Just a quick message from our friends at Salisbury Fairtrade to let you know about some of the great stuff going on around Salisbury for Fairtrade Fortnight this year (it’s from 28th Febrary – 13th March this year, in case you wondered).

We’ve also got our usual great range of Fairtrade items for sale at Salisbury Oxfam and have stocked up in time for FT Fortnight – so if you’re thinking of switching it’s a great time to do so!

You can also download a copy of the poster to print off and put up somewhere from the Salisbury Fairtrade website over here…

Be part of Oxfam’s NEW Salisbury Fundraising Group

We’re looking for enthusiastic people to help raise money for Oxfam’s vital work through fundraising events in Salisbury.

The money you raise will help to alleviate poverty and suffering worldwide by funding health, education and water sanitation projects.

Meet like-minded people and have fun with a team of inspiring individuals.

This is a unique opportunity to have a voice in Oxfam and develop your skills.

Your group’s fundraising can be anything and everything – from cake sales to gala dinners. Furthermore there is a role to suit everyone and the choice is up to you!

What can I do?

• Do – If you are interested in joining this new group contact Agatha Morris: amor...@oxfam.org.uk, 07769342545
• Do – If you can think of somewhere you could put some flyers, you can download and print these out…
• Explore – Find out more about Oxfam’s vital work here

Be Amazing : Be Humankind

You might have noticed some of the new features around the site, allowing you to share any story with you friends on Facebook by Liking it and letting you comment on stories here by logging in with Facebook, among others. This is all part of our process of joining Facebook as a new way to allow our supporters, shoppers and donators to communicate with us and so we can join in with the Facebook community and collaborate on projects such as Oxjam which work fantastically through social media.

However to get the full benefits of this for you and us we’d love people to Like our new Facebook page which you can find over at http://facebook.com/salisburyoxfam. We’re planning to share photos of our current exhibitions there, create shop events so you can let us know you’re coming and more over time as we work out the many great things we can do with it.

We’ve already been on Twitter for around a year now, amassing a sizable following, and have really enjoyed taking part in that community of Salisbury residents, Salisbury businesses, other Oxfam shops and of course the wider world! We think this will complement that excellently, so don’t worry if you’re already a follower or fancy coming and joining in: we certainly won’t be moving from @salisburyoxfam anytime soon!

There’s been coverage on BBC News and a press release from Oxfam today reporting that Oxfam shops across the country are suffering a 15% drop in donations due to the recession. In Salisbury too, we have seen donations go down, which is a shame because during a recession is a time when Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme, in particular, needs even more support than usual and without high quality donations our shops’ sales are bound to fall too even with demand remaining strong.

However, we think that people still have some things stored away at home that they are happy to donate to Oxfam but just haven’t quite made it to our shops yet. This is the time we really need you! Help us keep our stock levels high, our shoppers happy and those Oxfam helps from losing out on the support they need.

Many are now suggesting that we are heading towards the end of the recession, our Trading Director, David McCulloch said:

“This is a crucial moment for us. Over the last eighteen months, people have been buying less, replacing less and therefore donating less to Oxfam. Now sales are apparently on the increase, we can only wait to see if this is reflected by an increase in donations to our shops.”

We can only hope that this is correct, but in the mean time if you do have something you’ve been meaning to donate we’d love to see you, especially sooner rather than later:

“We rely on the generosity of the public for their stock. Without continued donations of everything from clothing to cookware, Oxfam shops could not continue to play such a key role in communities across the UK.”

For the shoppers out there, don’t worry, our shops are currently still well stocked with great bargains and we’re never short of fantastic ethical goods, scrumptious Fairtrade Food and our Oxhibitions Art Gallery will of course continue its monthly exhibitions raising money for Oxfam. We hope you’ll come and visit!

The Arctic Monkeys’ new 7″ single “Crying Lightning” is being released through Oxfam shops including Salisbury Oxfam, with proceeds going to help Oxfam’s work to end poverty and suffering.

The ‘Crying Lightning’ 7″ features a cover of the Nick Cave classic “Red Right Hand” as a B-side. Each single will cost £2.99 pounds and come with a download code to get an MP3 version of the songs for free.

While picking up a copy, why not bring in any older CDs or Videos that you don’t want anymore for Oxfam to sell to raise more money.

See more information about what’s on the single here.

What can I do?
Shopping – Come in and buy the new Arctic Monkeys album from Salisbury Oxfam when it’s released on August 17th.
Fundraising – Donate any unwanted items to Oxfam when you come in to drop pick up your copy.

Image with thanks to Lola’s Big Adventure! – released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 – see here for further information.