Every day, we hear the news and read the news that as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people in many countries of the world, both rich and poor, are losing their employment and many, especially children, are going hungry, which is a great tragedy, as many families look forward with trepidation to a bleak Christmas and an uncertain 2021.
At this time of the year in 1971, those of us who were trying to provide support to the Bangladesh refugees in India were very concerned about how they would survive the winter months in the camps.
At this time in 1971, with the war raging between the Pakistan forces and the Bangladesh/Indian allied forces, organizations such as Oxfam, for which I was working, looked at different ways to raise funds.
And Oxfam America tried out a way (in November, 1971) to raise money by asking people to enter a “game.”
Rules of the game
1. Sit down
2. Take a deep breath
3. Count your blessings:
- Tasty food
- Warm, sturdy shelter
- Good medical care
- Happy, well-nourished friends and families
- Top education and training
- Gadgets! Cars! Pets! Cosmetics! Movies! Cigarettes!
4. Think: How do two out of three persons in the world live on only $104 a year?
5. Think again: Could you get by on $104 (1971 exchange rate Tk8 per US dollar). That’s $2 a week or -- lunch, four packs of cigarettes, or two lipsticks
6. Support a life: By giving up that extra dessert or cigarette.
7. START NOW:
Start
1. Nine million war-torn, shattered, East Pakistan refugees have fled to the safety of India. That’s like dumping New York City on Washington or Minneapolis. India has coped bravely, feeding and sheltering these starving children, despairing mothers, exhausted men. India’s stretched resources won’t stretch further -- not unless the World helps. That means us -- and you.
2. Oxfam is caring for 600,000 refugees with supplementary foods and vitamins, tents, saris, blankets, clean water, latrines, medicines. Oxfam’s dedicated field staff and volunteers work round-the-clock, seven days a week -- putting your gifts, your concern, to work, quickly, efficiently. At least 45,000 children die each month -- from malnutrition -- Oxfam can’t prevent all deaths -- only massive action by World Governments can --
3. But Oxfam can and will, through wonderful people like you, help stem the tide of deaths and starvation until the total world community wakes up to this largest exodus in Man’s history. YOU CAN HELP …
4. Don’t think your gift of time or money is insignificant. Nothing is, when it stands between life and death. YOU can help by:
a) Buying non-commercial Oxfam cards, or
b) Making a contribution
Giving some time
5. WHAT YOU’VE DONE -- Oxfam is not just a relief agency. It is also a development agency with self-help programs in 70 countries -- farming, handicrafts, family planning, training, on a non-sectarian, non-political, non-governmental basis.
6. DID YOU KNOW? One pack of cards (Christmas cards) will feed, clothe and shelter two refugees for a day
$5.00 or 2½ packs -- will give a year’s medical treatment in Malawi
$10.00 -- will buy a fishing net for Kenyan fishermen
$50.00 -- will provide a hospital oxygen cylinders in India
$100 -- will buy a wheelchair for a handicapped Haitian child
Nearly 50 years after this imaginative Christmas appeal was made in November 1971 by Oxfam-America on behalf of the Bangladesh refugees in India, the humanitarian needs of 2020 are even greater than they were in 1971.
There are now an estimated 80 million people who have been forced to flee their homes. 26 million of these are refugees with 50% under the age of 18 years. Some are dying of disease, some of hunger, some of the cold of winter. In addition, many families that had climbed out of extreme poverty in recent years, have now fallen back into the extreme poverty trap as a result of losing income because of the Covid pandemic. Is it too much to ask that everyone should try to MAKE CHRISTMAS COUNT?
Julian Francis has been associated with relief and development activities of Bangladesh since the War of Liberation. In 2012, the Government of Bangladesh awarded him the ‘Friends of Liberation War Honour’ in recognition of his work among the refugees in India in 1971 and in 2018 honoured him with full Bangladesh citizenship.
