Making a difference

Oxfam exists for a very simple reason – because poverty and injustice are unacceptable.

With Oxfam’s support, struggling growers are getting a better price for their crops.

We believe in the power of people to change the world. That’s why we motivate and support members of the New Zealand public to take action towards a fairer, safer, more sustainable world.

Oxfam’s Biggest Coffee Break is your chance to make a difference.

Oxfam works to address the root causes of poverty and we’re challenging the unjust policies and practices that reinforce poverty. We believe trade has the potential to lift millions of the world’s poorest people out of poverty – but only if it’s fair.

Promoting fair trade is just one of the ways we’re helping growers get a better deal from trade. We also work directly with struggling growers, helping them access the skills and tools they need to earn a better income and work their way out of poverty.

• Watch a video about Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break here.

How does money raised at your Coffee Break help?

• By raising $50, you can help pay four people for three days’ work picking coffee cherries. In East Timor, one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the money these workers earn can pay for food for their families and their children’s schooling.
  
• By raising $100, you can help farmers in East Timor cultivate 20 shade-grown coffee plants, as well as helping them receive the right tools and training to cultivate their trees.
  
• Farmers in Papua New Guinea use their fingers to peel off the hard skin of the coffee beans. By raising $200, you can help to buy a peeling machine, to save them having to do all that work by hand. There's also less waste packaged with the coffee beans, increasing the weight of the harvest.
  
• By raising $320, you can provide a coconut press for farmers in Samoa—to ease the physical burden of the work and improve the quality of the final product, coconut oil.
  
• By raising $700 you can help a farmer in East Timor take the valuable step of bringing their coffee to the warehouse and all the way to market.

East Timor

What’s the connection between you and four-year-old Lydia Da Silva in East Timor? Shortly there could be a life changing one...

Jacinta, Florenza, Maucau and Lydia in Liquica, East Timor.

Lydia is the granddaughter of Maucau Da Silva, an East Timorese coffee farmer. They are part of a community cooperative working in partnership with Oxfam to guarantee a fair price for producing their coffee. A fair price means life-saving clean water, toilets and being able to send Lydia to school. Find out more...

Indonesia

In Indonesia, Oxfam and its partner, JPA Flores, are providing marketing and technical support to help farmers and traders develop successful small businesses. Oxfam is helping coffee farmers develop a coffee processing plant to become the centre for Fairtrade coffee in Flores. Find out more…

Samoa

Oxfam’s partner in Samoa, Women in Business, is supporting local farmers to gain added value for their products through organic certification. Women in Business has just signed a deal to supply organic coconut oil to The Body Shop under the Body Shop’s Community Trade programme, which uses fair trade principles.

WIBDI's latest venture is to export organic bananas to New Zealand. The first trial shipment has already arrived on our shores.

Find out more...

Watch the Campbell Live story about our work with coconut farmers in Samoa.

New Zealand

Here in New Zealand, Oxfam is playing a leading role in raising public awareness and increasing sales of Fairtrade products, to increase the opportunities for growers to access the Fairtrade market. Find out what else you can do...

By taking part in New Zealand’s Biggest Coffee Break, you are helping spread the Fairtrade message among your friends and workmates.

Globally

Through research, campaigning and advocacy, Oxfam is working to make trade fair for the world’s poorest people. We are lobbying the New Zealand government to ensure that poverty reduction and sustainable development is integral to its trade agreements with developing countries. We are working with civil society partners and with governments in the Pacific to strengthen their voice in international trade negotiations.

Back to top

• Back to Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break