Grace O’Neill, Community Events Manager for Oxfam Ireland was profiled in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post.

I joined Oxfam in September 2008, when the Community Events Team was first established.

In 1998 Oxfam Ireland became an independent member of Oxfam International, a confederation of 14 affiliated members.

Oxfam Ireland has approximately 50 staff working in offices in Belfast and Dublin and 85 retail staff in our 49 shops all around Ireland, including four Fair Trade shops in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Galway. We also have a field office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with ten staff. We have a network of over 1,000 volunteers who help run our shops and support our office staff.

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Lisburn chef Peter McConkey climbed Kilimanjaro in 2008 to raise funds for Oxfam Ireland. These photos from his trip show the scope of the adventure that he undertook to help Oxfam’s work.

The most difficult part of the trek was the summit day. We started walking at 11pm in the evening, walking through the night to reach the summit in time for sunrise. The colours were vivid – blues and greens of the glacier along with reds and oranges of the sunrise. It was an awesome sight and I think about it every day.

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