What do students from the Parkview Public School in Melville Saskatchewan have in common with a store in Iqualit, Nunavut, an insurance company in Ottawa and a manufacturer in Belleville, Ontario? They and hundreds of others are collecting used stamps and envelopes for Oxfam Canada's Stamp Program. Even Provincial premiers and a former Prime Minister have donated stamps to help stamp out poverty.

Click here to see a video interview about volunteering with Oxfam and the Stamp Out Hunger program.

How the money is raised

Those used stamps and envelopes can add up. Oxfam Canada volunteers raise about $10,000 annually by sorting and selling stamps to collectors. Nearly $250,000 has been given to Oxfam from the Stamp Program since it started in 1980.

What you should save

• Everything!
• foreign stamps
• Canadian stamps
• commemorative stamps
• Keep the entire envelope if there are:
• clearly identifiable town/village postmarks
• registered/special delivery postmarks

Where should I send the stamps?

Once you've collected the stamps and envelopes they can be delivered to any Oxfam Canada office or sent directly to either:

Stamp Programme
Oxfam Canada
39 McArthur Ave
Ottawa, Ontario
K1L 8L7

OXFAM-Canada Projects Supported by Stamp Funds

November   2008

The following projects were chosen by the volunteers in the stamp programme from among those already approved by OXFAM-Canada's Program Committee and Board of Directors. In most cases, the stamp funds are only a small part of the total OXFAM-Canada contribution, and many are funded by other organizations and governments as well. In this way, the OXFAM-Canada funds have a lot of leverage, being matched in some cases by two or more times as much money from other sources.

Described below are the most recent projects, followed by a complete list detailing the total of over $210,000 raised since the stamp programme began over 20 years ago. These particular projects were selected based on two criteria. Firstly, they are meant to be broadly representative of the types of work OXFAM does in its main areas of interest. Secondly, we support worthy projects that have not had sufficient money earmarked specifically for them by other donors or allocated from general donation revenue.

Cuba: Gender Equality pilot and Small Farmers  $20,000(2008) (CIDA Matching Grant 6:1)Oxfam Canada has been working for 14 years with the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), and beginning in 2006, started to support their pilot implementation strategy to promote gender equality in the eastern provinces of Cuba.  ANAP’s gender strategy includes training, investment in infrastructure, developing agricultural and leadership capacities of women members, national and regional exchanges for women farmers, and the production of communication materials. 

Several communities in 5 Eastern Provinces in Cuba benefit from investments in production projects, particularly those generating employment for women cooperative members.  Oxfam Canada provides ANAP with funding ($10,000) for the implementation of ecological agricultural alternatives in Candonguita, Santiago de Cuba.  These include a 4 acre community garden, a small factory that makes preserves and processes fruits and vegetables, and a building for producing humus.  The communities of Cuatro Caminos and La Perla, in Granma Province are receiving $10,000 for irrigation systems and for outfitting the preserves factories.  In the farming community of Cañadon, Holguín, $7,000 has been spent outfitting an artisan/handicraft workshop, installating an irrigation system and starting a centre for making preserves. In Las Tunas province, women cooperative members benefit from the construction of a building for raising rabbits, equipped with its own garden to produce food for the animals.  A factory for making preserves and the furnishing of a community centre in La Esperanza generate additional employment for women.  Finally, a garden for each cooperative, a structure for processing fruits and vegetables, and a green house for year-around production have all been approved in Vertientes, Guantánamo. These and similar activities are continuing in 2008 and 2009.

Ethiopia: Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in Oromia Regional State, $15,000  (2007) Since 1998, Oxfam Canada has been working in Ethiopia’s largest regional state of Oromia with Hundee, (an Ethiopian non-government organization whose name means “root”). In the communities of Ilu Aga, Illaia Gojo, Bale, Koka Negeo, Borecho, and Mulo some 70 km southwest of Addis Ababa, Hundee is testing an approach called ABCD for short. Hundee’s staff work within the culture of each community encouraging everyone to help identify common skills, abilities and experience, and how to build on them. It focuses not so much on each community’s problems but their potential, and builds confidence for them to tackle their own local development projects. For example, Ilu Aga recognized their own practice of cutting wood for fuel had caused erosion, and identified reforestation and irrigation as a priority, and so the community has been planting tree seedlings. Another community, Bale, was most concerned that road access to the school and a poor learning environment was discouraging both students and teachers, so they have build 9 new classrooms using local materials. They are also planning to make road improvements which have been delayed because of the long rainy season this year. Coming from these and other locally generated improvement objectives is stronger local participation in all the communities, as well as more solidly-based ideas for external support. For example, Bale is negotiating with the government for teachers in hopes of converting their elementary school into a high school. 

List of Projects Supported by Stamp Funds to Date

To find out more about the sale of Oxfam stamps, please visit http://www.ohmygosh.on.ca/stamps/oxfam07/oxpr.htm