From the goat's mouth ... !
This page lists all the articles from the Oxfam Unwrapped blog. Enjoy!
This Mother's Day I will ...
This Mother's Day, show your Mum, and mums all over the world, that you care with our selection of gifts for Mum.
And then vote in our Mother's Day poll....
A memorable Mother's Day
So the eternal question: What do you buy for the number one woman in your life?
We asked young Joe Blayney, 14, from Mount Albert Grammar what about his decision to pick his mum an Oxfam Unwrapped gift for Mother's Day this year.
Being at school, Joe doesn’t have time for work, although he’s saved some money from helping out his dad. So the Oxfam Unwrapped range is perfect for him – plenty of presents under $20. He’ll usually splash out on some chocolate (fair trade, of course!), or even give her some of his school art work when he’s strapped for cash. But this year he's opted to give something a little bit different: a bunch of spicy hot chillis from Oxfam Unwrapped.
This is the first time Joe's given anyone an Oxfam Unwrapped gift. He said: "I picked Unwrapped because there's some really cool present ideas, I liked looking through the catalogue. I wanted to help the people the gifts benefit.”
Priced at just $15, Joe is gifting this fiery package in recognition of his mum's year-round sterling support. His mum is going to love it!
Joe's mum actually caught him browsing the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue recently, but his swift response to why was that he was "looking into giving his brother a pile of poo". He'd love to see his brother's reaction, even though “he’d take it as a joke”.
- Make sure you check out the latest range of Mother's Day gifts, including our limited edition packs perfect for spoiling mum.
The best thing about Easter is ....
Stop the press!
Oxfam Unwrapped has unveiled a new Easter gifts page packed with sugar-free goodies.
Take a look and let us know which egg-straordinary gifts are your favourites! Some big nutritious coconuts or a flock of cute wee chicks? To celebrate our new Easter present range we thought it would be fun to ask you what you like most about Easter. Vote in our poll below ...
What will you buy your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day?
Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching and it's high time to check out which gifts you want to suprise your sweetheart with! From fluffy cute chicks to red-hot chilis there's definitely something for your special someone at Oxfam Unwrapped! go on, give them a gift with a difference and spread the love!
A brighter 2012
Thank you to everyone who purchased Oxfam Unwrapped gifts for Christmas!
We've got some great news for all our supporters - news that is life-changing for people living in the places where we work.
We totted up all the gifts that you've bought and are delighted to reveal that you have given more than:
- 1000 pairs of chickens
- 610 piles of poo
and most impressively, provided access to safe water for 33,250 people living in poverty.
This is an incredible achievement and will make a HUGE difference to communities in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Your gifts have gone to the people who need them most, people who can now look forward to a brighter 2012.
Thank you again!
The Oxfam Unwrapped team.
Success down on the farm
Hiromena Jose Elu is from East Timor. Here he's working on his composting pit.
Thanks to Oxfam, Hiromena and his wife have learnt about terracing, and vegetable gardening including planting, composting and organic pesticides. This has increased their food sources (more vegetables), and also provides income for the months of the year when their garden cannot produce crops.
He says: “We can plant vegetables and fruit so we can sell at the market and make some money. We can plant other fruit that previously we did not have here.
“We can make $3 or $4 everyday.”
The hungry season before Oxfam came was four months, but this has been reduced to two months since they have been trained in the new techniques.
Their vegetable garden produces crops for 2-3 months of the year. They can save the money they make from selling during this time to purchase vegetables when they have none at home.
Your gifts of Train a farmer and seeds make a huge difference to farmers like Hiromena.
Gift giving generosity - top Kiwi towns
Oxfam has revealed New Zealand’s most generous towns in its first-ever Oxfam Unwrapped Generosity List.
By looking at the numbers and locations of gifts given through the Oxfam Unwrapped appeal, Oxfam has named the South Island town of Upper Moutere as the country’s most generous.
Upper Moutere ranked highest on the list for having donated the most gifts for its population size – around 152 people.
The top ten
1. Upper Moutere, Tasman
2. Takaka, Tasman
3. Ohaupo, Waikato
4. Russell, Bay of Islands
5. Paekakariki, Kapiti
6. Warkworth, Auckland region
7. Lyttelton, Christchurch
8. Port Chalmers, Dunedin
9. Collingwood, Tasman
10. Cheviot, Hurunui
The town with the highest average annual gift value (of $158.68), and far above the national average value of $18.60 was the Hauraki district town of Ngatea.
Areas with the top total gifting are Auckland, with nearly $750,000 donated over the last five years, Wellington and Christchurch.
VIP loos
Enoch and his family survived the bitter nine year Bougainville civil war by fleeing into the hills. After the conflict, they returned to their village to find it completely destroyed. Enoch knew good sanitation would be as vital for keeping the village children alive as protecting them from soldiers.
So with a little help from Oxfam, toilets became his practical, yet lifesaving, solution.
Sirovai village is on the coast of Central Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and the soil is very sandy. When residents first tried to dig pits for latrines, the ground just caved in.
With Oxfam's help, they devised a simple and ingenious solution: build a cylinder out of wood, coat it with cement, remove the original wood frame to use again, climb inside the cement cylinder, and dig out the soil.
The concrete liner sinks down into the ground and then a toilet slab and super structure can be built on top, completing the VIP (Ventilated Improved Pit) latrine.
As an extra benefit to the community, Oxfam pays villagers to do the labour. When complete, there will be one toilet for each family in the village. You can support people like Enoch with Oxfam Unwrapped: buy the gift of a toilet today.
No bull
Milk, manure and moo-ving about, cows are a incredibly versatile gift. 
The obvious benefit is milk, which supplements poor diets and provides essential vitamin and minerals. Milk is also sold, giving people money to pay for food, clothes, medicines, transport or eductaion. Manure is a brilliant fertiliser for gardens and crops, helping to provide a bountiful garden of plenty, full to bursting with veggies that will feed a family or livestock. And transport: cows can be used to pull ploughs and carts. Plus bulls can be used to fertilse cows, ensuring that future generations capture the benefits of these bovine beauties. So your $260 is going to go a long way helping a family securing their path out of poverty.
Splash out in Vanuatu
Despite being a tourist destination, Vanuatu is one of the poorest countries in Melanesia and faces many problems. A key issue is the absence of safe water and adequate sanitation, which causes poor health and disease and severely restricts rural communities’ economic and social development.
Less than 50 per cent of the rural population has access to a reliable, safe and fully functioning water supply.
Another 40 per cent only has access to a system that is in need of repair.
Adding to this problem is the destruction caused by cyclones, which frequently hit Vanuatu. These cyclones often destroy crops, roads and homes while polluting drinking water and waterways. Any water and sanitation facilities established in the country need to be cyclone-proof. By supporting Oxfam Unwrapped with our safe water gifts, you will be giving Vanuatuans a safe reliable source of this precious resource.