Oxfambooks

I had my first day volunteering at Oxfambooks today! For those of you who don't know, Oxfam is non-profit organization based in Oxford, England. It started during World War II as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief and was geared towards civilians in Greece to help them receive food and medicine. Today, Oxfam works mostly in Africa, working to bring Economic Justice, Essential services (e.g. healthcare and education), basic rights, and gender justice to people in need. They believe that all human beings have the right to: a home, enough to eat and clean water, a way to make a living, education and health care, freedom from violence, and a voice and an identity. There are several versions of Oxfam shops. All of them take donations of gently used goods to resell. The profit then goes towards the organization.

This morning was a really good experience! The bookshop is located on the outskirts of Temple Bar, down the street from Dublin Castle. I didn't do too much today in regards to customers (I'll get trained on the till next week) so I mainly organized books and made sure everything was picked up and looked nice. It was very interesting to see how the shop is run - it is completely dependent on volunteers to function (as are all Oxfam shops). If there's a shop near you, I would highly recommend you looking into their volunteer opportunities! I work in the shop once a week for 4 hours - just goes to show you don't have to have a ton of extra time to make a difference!

"But the greatest love - the love above all loves, even greater than that of a mother - is the tender, passionate, undying love...of one beer drunken slob for another."