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SmartPlanet headed to Victoria train station this morning where TV presenter Zoë Ball was donning a green santa suit to promote Oxfam Unwrapped's travelling gift stall. We asked her about travelling to Malawi with Oxfam, what presents she's buying this year and just how green her home is...
SmartPlanet: So how long have you been an Oxfam ambassador?
Zoë Ball: I first went on a trip to Mali with Oxfam about 10 years ago and I’ve been saying ever since then I must do another trip – and it’s taken me ten years! But I went to Malawi with them earlier on this year, which was absolutely fantastic.
SP: Was the Malawi trip about seeing the effects of Oxfam Unwrapped?
ZB: Yes, very much so. People say "is the money really going on a goat for a village?" or "are people really getting the health products that you think that you’re buying?" and I just wanted to see for myself so that I could say to people "I’ve been, I’ve visited the projects and I’ve seen it work." I met a wonderful woman called Fanny Davidson -- they’ve all got incredible names in Malawi, really great old English names! -- and her village decided that one person in the village should have a goat and that she was the most worthy candidate. She looks after four of her grandchildren because her daughter died of AIDS. Now that goat will give milk and they can use its by-products for fertiliser for their crops. Then when it has a kid, they can sell the kid and that will pay for the education of one of her grandchildren. That goat is almost a sacred creature in the village, the whole of the village look after it. It’s wonderful to see that something so simple means she can feed and clothe four children and give them a better future -- just for 20 quid.
SP: Have you bought any Oxfam Unwrapped gifts for people this year?
ZB: I’ve actually bought a whole load today! It’s such a great idea. I’ve bought one for some of the projects I visited -- there’s one where you can help to build a well, build a share of a well or maintain a well. I went to one village where Oxfam Unwrapped gifts had helped them to build a well, so these women (mainly it’s the women) would get up in the morning and walk for four hours to the nearest well and then carry the water back -- with the children. I mean some of these children carrying buckets back were five years old. But now they’ve got a well up the road -- which means they’ve got hygiene, safe water and they can water their crops, which means they can feed their families and that their health is going to be a lot better. There's a real community spirit in these villages, they’re so proud of these wells that they’ve built, with peoples’ help, and really look after them. It’s such a simple thing for us, we turn on the tap and have clean water every day. We take it for granted.
Zoë does her best Oxfam Unwrapped sales pitch to a passerby at Victoria
SP: Why would you advise people to buy an Oxfam Unwrapped present?
ZB: At Christmas we spend a lot of money as a nation -- and I’m just as guilty of it as everybody else is. The thing that frustrates me is the amount of money spent on stuff that people don’t want or need. How many of us have got a cupboard at home full of weird things that our parents have bought us? It’s like ‘thank you so much for another tea-cosy and a pair of really dodgy slippers and a CD of a band I hate!' I’m not ungrateful but for £10, you could buy 5 bags of seed to feed a village. You don’t have to spend all your Christmas money, but if you just forego one gift you could really help someone around the world. I’ve bought them for all my family and my mum’s always done things like this, too. Some people might say "oh but I want to open something" -- well you get to open something, you get a lovely fridge magnet and you get to feel pretty good about yourself. We can do a little and help people who are like us and who have nothing -- they’re mothers, they’re fathers, they’re brothers and sisters and a lot of them have lost a lot.
SP: Do you consider yourself to be quite green in general?
ZB: We are quite green. Actually I’ll tell you who’s made me green -- my son. If you’re leave the tap on when you’re peeling vegetables or brushing your teeth, he’s like "TURN THE TAP OFF, MUMMY!" We do recycle, we use energy-saving light bulbs, we take our batteries to be recycled…but then I do drive a very big, gas guzzling car. I keep suggesting to my husband that we get a Toyota Prius -- it’s like come on, we’ve got to do a bit more!
SP: Is Norman [Cook - Zoe's DJ husband] green too?
ZB: Well...he needs encouraging! He recycles -- he’s quite good with his paper and boxes and stuff like that -- and he was ranting about the amount of packaging in the supermarket the other day!
Zoë sports a green santa outfit at the Oxfam Unwrapped stall
SP: Do you buy organic food?
ZB: If I can I’ll buy organic, I mean you can’t all the time but on the whole we try to buy organic and local produce, too. We also eat in quite a few restaurants in Brighton that really support local farmers and local businesses. Bill’s is wicked and there’s a great restaurant called Due South who have local wine on the menu and all sorts. And Waitrose is down the road and they're very good on things like that… We do actually compost our food because my friend has an allotment so she takes all our food waste. And we’ve got a fox on the beach and all the seagulls who eat the other waste, so nothing's left! We haven’t got solar panels yet but there’s not much sun in Brighton in Winter! Maybe that's something to think about though...
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