More than £7000 was raised for Oxfam’s coronavirus response after donations from celebrities and artists Arizona Muse, Basement Jaxx, Deborah Meaden, Michael and Emily Eavis, Fatboy Slim, Dame Helen Mirren, Katya Jones, Liam Gallagher, Paloma Faith, Rankin and Simon Pegg were auctioned on eBay.
Liam Gallagher’s tambourine went under the hammer for £2,650, Simon Pegg’s Star Wars cufflinks, which he wore to the UK premiere of The Force Awakens, sold for £620, Basement Jaxx’s signed artwork went for £822 and Fatboy Slim’s amplifier netted £770. The total amount for all the items came to £7,789.
Fee Gilfeather, from Oxfam’s Trading team, said: “What a fantastic result! We’re so grateful to the celebrities for parting with some of their favourite possessions, as well as the fans who bid on the items, to raise money for Oxfam’s coronavirus response. The funds raised will go to helping people fight Covid-19 in some of the poorest countries in the world, such as providing soap and handwashing facilities.”
The pandemic is causing widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. But with the disease now spreading in many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality risk accelerating the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. In Mali there are just three ventilators for one million people. In Zambia, one doctor for 10,000 people.
Nearly three billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, millions more do not have adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social distancing is impossible.
Oxfam is working with local partners, governments and key UN agencies in 65 countries in response to the crisis. This includes preventive measures like distributing soap and building handwashing stations in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, delivering clean water, sanitation and hygiene in Zaatari camp in Jordan and providing beds, handwashing facilities and protective clothing in quarantine centres in Gaza.
Oxfam is a Disasters Emergency Committee member charity which has launched an appeal to help protect the world’s most vulnerable people through the coronavirus pandemic.
