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Our teaching materials are a resource for teachers, adaptable for students of a variety of ages, from upper-primary to year 12 students.
These resources aim to give teachers material that they can use to inform students of the many activities that Oxfam Australia is involved in.
The resources also encourage students to take personal action by planning, promoting and participating in activities to support the work of Oxfam Australia.
Contents
- About Oxfam Australia
- What Oxfam Australia does
- Long-term development projects
- Emergencies
- Campaigning for a more just world
- Involving the community through events
- School Hunger Banquet
- Commitment to action - participation
- Unit planner - the Mavume project in Mozambique
- Further resources
- Acknowledgements
About Oxfam Australia
HIV/AIDS activist Billy Ndlovu visits a primary school in South Africa to help raise awareness.
Photo: Paul Weinberg/OxfamAUS.
Oxfam Australia is an Australian non-government organisation, independent, not-for-profit, secular, community-based aid and development organisation.
Activities
- What is a non government organisation? Find five examples of other non-government organisations that provide assistance to people overseas. What type of assistance do they provide?
- Identify the main work of Oxfam Australia.
What Oxfam Australia does
Oxfam Australia is involved in a number of activities, these include:
- Responding to emergencies
- Campaigning for a more just world
- Involving the Australian community through events
- Oxfam Australia shops
- Ethical Investment, Banking and Travel
- Publications
- Development consultancy (International Development Support Services)
Activities
- Design a brochure that highlights the main activities that Oxfam Australia is involved in. Where possible give specific examples.
- What does the term 'development' mean? How does it differ from what the western world means by this term?
Long-term development projects
School children in Cambodia learning hand pump maintainance, hygene and water conservation.
Photo: Mike Whittle/OxfamAUS.
Our long-term development projects aim to help those most in need. We work in partnership with community organisations, employing the skills of local people who are responsible for maintaining a project's success. Our experience shows that the best way to help those most in need - who are most often women and children - is to support projects for the whole community, not just individuals.
Case study: How we can help someone like Keo Nan
Case study on rice banks and self-help groups in Cambodia.
Look at our information sheet.
Activities
- Find out about how other micro-credit projects such as the Buffalo bank in Cambodia have contributed to alleviating poverty.
- In your own words, describe how a rice bank works and the significance of the rice bank to poor communities.
- Learn more about a rice bank by borrowing the video Planning for Change from Oxfam Australia.
Responding to emergencies
Refugees in Breidjing camp in Chad where Oxfam is providing clean water and sanitation to thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in Dafur, Sudan.
Photo: Marlene McIntyre/OxfamAUS.
When disaster strikes - drought, flood, earthquake or war - any time lost in delivering aid can literally cost lives.
Working closely with other Oxfams, we respond to emergency situations by providing urgent humanitarian assistance including food and clean water. We also help communities rebuild their lives and become better equipped to face disasters in the future.
Case-study: Sudan
Look at our information sheet.
Activities
- Locate Sudan and Chad on a map.
- Read the account of the refugee camps in Sudan and Chad and rewrite as a newspaper report or story for a radio news report.
- Make a list of natural disasters or conflicts that have taken place throughout the world and on a map indicate where they have occurred.
Campaigning for a more just world
Make Trade Fair campaign launch in Sydney.
Photo: David Sproule
Oxfam Australia's work with communities via programs with partner organisations is not the only way that that we can make a difference in the world. Communities often face barriers that need broader solutions.
Oxfam Australia campaigns aim to highlight the issues and to offer an opportunity for both communities and the general public to bring about change.
Find out more about our campaigns.
Case study: the Make Trade Fair campaign
Look at our information sheet.
Activities
- Ask students to make a list of points they think that should be considered when deciding whether a product should be awarded a Fair Trade Mark. Is there anything which would rule it out completely? Compare this list to the Fair Trade criteria listed on http://www.susumama.co.uk/faq_fairtrade.shtml
- Divide the class into four groups, (see coffee jar diagram) giving each group one part of the coffee production process. Ask each group to decide what percentage of the final price of the jar of coffee should go to their part of the process. Bring the groups together. What does the total come to? Tell the group the actual situation (see coffee jar diagram). In light of their discussion, how fair do they think this is?
Case study: Labour rights
Look at our information sheet.
Young garment workers in a boarding house. Many garment workers come from rural areas in Sri Lanka where employment options are very limited. Most workers end up living in boarding houses where conditions can vary from adequate to quite appalling in terms of crowding, health and sanitation.
Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS.
Activities
- Find out more about home workers in Australia by visiting the fair wear website: http://www.fairwear.org.au/engine.php
- Ask students to justify their position in response to the following question, "When buying clothes or shoes, would they take into account the working conditions of the people who made them"
- Contact your local Trades Hall and invite a trade union official to talk about the problem of home-workers in Australia
- Prepare a fair wear charter or code of conduct for garment and shoe manufactures.
- Design a visual display that highlights the issues and personal stories related to labour rights. (For example, display a variety of clothing / shoes etc and hang them up on a make shift washing line. Use over sized labels to highlight the issues and personal stories).
Involving the community through events
Oxfam Australia walk against want
Melbourne walk against want 2004 gets under way.
Photo Credit: Rob McKechnie/OxfamAUS.
walk against want is Australia's longest running outdoor fundraising event and symbolises the long walk that women and children in developing countries make to collect water each day.
Look at our an information sheet.
Go to the walk against want website and find out how your school can participate.
Oxfam School Ambassadors
Schools can elect up to two students to represent their school as Oxfam School Ambassadors. Oxfam School Ambassadors act as the first point of contact between Oxfam Australia and their school. For students who want to be involved in working to create a better world Oxfam School Ambassadors provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about the issues, gain valuable new skills and be involved in the work of Oxfam Australia.
Oxfam School Ambassadors coordinate their school's walk against want involvement and can participate in workshops, presentations and activities held by Oxfam Australia throughout the year.
Contact your local state office for more details of the Oxfam School Ambassadors program.
Great fundraising ideas
Activities
- As a class choose one of the projects from the list 'where the money goes'. Design a poster that gives information about the project that you are working to raise funds for. Include a graphic representation of the progress you are making to reach the target.
Organising a school hunger banquet
The Hunger Banquet is a most effective activity for engaging participants in a dramatisation of the unequal distribution of resources and wealth in the world. Each guest pays for a meal and then draws a ticket which randomly assigns them to the high, middle or low income tier and is served a corresponding meal.
The 15% in the high-income tier are served a sumptuous gourmet meal. The 30% in the middle-income section eat a simple meal of rice and beans. The majority 55% in the low-income tier waits for small portions of rice and water.
Setting up a hunger banquet information sheet.
Commitment to action - participation
The Ladder of Participation is a model for thinking about youth participation developed by Roger Hart. The bottom three rungs describe youth involvement that is not true participation whereas the top five rungs describe true participation.
The ladder of participation information sheet.
Activities
- Discuss with the class why it is important for the community to participate in fund raising activities that help others. Brainstorm a list of potential fund raising ideas that the class could organise within the school community.
- Reflect on Roger Hart's, Ladder of Participation and find examples of participation that demonstrate each rung.
Unit planner: the Mavume project in Mozambique
A six-week program of activities, suitable for year levels 6-9 studying areas such as society and environment.
The activities for this unit are designed to help students develop an understanding of how community based self-help development projects make a difference to the lives of people within these communities.
The unit gives students an opportunity to meet the people of Mavume, in central Mozambique. The supporting activities give students an insight into how the people of Mavume live day-to-day, how they survived Mozambique's 17-year civil war, and how a project supported by Oxfam Australia has helped them change their lives for the better.
Key concepts: interdependence, community, development, social justice, aid
Resources:
- Activities
- Student resource 1: The Mavume Project Mozambique
- Human Development Report
- Development Compass Rose Strategy Description
- Student Resource Two: Development Compass Rose Template
- The web quiz
Further resources
Videos
Available for loan from Oxfam Australia:
The Dam Truth (12 mins)
In Cambodia's Stung Treng Province Oxfam Australia Australia is working with local communities to help maintain their livelihoods and manage their natural resources for the future. The Dam Truth explores the success stories of local villagers working together to protect their resources.
Planning for Change (7 mins)
This video features actor Alison Whyte visiting a number of Oxfam Australia projects in Cambodia and Vietnam. She journeyed to these countries to see the impact that Oxfam Australia's projects have on peoples lives.
Web
Oxfam Australia
Oxfam International
Make Trade Fair
Other organisations
GLOBAL EDUCATION CENTRE - SA
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E: gecsa@global-education.asn.au
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T: 08 9371 9133 F: 08 9271 9830
GLOBAL LEARNING CENTRE - QLD
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T: 07 3857 6666 F: 07 38572173 E: glc@uq.net.au
Web Search Quiz answers: 1) b 2) a 3) a 4) c 5) b 6) c 7) b 8) a 9) b 10) a
These teaching materials, originally developed as hardcopy resource called Making Connections with Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, were developed under the auspices of the State Committee of Oxfam Australia in South Australia. The resources were written by Mark Wildy and edited by Joan Carlin from the Global Education Centre (SA) Inc, for Oxfam Australia, South Australia State Office.
The South Australia State Committee would like to acknowledge the contributions of: Mark Wildy and Joan Carlin from the Global Education Centre, who were responsible for effectively shaping and writing the material; William Ventura and Erin Green, recent employees of Oxfam Australia who worked on the walk against want programs and assisted with the development of the ideas; The Oxfam Australia Book Group who financially supported this work, which enabled us to contract the writing to the Global Education Centre; Norm Rohde, a member of the State Committee who has coordinated all aspects of the work and a group of teachers who have effectively acted as consultants to the program through trialling the resources in a number of schools at a range of levels.