CHANGE Initiative
US based college students entering their sophomore or junior year can take advantage of Oxfam America's leadership training and become skilled and knowledgeable agents of change. The CHANGE Initiative exposes students to the international development issues that direct Oxfam's work. CHANGE Leaders use their skills and insight to run Oxfam campaigns on their campuses and in their local communities.
What is CHANGE?
The CHANGE Initiative is a highly competitive national program that trains college students to become actively engaged in Oxfam America's social justice mission. CHANGE develops capable leaders, who are informed voices for positive social change, and who inspire greater global awareness in others. CHANGE Leaders are brought together for an intensive week of leadership training that equips them to be effective CHANGE advocates. Students are introduced to social justice issues directly related to Oxfam America's mission, and are asked to work on one or more of these issues on their campus during the academic year. Oxfam assumes the cost of training, room and board, and travel.
CHANGE Leaders are assisted throughout the year by their CHANGE campus adviser and Oxfam America Outreach staff.
CHANGE Campaigns
The CHANGE Initiative complements Oxfam's work, challenging injustice through political action and organizing for change. We invite you to join one or more of the following focus areas to contribute to our global justice mission:
Oil, Gas and Mining
Many of the world’s basic needs currently cannot be met without the oil, gas and mining industries. Yet, too often, the people who share their communities with oil, gas and mining projects suffer as a result.
Oxfam America’s oil, gas and mining work addresses this conflict by promoting the role of communities in determining whether and how natural resource development happens. Oxfam’s Right to Know/Right to Decide campaign will help communities play a decisive role in their futures with the information and agency necessary to exercise self-determination.
Oxfam activists involved in Right to Know/Right to Decide will call on oil, gas and mining companies to publish what they pay to the countries where they operate, so the poor of those countries can hold their government’s accountable. Right to Know/Right to Decide activists will also put a spotlight on oil, gas and mining projects around the world where the voice of local communities is being ignored.
Climate Change
From floods in Bangladesh to droughts in Kenya, glacier melts in Peru to hurricanes in the Caribbean, poor countries are already suffering from the effects of climate change. Oxfam America is undertaking a campaign to address the disproportionate impacts of global warming by creating equitable solutions to the crisis. We are asking that the US cut greenhouse gas emissions, and provide financial assistance so that the most vulnerable communities can adapt.
Oxfam America is campaigning to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and increase funding so that poor people can survive the effects of global warming. Our campaign will engage with the public, government, private sector, and the international community.
Hunger & Poverty
Hunger is one of the most visible symptoms of social and economic injustice in the world. It continues to plague more than 850 million people, including over 37 million in the US. Every day, 30,000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases. And yet, the world produces enough food and wealth to free everyone from hunger and extreme poverty. By sharing our resources and the control over those resources more fairly, millions of poor people could enjoy new opportunities to enhance what they can do and who they become. We believe that everyone has the right to a dignified livelihood and that it is possible to sustain such livelihoods on our limited global natural resources.
Oxfam CHANGE Leaders work to address the inequities of hunger and poverty through our Fast for a World Harvest campaign organizing Oxfam America Hunger Banquets, Dining Hall Fasts, benefit concerts and more. CHANGE Leaders also use hunger and poverty related events to connect others to their campaigns on Climate Change and Extractive Industries.
