https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/11/rise-fall-oxfam-billion-pound-charity-mired-sex-scandal/
“”Controversies would follow. For example, Scarlett Johansson, the Hollywood actress, quit as an Oxfam ambassador in a row over her endorsement of an Israeli company operating in the West Bank. She had, said the actress, a “fundamental difference of opinion” with the charity.”
The mixed bag of academics, Quakers and general do-gooders who had gathered inside the Old Library at the University Church in Oxford on October 5 1942 had wanted to help the people of Greece.
The country, occupied by the Nazis and subjected to an Allied naval blockade, was suffering a catastrophic famine. From humble origins – the meeting was chaired by the local vicar Dick Milford – a £1 billion a year international aid empire would be born; an empire whose tentacles stretch into politics, entertainment and trade and which grew so large it covered up a sex scandal that, when it finally became public, almost brought it down.
The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, first begun almost 77 years ago and later shortened to the nifty moniker Oxfam, is now far more than just a famine relief charity. Oxfam is a brand. And now a damaged one.
Its first shop at 17 Broad Street in Oxford, set up in 1948 also doubled up as its headquarters. Now Oxfam operates almost 750 shops in the UK – by comparison Waitrose runs half that number of outlets – that includes not only regular charity stores but specialist bookshops and furniture stores and even boutiques selling bridal wear.
Oxfam puts on its own music festival – called Oxjam – and even provides stewarding for Glastonbury. In the 1960s, Oxfam rolled out its first international franchise to Canada and there are now 19 Oxfam ‘confederations’ working in 90 countries worldwide.
The charity, under the 24-year stewardship of Leslie Kirkley, grew in the 1950s from a “local charity to a world-renowned aid agency”. In the late 1970s Oxfam effectively got political, launching its first campaigns’ department and followed that with reports on topics that included “Bitter Pills”, which examined the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and poverty.
Controversies would follow. For example, Scarlett Johansson, the Hollywood actress, quit as an Oxfam ambassador in a row over her endorsement of an Israeli company operating in the West Bank. She had, said the actress, a “fundamental difference of opinion” with the charity.