Oxfam Unaffiliated

To the Editors:

It has recently been brought to my attention that in David J. Rothman and Aryeh Neier’s article, “India’s Awful Prisons” [NYR, May 16], the work of OXFAM, the international family of aid and development agencies, is described as a “church group.” I would like to take this opportunity of writing to you to clarify that OXFAM is not, and has never been, formally associated with any form of religious or political sectarianism.

OXFAM UK and Ireland was founded in 1942 to provide humanitarian assistance to Greek people suffering extreme deprivation due to wartime occupation of Greece. Since then, the organisation has grown into the UK and Ireland’s largest relief and development agency and has expanded its work into Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East….

David Jones
Associate Director, OXFAM
Oxford, England

David Rothman and Aryeh Neier replies:

We know OXFAM’s relief work well and regret the misidentification, which crept in while the piece was being condensed from a longer version.