Charity

Aviva joins Oxfam 365 Alliance to support rapid response aid teams

Distribution of Oxfam hygiene kits in Indonesia (credit: Oxfam)

Sudanese villagers with family hygiene kits donated by Oxfam (credit: Krista Ridley/Oxfam)

Aviva and Vodafone have become the first two companies to join the Oxfam 365 Alliance, a new initiative developed by the international aid agency.

To join the Oxfam 365 Alliance, companies must commit to providing between £500,000 and £1m over three years.

The funding will support the charity's expanding global rapid response team of aid workers and will help keep the UK's biggest warehouse full of emergency supplies.

With these resources Oxfam will be able to deal with disasters immediately, wherever and whenever they happen around the world. They will also be able to continue providing aid when the situation is no longer in the media spotlight.

Anthony Sampson, director of corporate social responsibility at Aviva, said: "Aviva believes in forward thinking. While appeals after an event deliver enormous help, we have learnt from Oxfam that the earliest possible help makes a critical difference in emergency situations."

"Our participation in the Oxfam 365 Alliance means that we are helping to strengthen Oxfam's hand in all its emergency work, when it really counts, at the outset."

"For Aviva, the Oxfam 365 Alliance is a perfect demonstration of forward thinking in practice and we are proud to be a part of it."

There are now more humanitarian emergencies around the world than ever before. Since the tsunami there has been a food crisis in West Africa, the Pakistan earthquake and the on-going conflicts in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As Jane Cocking, deputy humanitarian director, Oxfam GB, said: "Imagine that your home or entire village has burnt down. You don’t want a discussion with an aid agency that takes down your comments, goes off to find some donors and comes back weeks later. You want to start putting your life back together immediately. With the Alliance we can do more and we can do it quicker. Speed saves lives."

Oxfam’s warehouse, based in Bicester, Oxfordshire, is stocked with £1.7m of emergency equipment. The emergency supplies include enough water tanks to hold 4.4m litres (equivalent to almost two Olympic-size swimming pools), 14,000 buckets and two-and-a-half miles of piping. It also has 30 laptops and £30,000 of communications equipment and keeps track of 130 satellite phones.

Oxfam's director Barbara Stocking said: "This is the first time Oxfam has ever had such a substantial and strategic involvement with corporate donors that will help save lives in the world’s worst humanitarian crises and we’re delighted to have Aviva and Vodafone on board."

To find out more about the Oxfam 365 Alliance visit www.oxfam.org.uk/365alliance.