Exeter College Vacation Project (ExVac) works to provide holidays for children from socially and/or financially disadvantaged backgrounds who wouldn’t otherwise be able to go on holiday. The project is run by students from Oxford University, and is endorsed by Oxfordshire Social Services. The holidays are free to the children, and the project relies entirely on grants and donations.

Every year, two holidays are run, each lasting a week, and each for 16 children aged 6-11 under the supervision of 8 student leaders. Some of the children are young carers, some have lost one or both parents, some are on the child protection register, and most have been abused in some way. The holidays provide them with a chance to escape from what is often a very difficult homelife, enabling them to have fun and just be children.

For more information, please see our website, www.exvac.org.uk

Cecily’s Fund is a UK-registered charity which enables almost 10,000 Zambian children and young people, who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS, to go to school and college.

Our small UK team works through well-run Zambian partner organisations to buy and distribute shoes, uniforms, books and pens and contribute towards school fees, without which they are simply unable to go to school. Education is one of the most effective ways of protecting children from HIV. We support them right through to the end of school, and offer some the opportunity to train as teachers or as peer health educators, running school workshops on HIV. We regularly visit Zambia to ensure all donations are being spent effectively exactly where they are needed.

Cecily’s Fund was set up in memory of Cecily Eastwood who died in an accident while volunteering with orphans in Zambia . For more information see www.cecilysfund.org

Oxford Development Abroad is a student-run charity that works to harness the energy, enthusiasm and resources of the Oxford student body focussing on small-scale, community-initiated development projects. This year ODA will be running projects in Nepal, Uganda and Morocco. Through its projects, ODA makes a real and tangible difference to the lives of people in some of the poorest parts of the world. For instance, the construction of a water tank and the protection of a water source brings much-needed clean water to the people who need it most, the building of a school brings education to marginalised communities; and the volunteers' teaching brings valuable information to children about hygiene and sanitation. These are just a few examples of the work which ODA is involved in, making big differences to the small communities in which they operate.

We collect disused books from UK schools, sort and send the most relevant and high quality books to schools in Tanzania, who have similar secondary school syllabus, taught in English. Books collected which are not appropriate are sold or recycled to generate funds.

Achievements: We’ve sent 564,000 books (worth £6 million) to 250,000 Tz school children, as well as tons of sports kit, science equipment, and stationery. We deliver global citizenship workshops to UK school children. We’ve saved over 500 tons of ‘waste’ from UK landfill.

Partnerships: Our partnerships make our operation extremely low cost.  Big Yellow give free storage across UK; British Airways give free & discounted flights; KPMG give free office in Tz; DHL give free UK transport; Staples collect stationery in all UK stores; British Library help our book sorting process.

Awards: Founder was finalist in Enterprising Young Brit Award 2006, finalist in Edge Young Social Entrepreneur Award 2008. We won 'Best New Charity' in the Charity Times Award 2007.

It never costs READ more than 50 pence to move one book from a UK classroom into the hands of a Tanzanian school child or teacher.

We are an innovative model with income streams from book sales and student fundraising drives but we’re not quite entirely self-sufficient, so we still need your financial help.  Please find out how you can support us by visiting our website at www.readinternational.org.uk

Life expectancy is rising by two years in every ten.  We’ve added years to life, but we haven’t added life to those years.  In Oxfordshire 14,000 older people live in poverty, and  7,000 people have dementia, a terrifying disability.  Growing older is often a struggle, choosing between heating and eating, and facing ageism.

Age Concern Oxfordshire is the local registered charity and champion of older people.  We help with anything from footcare for those who can’t walk to phone links with the lonely.  We run community clubs.  We befriend people who are losing their memory.  We help 6,000 people a year with information and advice.  And we fight battles to get the right care funding for individuals. We campaign, but with our feet on the ground.

We are working for a later life worth living, and will not rest until everyone growing older in Oxfordshire has comfort, support and opportunity.

As many as one in four of us in Oxfordshire will experience a mental health problem at some time in our lives - and this will in turn affect a wide group of family and friends.  Having a mental illness can be very tough, and stigma and prejudice can often compound the difficulties.  People can feel ashamed. One of the most terrible things that can happen is that people lose hope. Oxfordshire Mind are committed to providing the support to help people cope and to sustain a sense of optimism – having a mental illness is not someone’s fault, it’s not a sign of weakness, and it’s not something to be ashamed of.  Part of Oxfordshire Mind’s role is to campaign for a better life for everyone with experience of mental distress. Your fundraising can help us deepen our impact and reach more people affected by mental health problems and mental illness.

Many people experience powerful and confusing feelings, very often at times of life transitions. We strongly believe that counselling can help individuals to find their own solutions and our professional, accredited counsellors can facilitate individuals to access the resources within themselves, helping them to overcome difficulties and to make changes which will contribute to their overall health and wellbeing

Our clients have made the following comments on our evaluation questionnaires which we send to everyone at the end of their counselling.

“Now I know why you are called Focus.”

“Thank you, you have given me my life back.”

Please help us to continue to help others.

Further information is available at www.focusbanbury.co.uk

Oxford Hub: Community Volunteers (OH:CV) aims to encourage more students to volunteer in the local community. We help students to set up and run their own community volunteering projects, based entirely around their needs, skills and passions. Currently we support and fund a wide range of projects, among them a group working to promote literacy in primary schools by reading with the children, a group running classes in life skills with homeless people and a group that supports a Youth Drop-In where children from Botley can have a good time and find some open ears.

Many new projects are in the pipeline – among them an extension of the reading programme into secondary schools, a young carers group, as well as a group supporting the Helen Douglas House, a children hospice. All of these can get started with little funding – funding that could come from One-Week.

The East Oxford Community Soup Kitchen serves a fresh and full meal to between 50 and 100 people every Wednesday.  Based in the East Asian Cultural Centre on Manzil Way, Cowley, the Soup Kitchen has become a touchstone in the lives of many, from asylum seekers to those dealing with additions and mental health concerns.  "Sister Smith", who has been running the operation for almost twenty years, is assisted by a small crew of dedicated volunteers who help to provide a common space of nourishment and community.  The Soup Kitchen runs on a shoe-string budget, with the majority of our costs going to hall rental, and your support would be a great help to us in ensuring that we can continue helping those in need for years to come.

People & Planet aims to create a just and sustainable world, through campaigning to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. People & Planet is made up of a large national network of groups at Universities, Colleges and Schools, plus many other individual supporters, supported by an office staff team in Oxford. We support numerous active student groups across Oxfordshire.

Our campaigns on climate change and social justice aim to:

Tackle climate change by encouraging the education sector to reduce carbon emissions.

Lobby the financial sector to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

Improve workers rights in the garment supply chain

Defend human rights throughout university supply chains

We provide groups with materials and information so they can learn about and take action on global issues they care about. We aim to create a new generation of young people taking action for social justice.

re-plenish works with the Oxford Community Caterers Network, an umbrella group of organisations in the city that works with the homeless, people with mental health problems, young mothers, single young people and asylum seekers. All the beneficiaries say the food bank operation has enabled them to save money and improve the diet of their clients.

So far re-plenish knows that it has only scratched the surface of the problem. The next steps are to get more supermarkets in the city participating. re-plenish believes that when there are people in the city going hungry and many others without access to a good diet it is indefensible that good food is being thrown away. We want to get to a situation where no food is wasted. To do so we will need the active support of local supermarkets, and local people.