Oxfam is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to addressing issues of poverty and injustice around the world. Visit the Oxfam website (www.oxfam.org).
Evaluate the website and work with the information to answer the following questions:
Is the website a reliable information source?
Does Oxfam give supporting evidence for its claims?
Does the organization give sources for its evidence?
Why was Oxfam originally founded in 1942, and what is its mission today?
Watch the videos about aid on Oxfam’s website—”Does Aid Work” at www.oxfam.org/en/video/2010/does-aid-work and “Good Aid: The Video” at www.oxfam.org/en/multimedia video/2010-good-aid-video (Search for the videos by title on the Oxfam website if these urls are not active.) Summarize the arguments made about the success of aid. Which of the reasons do you agree with most strongly, and why? Which do you find less compelling?
Review Oxfam’s campaign on agriculture. Select two articles on food prices and read them. For each article answer the following questions:
Do you agree with Oxfam’s position presented in this article? Explain.
Identify a claim Oxfam makes and the evidence the organization gives in support of this claim. Is it sufficient? Where would you attempt to find more evidence to support or refute the claim?
Review Oxfam’s campaign to “transform a broken food system”— the GROW campaign. Read the information found in the links found on the GROW webpage such as “What is GROW?”, “The Issues” and “FAQs” and answer the following questions:
Summarize the solutions put forth by the campaign.
Do you agree that this is a reasonable approach? What would you do differently?
What is Oxfam’s position on GMOs? Is it consistent with the organization’s overall goals?
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