Our Story
You and Oxfam. Building a more equal world together.
Fight Inequality. Beat Poverty.
Oxfam Canada is an affiliate of the international Oxfam Confederation networked in 87 countries as part of a global movement for change.
Our mission is to build lasting solutions to poverty and injustice, focusing on improving lives and promoting the rights of women and girls.
We work directly with communities, partners and women's rights organizations to challenge the systems perpetuating inequality and keeping people poor. Together we seek to influence those in power to ensure that women trapped in poverty have a say in the critical decisions that affect them, their families and entire communities.
Because ending global poverty begins with women's rights.
I am an empowered and employed woman, and very passionate about sharing and exploring ways to support other women, young widows and young generations who are currently being suppressed by the cultural and traditional expectations we’re subject to.
This is How We Fight for Women's Rights
Why Women's Rights?
Have you ever wondered why:
- Girls are left to fetch water and firewood as their brothers go to school?
- Women cleaning hotel rooms are subjected to sexual harassment?
- Women farmers growing the food we eat not have enough food for their families?
- Women stitching the clothes we wear working in hot, crowded garment factories earn poverty-level wages and have scant rights?
The reason is simple: discrimination and inequality.
But it doesn't have to be this way. That's why women's rights are at the core of everything we do — because to beat poverty, we need to fight inequality.
Poverty is a problem rooted in inequality. If we fight inequality, we will beat poverty.
Together, we can build a fairer world. A world where women and girls can exercise their rights as full, equal citizens with real influence over the decisions that affect their lives. A world where everyone can stay safe in a crisis and recover from disaster.
A world where future generations know no poverty at all.
We’ve Been in Canada Since 1963
The name "Oxfam" comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942 by a group of intellectuals, social activists, and Oxford academics. During the Second World War, the group campaigned for food supplies to be sent through an allied naval blockade to starving women and children in enemy-occupied Greece.
After the war, Oxfam continued its work, sending materials and financial aid to groups aiding poor people throughout Europe. As the situation in Europe improved, Oxfam's attention shifted to the needs of people in developing countries.
Oxfam Canada was founded in 1963 and independently incorporated in 1966. Oxfam Canada began to provide educational materials to schools and undertake advocacy work in public policy development. In 1995, it became an affiliate of the newly formed Oxfam Confederation.
We have been building our movement in Canada ever since.
Three Ways You Can Help
