with a solar cinema, green craft workshops, waggle dances and all kinds of climate change themed activities for all the family. There will be an Oxfam childrens workshop and an Oxfam stall on the day so come along and say Hi or volunteer([email protected]) to help out! - A showing of the inspirational films Sisters on the Planet and the Age of Stupid - George Marshalls Carbon Detox = 16th December 2009: 7.00pm Tickets are free, but booking is recommended (www.georgemarshall.eventbrite.com/)

Help us build the Giant of Climate Change – this Thursday 03/12 Oxfam North West are in the process of constructing a climate change giant! Teaming up with the Chester-based arts organisation Chester the Giant City, we’ve been starting to build a giant to represent climate change. She’ll be about 12 feet tall and able to be carried around like a backpack. So far we’ve made the frame, as sported here by Heather.

When she’s finished we will be parading her around Chester to raise awareness of climate change. We will also be taking a different giant, the beautiful Lady of the Lake, to The Wave in London, so look out for a gigantic blue water-woman next Saturday! rd

As you can see there’s still work to be done, and you can help out! Our next workshop is on Thursday (December 3 ), at BiG Storage on Sealand Road (jump on the Number 10 from the bus station and it drops you off in front of B&Q, BiG Storage is just next door). So if you live nearby and you’d like to get involved in the designing, making or decorating of our giant, get in touch with Nadav at [email protected], or just come along on Thursday.

What’s been going on? North West Schools take action on climate change

Climate Voices Launch – Manchester & Liverpool

At 10 Downing Street

Climate Hearings have brought out some amazing stories – people all over the world are really suffering from climate change, and these stories needed telling. It’s a bit harder to do in the UK though as people tend to believe that climate change in a threat of the future, not of the present. But it’s still important to feel connected to climate change, to realise that we are being affected here, and that we are doing something about it. So Climate Voices was launched from our North West HQ!

Five lucky pupils representing hundreds from across England including Thomas Davies from Upton by Chester and Ifra Saleem from Abraham Moss high schools in the North West, walked to the door of No.10 Downing Street with messages for Gordon Brown before he travels to the UN climate change meeting starting December 7. Their Downing St visit follows the schools conferences held by Oxfam in Bristol, Birmingham, London and Manchester to raise awareness of the importance of the global deal for poor countries. Outside Downing St pupils took part in a media 'Splash Dance' stunt to show just how important climate change is in their lives.

Two events ran from Manchester and Liverpool. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds to share how they were being affected by climate change, and what they were doing about it; we had people from the council, a transition town movement, a renewable energy provider, student campaigners, sustainability activists, a University researcher and an artist campaigner. They were a really switched-on and inspiring bunch, it was great to meet so many people with their individual take on climate change. Climate Voices left us keener than ever to get that “climate change is important and we can and are doing something about it” message out there! Check them out (http://tiny.cc/t1891) and if you feel inspired, make your own climate voice video, email it to [email protected]

Making videos for MPs What do a video camera, a mask of David Heyes MP and a Mexican wave all have in common? Well, these are the tools 4 students from St Damian’s RC Catholic College in Ashton Under Lyne employed to lobby their schools' MP on climate change. Michael, Mary, Caprice and Lewis, all 12 years old made a short video for MP David Heyes with the help of Oxfam. These students have been working on climate change all this term, even representing their school at Oxfam's conference on climate change in October and meeting Elvis, an Oxfam employee helping those suffering the effects of climate change. They filmed themselves presenting their work, debating the issues and making their wishes known to a paper cut out of David Heyes. Next, they are sending the video to David Heyes with a request that he passes their message to Ed Miliband, and responds to them with his own. When asked what his biggest motivation is for working on climate change Michael responds with a wisdom beyond his years: ‘Meeting Elvis and hearing stories from Malawi about what people have experienced. We’re also now getting floods near us so that’s a motivation to make things better for them’.

Oxfam/WDM Bolton group meeting with MP David Crausby

Bill Hutchings said ‘This was a good event for our local group because it was a genuine shared campaign event between Oxfam and WDM. WDM provided a large invoice for the mitigation and adaption costs caused by climate change incurred by the developing world. Oxfam provide the polar bear who wanted to save the humans (aka Margaret). The polar bear presented the invoice to David Crausby, a local M.P. which helped to raise the profile of the Climate Change campaign in the run up to Copenhagen. As he was speaking I thought of the support I’d seen from most, if not all, MPs in the region for an ambitious climate deal at Copenhagen.’

Everton Fundraise for Climate Change!

Students also held an assembly to inform their classmates why climate change is such a problem and invited their whole year to take part in a gigantic Mexican wave in advance of the wave protest march in London. Other schools that will also be making videos for their MPs are Abraham Moss in Manchester and Pleckgate High in Blackburn.

Picture the scene, it's bonfire night, and instead of enjoying the evenings traditional festivities, 32,000 Evertonians are converging on Goodison Park along with several hundred Portuguese to watch a football match which two weeks ago had ended in a 5-0 reverse for the team from Merseyside. Some might say this particularly drizzly night shouldn't be a hot bed of fundraising, but 8 volunteers clad in all blue, with buckets 'n' all are ready to meet their audience. "Climate change.. but it's freezing!" is one of the typical responses, however the pounds and pence flow for a good few hours as the group circle the stadium all raising awareness and money, to allow these volunteers to hitch-hike all the way to Copenhagen for the most important climate conference for a decade! All in all, despite the regular confused looks from Benfica fans, coupled with their valuable Euros, we raised approximately £470. A fantastic amount for a fantastic cause! Let's keep going on about it until we're all blue in the face...

Dates for the diary December 3rd December – Free Craftivism training session – ‘How can you use crafts/ creativity to spread your campaigning message?’ finishing by making something blue together for The Wave on Saturday! 6.25-8 pm Greenfish resource centre, Manchester http://www.oxfamcraftivism.eventbrite.com/ 4th December – The pains of being pure at heart at Academy 2. 8pm - 11pm. Outreach campaign and go for free! Contact Rachel: [email protected] so you can get involved and you will get a briefing on the night. 5th December – ‘The Wave’ march in London to Stop Climate Chaos. Meet up with us in London so we can march together. Please meet us on the pedestrianised South Molton Street, London, W1K between 11:45 am -12:00pm. We will then move as one Oxfam group around the corner to where the Wave will commence at 12:15. Meeting Point Map: http://tiny.cc/0EIwj We are also looking for volunteers for the day to help out= http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/files/docs/The-Wavestewarding-form.doc 7th December - Nicaraguan Speaker Orlando Mercado from the informal workers union is visiting UK for a tour and will be in Liverpool for an evening of discussions and insights into work and life in Nicaragua. 7.00-9.00 pm Bar 33:45, above Parr St Studios, Parr St, Central Liverpool, L1 4JN For more info call Mark 077 2206 1551 8th December – Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, will take part in a public rally in Manchester. When: Tuesday 8 December, doors open at 5pm for a 6.30pm start. Where: The Exchange Auditorium, Manchester Central (formerly G-MEX). The event is free, but if you wish to attend, please email [email protected] with "Manchester, 8 December" in the subject line. Please make sure you include your name and the names of people who wish to attend with you if relevant. 9th-12th December – The climate charge (hitchhike) to Copenhagen from Liverpool and Manchester. Follow us on our journey and show your support – why not come along on 9th December to either Manchester/ Liverpool town hall to wave us off with the mayor 8:30 am? http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/where-youare/northwest/ccharge.html

12th December – Beat promotions at Dry Bar 8pm - 11pm. Outreach campaign and go for free! Contact Rachel: [email protected] so you can get involved and you will get a briefing on the night. 13th – 17th December - Manchester is hosting this Climate Change Festival in the town hall to coincide with the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Events include; - A family day on Sunday 13 December with a solar cinema, green craft workshops, waggle dances and all kinds of climate change themed activities for all the family. There will be an Oxfam childrens workshop and an Oxfam stall on the day so come along and say Hi or volunteer([email protected]) to help out! - A showing of the inspirational films Sisters on the Planet and the Age of Stupid - George Marshalls Carbon Detox = 16th December 2009: 7.00pm Tickets are free, but booking is recommended (www.georgemarshall.eventbrite.com/) For a more up to date events list join our Facebook group and twitter feed. Also check out (and subscribe to) our brand spanking new North West Blog

Materials to help you put on your events Are you doing something wonderful for Oxfam? We have some great local resources that you can borrow to make your events even better – from Polar bear outfits to video cameras, from t-shirts to training packs on media and political campaigning. Just get in touch [email protected] to book the materials you need!

What else can I do? There are so many different ways that you can get involved with Oxfam – why not get in contact to find out more?

Amazing Internship Opportunity: Outreach Support Executive Do you have three days a week from January-July that you would like to use to intern with Oxfam Campaigns in the North West? Then why not apply to become our Outreach Support Executive? (This is a voluntary position though lunch and travel expenses are provided). The Outreach Support Executive will do a wide variety of tasks as they manage the Outreach network in the North of England. This will include for example; Creating a regional Outreach strategy, Recruiting, training and supporting volunteer outreach co-ordinators, Securing Oxfam’s campaigning presence at some of the larger regional events, Helping to co-ordinate the regional campaigning for Oxjam (Oxfam’s music festival), Creatively thinking of ways to campaign to new audiences, Managing the regional administration, monitoring, evaluation and learning of this project, Using a range of on and offline tools to share good practice and create a sense of community/network throughout the region/nation. For more information and the full role description and application form please contact Nicola = [email protected] th th th Application deadline: 7 December, Interview: 18 December. Start date: 4 January

What can you do in the North West? Up and down the UK – and around the world – ordinary people are making an extraordinary difference in the global fight against poverty. Become an activist … Oxfam needs your energy, ideas and enthusiasm. This could mean anything from lobbying your local MP to organising exciting events that invigorate people, raise awareness and educate about Oxfam’s latest campaigns. We want you to make our campaigns come alive in the North West, and prove that by taking action people really can make a difference! You can join a group or campaign from home – just choose what suits you! Contact Nicola to find out more = [email protected] Help to raise vital funds – there are loads of ways you can support Oxfam by helping to raise vital funds for our work – from becoming a cash collection coordinator and managing teams of volunteer collectors, to organising an Oxjam music gig or setting up a fundraising committee with your friends and family. Every little helps – and with so much to choose from, there will be something perfect for you! Contact Harriett to find out more = [email protected] Outreach campaigning at events … Can you inspire people to take action? Oxfam is searching for enthusiastic people to get out there, speak to people and educate them about Oxfam’s campaigns at a variety of exciting events. Become a coordinator or just come and join in when you have the time. The work Oxfam does is so much more powerful when we have thousands of people standing beside us, and we need you to get them involved. Contact Rachel to find out more = [email protected] Volunteer in a shop … Oxfam is one of the biggest names on the High street. Shops all over the region are always searching for dedicated volunteers willing to help out, meet new people and learn about Oxfam. The work that you do will help to provide the funds that keeps Oxfam going, and provides you with valuable retail experience. Find your nearest shop = http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shops/content/shopfinder.php or 0300 2001 333 All of these opportunities not only assist Oxfam to overcome poverty and suffering, but are also a lot of fun and a great way to boost your skill set. Why not try them all to see what inspires you the most? So what are you waiting for?

Get in contact if you have any questions/ comments – we are a friendly bunch! Call: 01612 342786, Email: [email protected], or use our Facebook group: http://tiny.cc/xOWCO Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International. Registered charity No. SC039042. To unsubscribe to these e-updates contact [email protected]