Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Falling out with Oxfam

I am not best pleased with Oxfam at the moment. There's no doubt that they do a whole load of good work across the World, but they have, in my view, made a catastrophic error of judgment in a video to promote their very laudable In My Name campaign.

Look at this video, especially round 1:58 in, where you have Mel B, signing her name on a baby bottle and holding it up to the camera.

The explanation from Oxfam is that this is a symbol of motherhood.

Tell that to the mothers of the 1.5 million babies who die every year from being fed formula in places where there is just no sanitation and where the mother's own milk would do a much better job of nourishing her baby.

Morgan posts an extract from a letter to Oxfam from an aid worker sent to Burma to help women relactate after Cyclone Nargis asking them to reconsider.

I really do feel Oxfam should know better than to use a baby bottle in any of its promotional material. The charity has had a fair bit of my money over the years, but not a penny more unless it accepts its mistake on this.

2 comments:

Susan Gaszczak said...

That is just unbelievable!

Unknown said...

I was so convinced it was a hoax that I actually went on a bit of an internet search to make sure I saw it from a genuine Oxfam source.

I thought I was unshockable, but maybe not...

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