Oxfam was set up in 1942, during World War II. In towns all over the UK, groups of people collected parcels of food and clothes to send to families whose lives had been destroyed by the war. Oxfam was started by a group in Oxford, and began as the “Oxford Committee for Famine Relief” – which is where the name Oxfam came from. The group then decided to work to support people all over the world, who were suffering because of wars or for other reasons.
