OXFAM Canada Stamp Programme

Welcome to the Oxfam Stamp Programme Oxfam Mail Bid #28: Overview Collections, covers and post cards Stamps and lots Canada Post Year Sets and miscellaneous Bid Sheet Oxfam Canada Stamps and Covers 2019 Price List and Order Form
	Oxfam Mail and eMail Bid Sale #28 is scheduled to close on Friday, 29 October 2021.

If you would like to receive a paper copy of the catalogue or scans of lots, please let us know at stamps@oxfam.ca.  You can also follow us at https://www.facebook.com/oxfamstamps/   and at www.ohmygosh.on.ca. 

For 40 years, OXFAM-Canada has been raising funds for overseas projects from its volunteer stamp program, primarily from mail order sales, auctions and stamp shows. We have just passed a major milestone, as we have now raised over half a million dollars since the stamp program began. This type of sale is an opportunity to give wide visibility to unusual or “one of a kind” material that we have received. In 2020 we raised over $30,000 from our last auction and other sales. $30,000 might seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the problems of poverty, disease and injustice around the world. We believe, though, that every little step in the right direction can help. For more details and a complete list of all 40 projects supported in 24 countries since 1984, visit www.oxfam.ca and follow the links from: “what you can do” to “Help Stamp Out Hunger”.

All the revenue from this auction will go to a new project dealing with the impact of COVID 19, except for about $100 in expenses for producing and mailing this catalogue. We are working with our partners, government health ministries and key UN agencies in 68 countries to respond to the crisis in each region most effectively.  Poor countries with fragile public health systems, where people are already facing many threats to their survival, are at the greatest risk of infection and death.  People already fighting for their rights, working to lift themselves out of poverty and to overcome inequality are now faced with staving off COVID-19. Billions of people lack access to clean water. Millions more do not have adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible. COVID-19 continues to spread globally.

Oxfam Canada is working with its partners, government health ministries and key UN agencies in 68 countries to respond to the crisis in each region most effectively. For example, In Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, your support is helping increase the distribution of soap and strengthening sanitation services, including facilities for washing hands, as well as access to drinking water.   In Somalia, Indonesia and India, Oxfam is carrying out advocacy work with governments, to influence those with political and economic power, so that no one is left behind. In Gaza, Iraq, South Sudan, and Jordan, Oxfam works to share reliable information. The people who are most at risk of COVID-19 are likely also the people who have less access to information – because of problems with the language used, literacy levels, mobility and even understanding of content. Not all information is equal – in closed societies where women are discouraged from engaging freely, extra effort needs to be made to engage with them.

Almost all our projects are labour-intensive rather than capital-intensive, in that the money flows directly to local organizations who work to change people’s attitudes and actions. The stamp program too is very labour-intensive. Our most popular product is a kilo of stamps on paper. It takes a banker’s box of envelopes and many hours of work to produce just one kilo -- but in the process we find a lot of interesting covers and cancellations. We depend entirely on donations - primarily of modern material from churches, companies, organizations and individuals – so we are rescuing and recycling material that would otherwise be lost to the philatelic world. Unfortunately, Oxfam is no longer issuing tax receipts for stamp donations.