IES Blog

Oxfam Unwrapped at IES

Posted : November 16, 2011 by John G, Category: Uncategorized

Ah, the arrival of first Christmas card of the year is rarely a welcome sight. It usually arrives early November when the thought of queuing for hours for overpriced gifts, eating your own body weight in chocolate and wearing your Granny’s knitted woolly jumper, seems a long way off. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Christmas as much as the next person but my festive period kicks off at least one week into December.

Thankfully the first Christmas gesture of the year has totally contradicted my scrooge like ramblings above. One of our software engineers, Don Stearn, has followed his yearly tradition of making a donation to Oxfam rather than getting cards for everyone in the office. This year’s donation has gone towards sending Sheep to Gitovu in Rwanda, while last year’s donation was invested in Photovoltaic solar panels.

Oxfam Unwrapped is a fantastic initiative that allows you to buy gifts that result in a big difference in many people’s lives. Everything from farming tools to small business loans can be donated on behalf of others for Christmas this year. The video here sums up the project nicely.

It is also worth checking out the work Oxfam are doing to support those that have been seriously affected by climate change across the world. Their Smart Solutions campaign is focused on coming up with ways “to help people adapt to climate change, reducing its impact on their lives”.

So there is no shortage of ideas and inspiration if you are looking for stocking fillers this Christmas.

I, on the other hand, will have to save my first “bah humbug” of the year for the first Christmas song I hear…