Imagine: You live in a remote, rural area in a poor country. To survive, you rely on basic subsistence farming, but this is barely enough to feed your family, let alone earn a decent income. As a result in your community, many children  die before their fifth birthday, most people cannot read or write and women and girls are likely to suffer violence. This is daily life for many of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty.

Creating successful, sustainable small and medium sized agricultural businesses is the most effective way to reduce extreme poverty. Oxfam's Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) is investing donations to provide expertise, through loans and grants; supporting promising businesses to grow their workforce, and increase their income. The resulting jobs provide benefits for both the employees and the wider community, lifting some of the world's poorest families out of poverty, now and forever.

I am Vice-Chair of the EDP Board and together with the Oxfam's EDP team we have identified four promising enterprises, that, with your support, can reach 35,000 people living in poverty. EDP relies on voluntary funding and unless we can raise £560,000 by April, these businesses will not have access to the funds they need to grow.

We can't let that happen, that is why alongside fellow EDP supporters, I have committed to matching any gift up you can offer up to £210,000,  to ensure these enterprises receive the help they need to grow. Anything you can give in this time, will unlock a further donation of the same size from myself and my peers, effectively making your gift count as double. It's hard to think of an investment opportunity with such a profound, long term social impact and that keeps on giving well into the future.

Thank you for making a difference

Yours sincerely,

Rosie Bichard 

Vice-Chair Oxfam Enterprise Development Programme