See what our staff chose!

For the past 13 years IS Oxford has donated to charity through the Good Gifts scheme. Each member of staff is given £200 to donate to their own personal choices from the Good Gifts catalogue and the company as a whole funds the supply of a School Library in a poor neighbourhood in India. Our donation will establish the library, including termite roof and supply cupboards and books.

Our individual choices are always very well received and this year we chose 146 different gifts across a very wide selection. These included to help an African family of two adults, two children and grandparents set up their own farmyard which will enable them to support themselves, pay for schooling fees and meet health care costs. We chose to train a nurse in Africa for a year where there is a severe shortage of trained nurses and also funded the employment of a nursing assistant for a year who would look after patients that do not have any family members to care for them. In Africa there is a thirst for clean water and by supplying a deep pump and a treadle pump we have provided a low-tech solution to provide litres of water at minimal cost. By choosing to supply a water tank rain can be collected for crops from whatever little rainfall there is.

Some of the more popular choices were to nurture seven abandoned children for a month in India or Africa, supply a year’s schooling for five children and de-worm 1500 children in Africa. We also chose to supply five villagers in Africa with solar lamps which are heathier than kerosene lamps thus saving lives and money and gave the gift of sight to ten adults and one child. We supplied 100 bowls of rice one for each hungry child and supported two Afghan girls who have been abandoned by their families and transformed the life of three Indian street children.

In the UK we chose to help regenerate two bluebell woods and four areas of meadowland to create a playground for bees and butterflies. We purchased forty eight square metres of greenbelt land to preserve the urban creep. We also supplied one hour's help towards a specialist babysitter for a family with a disabled child and an evening out for a family with a disabled child to get a much needed break. Our help has also enabled a child to get new pyjamas and a teddy and another child a new toy that would normally not get one. Not forgetting the older generation we supplied a week’s hot dinners at the day centre for a lonely pensioner and help to three elderly or housebound people to care for their cat.

All the team at IS Oxford enjoy this annual festive giveaway - we are very lucky to be in a position to do it and so we would like to say a big thank you to all our users for helping us make it happen. Merry Christmas!