Oxfam Auction for Victims

Many celebrities sat for photos with Greg Williams to help Oxfam International’s "Make Trade Fair," an awareness campaign to end unfair international trade practices. Now Oxfam America is auctioning these autographed, one of a kind, pieces of art – in order to help victims of Katrina and Pakistan’s earthquake. In an eBay auction starting December 21 and ending 3 p.m. December 31, Oxfam America will be auctioning framed, autographed posters of Chris Martin, Colin Firth, Minnie Driver, and Djimon Hounsou. All the money raised from this auction will help Katrina victims and hundreds of thousand of displaced Pakistanis who now face a brutal winter.

You can place your bids here.

Relief group calls for help to Pakistan quake survivors

With thousands of earthquake survivors facing severe winter in the mountainous regions of northern Pakistan, the head of Oxfam GB has warned that help must arrive soon to prevent a second humanitarian catastrophe. Oxfam is the UK branch of an emergency relief organization. Oxfam International is supervising the charity's earthquake response operations in Pakistan. Oxfam has called for the United Nations to be given more resources in order to co-ordinate and bolster the relief effort. The UN is trying to scale up its operations but is hindered by lack of funding, it said.

According to an Oxfam press release, the UN has received less than half of the money it requested for its initial response to the October earthquake, while many pledges for the second phase ofreconstruction have similarly failed to materialize. Of the 551 million US dollars requested for the UN emergency appeal, it said, less than 230 million dollars has reached the UN. Additionally, whereas 1.1 billion dollars was promised for Pakistan's reconstruction efforts, less than 800 million dollars has materialized. Many of these pledges were in any case loans rather than grants. Oxfam has urged donor governments to match the generosity of public donations. With winter bringing freezing temperatures, thousands may soon die unless resources for better shelter and improved camp management arrives quickly. Read More....


Source: Xinhua